There’s no agenda Mickey, just plain hard facts

MICKEY HARTE hit out this week at the ‘group think’ which has sought to pigeon hole Tyrone as a team too defensive for their own good.

‘There are signs of an agenda against Tyrone where there is just continuous talk of how many people we have behind the ball.

‘And I have watched many matches and I see the very same thing happening to other teams yet the count isn’t on always. ‘So maybe all those people who are making all those comments relentlessly might need to take a step back and see are they really independent thinkers or are they just having other people think for them,’ said Harte (below) this week.

However, it is not so much that there is an agenda against them, rather a question mark hovering over his team for the bones of a decade.

Since their last All-Ireland win in 2008, Tyrone have lost all Championship meetings against Dublin, Kerry and Mayo, and there is no mystery as to why — they have averaged just over 12 points a game.

Just last year, they unveiled a game plan against Dublin that was devoid of any attacking ambition.

If Harte feels Tyrone have been unfairly pigeon-holed, the only way that perception is going to change is when they show against the big three that they have the bite to match their defensive bark.