Defeat might be a bonus, says O’Connor

TYRONE'S Mark Harte was totally oblivious to the significance of his late, late point which reduced Kerry’s winning margin to six points and knocked the champions out of the Allianz National Football League semi-finals.

After a phone call from GAC secretary Sean Ó Laoire confirming that Mayo would progress to the last four, manager Jack O’Connor was left to convey the bad news to his players. Except, it wasn’t all bad.

“We wouldn’t have said ‘no’ if we had qualified. At the end of the day the championship is our priority and this will give us the breathing space to do a bit of work - and it might work in our favour long-term,” said O’Connor later.

Mark Harte, older son of manager Micky, was sitting in the Tyrone dug-out as the game entered four minutes of injury time, resigned to the fact that he wouldn’t have an involvement.

Then wing-forward Martin Penrose got cramp and he was called ashore.

“At that stage there were only two fit forwards left, so it was a case of being thrown in at the deep end,” he explained.

“When I kicked the point I didn’t know what effect it would have...”

O’Connor admitted the outcome was a ‘bit of a downer,’ but, overall, he was ‘very happy’ with the way the team performed.

“Any day you beat Tyrone by six points - when you are down a few players and you lose Eoin Brosnan in the middle of the game - is a good day out. We are quite happy with what we got out of the league.

“We got 2-17 which was a good score, but we conceded three goals and we would be a small bit worried about that.

“Tyrone kept putting it up to us and at the end of the day the goal we conceded in the first half against the run of play maybe proved the difference at the end.”

Harte Senior felt his team had been put under pressure by talk of their semi-final place was ‘fait accompli.’

“We knew Mayo were capable of beating Westmeath by a big score and while we had a big points difference against Kerry, every point they got was narrowing that gap from two ends.

“The way Kerry were playing and shooting for fun we were very fortunate to be in it.

“Over the 70 minutes we played tremendous football, but for other periods we were very much on the back-foot. Losing Stephen O’Neill before the game was a setback.

“Different players did well and it was good to see Conor Gormley back. There were things to be happy about and things to observe and work on,” he added.