Tyrone’s trojan is not a talker, he’s a Dooher

A FEW minutes in Brian Dooher’s company and you realise this is not a footballer who enjoys being the centre of national debate. Quiet, with an accent as hard to penetrate as his Tyrone team’s defence, Dooher is an unlikely focus point for the media.

Yet, the Derry-based vet, and his contribution to the team, have been the subject of much conjecture this year. On The Sunday Game, Colm O'Rourke was especially trenchant in his criticism of the player this summer, blurting out at one point that he would eat his hat if Tyrone lift the Sam Maguire with Dooher in the team.

Now only 70 minutes or so stand between football fans and that beguiling sight. For Dooher's part, he has never joined in the debate, preferring, as he always has, to let his football do his talking in its typically unfussed manner.

"Every fella is entitled to their opinion and I respect everyone's opinion," the player says. "But the only opinion that matters to me is that of Mickey Harte and he seems happy enough with how I am playing. If Mickey is happy with me, I am not going to be worried what anyone else thinks."

It's not just his manager that is happy with his form. His team-mates recognise the immense contribution Dooher makes to the Tyrone cause.

"He always give a helping hand in midfield, a lot of hard work he does goes unnoticed and allows me to go forward, playing the game I always wanted to play, running at defences and taking on men. I wouldn't be able to do that without Brian's work-rate," Sean Cavanagh said.

While Tyrone boast some of the most gifted forwards in the game Peter Canavan, Owen Mulligan, Brian McGuigan Dooher is a work-horse. The Makelele to Mulligan's Raul; his impact on any game is never immediately obvious. But his footballing qualities would impress any manager. Always busy on the ball it would be no exaggeration to call him the hardest working footballer in Ireland he is blessed with excellent vision and has honed a sharpness any manager would delight in.

He has covered every blade of grass for Tyrone this year, sweeping up loose ball whenever he sees it, helping out everyone from Ryan McMenamin to Owen Mulligan. And it is usually the scraps he collects that launch a move resulting in a Mulligan or McGuigan point.

"I don't think it is any kind of special role for me. Art had me playing more defensively, just to give the defence a hand out. This year, I attack with the ball whenever I have it, and defend whenever I don't have the ball. It's that simple a philosophy. If I can stay free of injury, just work my arse off for the team."

The collective work ethic Harte has developed is personified in Dooher. Each time, you see him leave a football field, a part of you wonders how long it will take for him to recover from this game. "You would feel tired, but everyone in the Tyrone team would feel exactly the same way. I don't think I do much more work than anyone else. The way football has gone now, it is very intense, intensity levels have gone up every year and you have to do this amount of off-the-ball work. You do feel sore for a few days afterwards."

All the pain will be worthwhile if Tyrone capture the biggest prize of all this Sunday. Dooher came into the Tyrone panel in 1996, at the tender age of 19, and before the summer was over, he was clutching an Ulster senior medal. Although Meath beat them in the All-Ireland semi-final, Dooher was lulled into a false sense of security.

"When I started in '96, I just thought maybe this was what it was like all the time, we would come out of Ulster every year. It was a kinda shock to the system when things went badly wrong. The players never changed their attitude, it is hard to know what went wrong for a couple of years. We never doubted ourselves, but it is tough to get this far, there is a lot of good teams out there. Hopefully, we will take our chance this time because it might be another six or seven years before Tyrone are back again."

Of course, with a plethora of under-age medals in this Tyrone team, people are expecting them to be near the top for the next few years. As a relatively young veteran on the side, Dooher has watched these young players develop and mature, a growth which has culminated in reaching the All-Ireland final.

"They have come up through the ranks, winning all the time. And maybe the past couple of years, it was good experience for them, losing the championship games. So that made them accept how to lose, and learn how to lose. They have a bit of a swagger, but it is not a big head or anything, it is just confidence. They are not puffing and blowing, they have their feet on the ground and they are confident in their own ability."

Just like Brian Dooher is, in his own quiet way. Others can say what they want, Dooher will continue to work, covering every blade of Croker grass this Sunday. And maybe, a breaking ball scooped up in his own half-back line could make all the difference.