Harte says pressure firmly on Donegal
On two of three occasions Tyrone defended their All-Ireland title (2003, ’05), they were beaten in Ulster and he is adamant Jim McGuinness won’t find out if his players have the stomach for another run until they take to the field in Ballybofey.
“It is a challenge. The biggest challenge is, when you have reached the pinnacle, do you have the desire deep inside to do it again,” said Harte.
“And you can’t answer those questions until you’re put to the challenge, and they’re not being put to the challenge yet until they start this year’s championship.
“Every day they go out, they will be meeting that challenge, and whether it’s the 26th in Ballybofey that they get the answer, or whether it’s the third Sunday in September in Croke Park, we won’t know until that happens.
“But I do know for sure that they will be challenged, and it will ask very hard questions of them, and if they can answer all those questions, they’re even more super-men than they showed themselves to be last year.”
Speaking to teamtalkmag.com, Harte agreed the pressure is all on Donegal ahead of the clash in MacCumhaill Park. He also understands how much focus Donegal have put on beating Tyrone over the last couple of seasons.
“They proved they’re good enough to win the All-Ireland and there’s a serious confidence that comes with that.
“The next challenge for them is how do you handle being at the top of the tree, so to speak
“That’s a challenge they have to face now. It’s new territory for them because they haven’t been there before. This group of players are on an upward spiral since they started out in 2011 and now they have to decide whether they can raise the bar again.”
Harte led Tyrone to three All-Ireland titles in the past decade but never succeeded in defending the title. So, he understands the difficulties facing McGuinness.
“There is an intensity and it’s all a question of timing, and timing with the group that you’re working with. People have to read their own situation as they find it.”
McGuinness openly admitted he wasn’t concerned with the league while Tyrone went all out to win it, narrowly losing the final to Dublin.
“We’re looking at the situation through very different lenses,” Harte pointed out. “We wanted to play as much football as we could in the league and to play it at as competitive a level as we could, and get ourselves prepared for the championship.
“Donegal chose a different way of going about it, that they didn’t play in the McKenna Cup, didn’t seem to care an awful lot about the league, and believed that they are able to turn on the heat when they need it for the championship.
“And whoever wins this game, people will read a lot into that, and that may be accurate and it may not.”
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