Once bitten, Tyrone will not be twice as shy
More than one onlooker swore that they felt the stands shaking when Mossie Quinn's late free was greeted with a white flag.
No matter how good the game, a tie always tends to leave a curious taste. Rarely, if ever, do replays prove to be as entertaining as their predecessors, partly because, on all but a few occasions, the underdogs' bark proves less than its bite in the rerun.
The last six years have thrown up 35 replays (including today's) with Donegal's defeat of Galway in 2003 and Westmeath's win over Laois last year the games where favourites failed to close the deal second time around.
Generally, the better the team, the better their replay record. Kerry have won all four of the replays they have contested since 2000, while Armagh have also won four on the trot since losing to the Kingdom that same year.
Dublin's record coughs up more losses than wins while the dismissals of Peter Canavan and Stephen O'Neill prevented Tyrone from recording their fifth replay win in a row against Armagh in the Ulster final.
Such stats tell a story. The top teams may well cough up a draw now and then. They are most certainly prone to the odd shock defeat, but rarely do they fail to get the job done when offered a second bite at the cherry.
Back in 2001, Dublin nearly unseated All-Ireland champions Kerry in a quarter-final that stretched for 140 minutes, but didn't.
Though each championship usually coughs up somewhere between four and six draws, 2002 yielded ten with some particularly cruel hard luck stories dotting the landscape.
Tipperary came up short against Cork in the Munster final, Westmeath somehow let a first championship win over Meath slip through their fingers and Sligo's gallop through the qualifiers was halted by Armagh.
Jarlath Cunningham spent that year offering his services as a sports psychologist to Peter Ford with Sligo and insists that not once did they ever feel that their boat had sailed that first day in Croke Park.
It's a constant theme among unfancied sides, even after they come out second best in replays. Cunningham maintains it's more a shift in mentality among the favourites that makes the crucial difference in replays.
"Draws can act like a kick in the arse for the bigger teams," says Cunningham who was a part of the backroom that helped bring an All-Ireland club title to Crossmolina in 2000.
"I'll give you another example. The year Cross won the All-Ireland, we were nearly beaten in the first round of the county by West Mayo, a collection of junior teams. That was the wake-up call we needed.
"It was like being dangled off a cliff before being hauled back up. Fellas can be in a kind of a comfort zone, they're on the county team, they have all these perks and suddenly a fright like a draw or a near defeat can spur them on.
"Look at it this way, if Kilkenny were to play Galway again this weekend, do you think they'd play as badly again?"
Luke Dempsey was manager of Westmeath in 2002 and 2003 when their progress was stalled both years by Meath, a county they had never previously beaten in championship football.
Dempsey is adamant that the Meath 'monkey' never played on their minds when games against Sean Boylan's side went to replays.
"A lot can be read into these things, but both Dublin and Tyrone will be highly motivated. They'll be playing for a place in the last four. Sometimes, the simple analysis is best. Over 70 minutes the better team usually wins and over 140 minutes that's probably even more so the case."
Preparations leading up to replays don't differ from any other week, Dempsey claims. Negatives are largely ignored, while positives are played up.
He can see the logic of Paul Caffrey picking the same starting 15 but that the lessons of day one will be very much in his mind as he patrols the sideline today.
"You would be very aware that a certain player got a roasting or did badly the first day and if, after 20 or 25 minutes he hadn't improved, you'd whisk him off much quicker than you might otherwise do."
As an example, Dempsey points to Shane Ryan, a footballer he has great admiration for, but one he feels is far from the finished article as a midfielder.
Experience too plays its part in any replays and Tyrone hold the trump cards on the sideline as well as on the pitch with Dempsey lauding the half-time switches made by Mickey Harte which turned the first game on it's head.
An aura he compares to that surrounding the All Blacks is also a key factor for replays, according to Cunningham.
"This is a different level for Dublin," says Dempsey. "With Westmeath, we were eleven points up, seven points up and five points up on Meath at various times and still ended up losing. Teams like that Meath side then and Armagh and Tyrone now are like machines. They never stop going.
"Tyrone have been down this road so many times in the past. They will keep grinding out results but, for Dublin, it's all new. Over 70 minutes of any game the less experienced team is more likely to make that crucial mistake.
"If it comes down to Stephen O'Neill and Mossie Quinn scoring a free each or Peter Canavan or Jason Sherlock kicking one over from 40 yards, you'd have to put your money on Tyrone both times. That's the difference."
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