McAnallen: I don’t know how much more the bar can be raised
Steven McDonnell was having an outstanding season, Armagh’s leading scorer on 5-23, averaging over five points a game from play, hot favourite for player-of-the-year honours. Hold him and Tyrone had a good chance of getting hold of Sam Maguire.
In the end, the converted midfielder held the ever dangerous McDonnell to two points on the most important day in Tyrone’s footballing history.
Admittedly, he did have a little help, most notably via a late flying block by wing-back Conor Gormley which denied the Armagh man what looked a certain goal.
“It was a brilliant block, already reaching legendary status. He came out of nowhere, but Conor is one of the unsung heroes of the team.
"He’s probably the best defender, the best tackler we have, but doesn’t get an awful lot of credit at times. To have him emerge as a hero yesterday is very sweet,” says McAnallen.
“We had no special tactics for dealing with the Armagh forwards. What they’re very good at is creating a bit of space, then using that space to run into. We had looked at the videos, we knew what we had to do to try and counteract that.
"We had to cover that space, try and read where the ball was going to go because if you let them get in front of you you’re not going to get the ball off them. It worked at times, other times they got away, but generally, nine points conceded isn’t too bad.”
And what of his direct opponent? “He’s brilliant. With one point in particular, he got out in front of me, I thought, right I’ll have time to get in the block but he just turned, released the shot instantly, and it was over the bar.
“He’s certainly as good as I’ve marked this year.”
In almost every game they’ve played over the last two championship seasons, the last quarter has belonged to Armagh. Their phenomenal fitness levels, their boa-constrictor strength, their relentless power, would eventually crush all opponents. That scenario again looked likely on Sunday.
“They say the nerves are supposed to leave you after the first few touches in a big game, but the nerves were with me right to the final whistle. There was that much at stake that you knew every ball you were going for was a vital ball, and I felt very nervous about it to the final whistle.
"But we did have faith in each other, we knew we had trained well enough, that we were well enough prepared, we could hold onto the lead. Thankfully we did that even though it took some last ditch defending to do it.”
For most of that period Tyrone had an extra man after Armagh’s Diarmuid Marsden saw red for an off-the-ball incident with Tyrone’s equally-guilty Phillip Jordan, who escaped censure.
Despite that advantage, desperate defence was the order of the day.
“We were pulled back to two points a couple of times, stretched it back to three points. But Armagh are an excellent defensive team, you’re not going to score at will against them.
"Even when they had the man sent off they took him out of attack rather than out of defence, so their defence was still as strong.
"It meant we had to work just as hard to break them down, although we could afford to bring the extra man back to defence.
"But no matter what you’re telling yourself at that stage about going out to attack, there’s still a part of you saying ‘if we can hold onto this lead then we’ll be All-Ireland champions’.”
They did that, and out-hustled and out-muscled a team that had raised the physical stakes to new levels.
How much higher can the bar be raised?
“I don’t know, but I do know that no stone was left unturned this year. It’s not that we trained more often than other teams, but everything we did was quality.
"We would only be on the field for an hour and 15 minutes but there was no tolerance for doing things sloppily, and that’s one of Mickey’s greatest strengths. Really I’d say what we did is not far off the preparation you get in professional sports.
“Fitness-wise I don’t know how much more the bar can be raised, and mentally there was a lot of work done us too. We’ve come a fair bit.”
Can they now do what they deprived Armagh of on Sunday, the coveted two-in-a-row?
“Oh God, leave that to Christmas. Of course it will be an ambition, once you get the taste of it, you want more, but if you were to ask me to go out on the training field right now, I don’t think I could do it. We’ll wait ’til we have our celebrating well done before we get back in the road.”
Don’t back against it. Don’t back either against McAnallen, who has already captained Tyrone to minor and U21 All-Ireland honours, leading them home.
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