Tyrone chief vows to oppose any McKenna Cup sanctions

MICKEY HARTE will vigorously oppose any move by the Ulster Council to penalise Tyrone for including two college players in their McKenna Cup winning team against Monaghan at the weekend.

Regretting that the County Board hadn’t lodged an objection to the earlier Council decision to ‘dock’ them two points for playing four colleges players against Derry, Harte made it clear that he would contest any challenge to their winning of the competition.

The Tyrone manager also insisted that the public spat over the Board Chairman’s criticism of the GPA would not impact in any way on the team. Their next outing is against Cork under lights in Pairc Uí Rinn on Saturday in the third round of the Allianz League.

The Ulster Council are awaiting the referee’s report on Saturday night’s match but Harte accepted that the issue of the colleges players’ participation ‘seemed to be alive.’

“What has the referee’s report got to do with it, I don’t understand that. He reports on the game and on the players and any incident pertaining to discipline. I don’t see why his report has anything to do with who is playing or who isn’t!’’

Harte suspects that the Board didn’t appeal the decision to dock them the point as it didn’t impact on their qualification for the semi-final and because they didn’t want to hold up the competition. But he said it was incorrect to conclude that Tyrone ‘accepted’ the penalty imposed.

“That would be a wrong assumption. I still believe that it was not right to dock the points. Moving on was not tantamount to agreeing with the decision,’’ he added.

In relation to the final, Harte said he ‘always’ felt they were within their rights to play the two players (Cathal McCarron and Daniel McCaul). “We wanted to try them out at this level and the two did very well on the night. We need to see these players in the McKenna Cup because it’s well known that we don’t play any other matches (other than competitive games).

Harte doesn’t believe that the Ulster Council will take the title from them, saying: “If this necessitates an appeal it will certainly happen this time, for I’m not in Dubai (with the Allstars).

He argues on the point of principle that managements should not be compelled to release players to the colleges, pointing out that they allowed four of their squad to do so. But, they wanted to look at four (other) players who have not yet made the breakthrough to their squad.

“The colleges and universities are guests of the competition, let’s not forget that. It’s an inter-county competition. That is what it was instigated for and guests do not dictate the rules.’’

In relation to Chairman Pat Darcy’s condemnation of the GPA and the Tyrone players distancing themselves from his remarks, Harte said that he ‘did not get involved’ at all. “It’s not going to impact on me because I’m totally focused on the football, on getting back on to the field of play and doing my best. And that will keep me busy.’’