Red Hands far from peak of their powers
They showed against Down that they are in decent form yet it was obvious that they are still far from the peak of their powers.
However one aspect Micky Harte will be especially pleased with was how his team coped with the attacking threat of Benny Coulter, Martin Clarke and Danny Hughes who had contributed hugely in their quarter-final victory over Donegal. From play, Martin and Danny managed a score apiece while Benny was held scoreless.
Tyrone have that ability to identify and negate the opposition’s main threats, chiefly because they have a variety of defenders of varying heights who all are mobile and can play in any position in defence.
Those backs can also come forward to assist their attackers with Dermot Carlin kicking an important first-half point and Joe McMahon landing a great point from distance after a surging run.
Another pleasing factor for Harte was their ability to win huge amounts of possession from kickouts, whether from Down restarts which were slow and predictable; or from their own clearances which were varied and quickly taken.
Down led 0-8 to 0-5 after 23 minutes but once Tyrone began to dominate around the middle, the Mourne men’s scoring rate slowed considerably and they only managed two more points in the game.
And all of this without the talismanic Stephen O’Neill who was forced off after ten minutes. However the adaptability of the Tyrone players came to the fore again as Harte restructured his attack in the absence of the former Footballer of the Year.
I played midfield in an All-Ireland minor semi-final in 1993 against a Tyrone side managed by Micky Harte and my opponent that day was Brian Dooher.
We then went onto win a Sigerson Cup medal with UCD together in 1996 and though it came as no surprise that he became the player he is, I never expected him to become such a great leader. Back then he was a fairly quiet fellow who was always rushing from or going to his veterinary lectures.
Despite his injuries and age, he looked as good as ever on Saturday – tracking back to help his defenders, winning breaking ball and kicking two early scores to stay in touch when Down were flying.
He is for Harte what Roy Keane was for Alex Ferguson – an on-field manager who ensure the real boss’s ideas are carried out.
Tyrone have a few things which they will be working on. Despite all their dominance of possession, they only scored four second-half points and did not really carve out a clear goal-scoring chance. The injury to O’Neill robs him of more match practice which will be a concern after his long lay off with that elbow injury. Again, they have keeper Pascal McConnell to thank for a very good save late on when leading by just three points.
And what of Down? They will take a while to get over this loss. Like the Donegal match they had a decent first half followed by a poorer second spell. But some important things went wrong from them Saturday. Near the end of the first half they missed two scoreable frees: one from Martin Clarke and then Mark Poland dropped a short one into the goalkeeper’s arms. Had those been converted they could have gone in at half time level and with the wind to come in the second half would have had a real belief they could win.
At 0-11 to 0-9 behind, Dan Gordon elected to try a soccer-type shot which was easily saved by McConnell, and moments later Owen Mulligan scored at the other end. These are the small things that chip away at your belief and gives a lift to the opposition.
Down kicked a series of wides under pressure from Tyrone defenders in the second half but there were three wind-assisted 45s that also were missed by the losers from central positions. So as good as Tyrone looked at the end Down had plenty of chances to win the game.
You could look at the game and say Tyrone sucked the life from Down but James McCartan’s men also lost some of the wind from their own sails with these misses.
