We’ve got the world: joyous Harte sings winning tune

MICKEY HARTE, red-eyed with emotion, is talking about the real world. He will wake up this morning in a different world.

Tyrone will be All-Ireland champions and he is the man who led them there, who made that reality possible. He helped create a different world, where Peter Canavan is no longer the greatest footballer never to win an All-Ireland and Tyrone are no longer a by-word for unfulfilled potential.

“This is the real world, this is the level we had to do it at and until we did, we were not going to get due recognition,” Harte said, the scale of his achievement still to settle in.

“For years, things have been levelled at Tyrone - that they were good under-age and played nice football, but that won’t win you All-Irelands. We had to lay a lot of myths to rest this year - we couldn’t come from behind, we didn’t like a hard battle, and Armagh were renowned for their last 15 minutes and they played themselves into a good position. But we fought it off, which we had to do.”

Purists might bemoan the quality of the final, but purists are never happy with All-Ireland finals anyway. A year in the lives of Mickey Harte and his Tyrone players was on the line yesterday. You can never vanquish the spectre of history in a pretty manner.

“We knew it mightn’t be a pretty game, but this is about pretty results. And this is the prettiest result I could have hoped for,” Harte beamed. “Everyone knows silky football does not win All-Irelands. You have to be able to mix it, play both silky football and awfully hard football, running yourself into the ground and covering every inch like the Brian Doohers of this world. That’s the mix you need, the hard graft and the silky skills to finish.”

All year, the Tyrone manager has talked about a process, about his team not being the finished article. Yesterday was just the final step in that process, the culmination of what they worked together for since that evening last November when they gathered and decided that Sam Maguire would be their ultimate goal.

“At the final whistle, it was just a great sense of completion. For 2003, this job is done. We can’t go any higher. But this wasn’t just the culmination of a hard year’s work, but many years before that. People worked extremely hard to give us a platform. The fact that we were there before in 1986 and 1995 gave us the confidence to go on and win this.”

Peter Canavan referred in his speech to the hard work of Art McRory and Eugene McKenna before Harte. And the victorious manager wasn’t about to forget every helping hand, no matter how small, that brought him to this moment.

It is hardly time, as the hurt history of Tyrone football evaporates in the dressing-room, to dissect and analyse where the game was won and lost. Harte will have plenty of time to reflect on that in the months ahead. Yesterday was about reaching the promised land, exact details of how they got there are always blurry in the immediate aftermath.

He is asked to recall the two golden goal chances Tyrone missed, but points instead to moments like Conor Gormley’s match-winning tackle.

“It was scary to miss the gilt-edged chances, but we averted a few goal chances from them as well. Maybe, it wasn’t that big a difference in the teams. But missing the goals didn’t divert from our game plan.

“We needed to keep Armagh scores low, we needed to be in front at half-time, we knew Armagh were good in the second-half so we needed the cushion there to protect in the second half. At half-time, we knew we had 35 minutes to win an All-Ireland. We knew if we could get things right for that time, apply ourselves properly, we had a chance of creating history.”

Harte is quick to temper reality into the celebrations of the history makers.

“We got a quick reality check from Joe Kernan, he told us to enjoy this because every team out there will want to knock you off the perch next year. We got the Cup now, but everyone else wants us. We had to work very hard, 119 years to get this. We want to work harder if we want to retain this. This is just a year’s work well done.

“There is somebody out there lurking who really wants it an All-Ireland badly. And they will have to beaten if Tyrone want to retain it. Armagh fought to the bitter end to retain it and it was taken away from them at the bitter end. Unless we are able to stand up to that kind of challenge, there will be no more cups for Tyrone. If we want the All-Ireland next year, we will have to earn it again.”

With Mickey Harte, his Messianic status now untouchable, at the helm, they won’t be far away again.