Work ethic the key, says Harte
Tyrone have spent this summer burying ghosts. Yesterday was no different. The memories of Kevin McCabe’s penalty and Eugene McKenna’s injury that have hung over the county like a dark cloud for 17 years, were erased. The hungriest county on this island will go into the All-Ireland final, believing this third time is going to a charm. Tyrone supporters begin each championship campai gn with the eternal hope that this is their year. Last winter, Mickey Harte was given the task of delivering GAA’s longest and most agonisingly unfulfilled dream. He has already acquired folk-hero status in record time. Now, he stands about 75 minutes away from being a legend.
Although football purists have been setting their video timers and Croke Park throbbed with anticipation beforehand, the classic was never going to materialise. They rarely do in All-Ireland semi-finals. These occasions are about heart and soul, those intangible things that separate champions from contenders. Not one Tyrone person is going to care when they read this morning this was a game of 19 scores and 73 frees. Victory was all that mattered.
