Red Hands anxious to avoid anniversary distractions
The meeting of Dublin and Tyrone is in danger of becoming something of a sideshow to the fireworks displays and musical acts, but Tyrone need to hit the ground running in the NFL with Kerry and Galway their opponents in rounds two and three.
“There’s a lot of razzmatazz around Saturday night’s game and that is right,” said Harte.
“It is nice to celebrate all these years of the GAA. But there are two league points to win and that is what people are coming to see. The rest is icing on the cake.”
Harte will reveal his panel for the upcoming spring campaign today or tomorrow. Four fresh faces have been promised while Martin Swift has also returned to the fold after a spell in the USA.
The injection of fresh blood has been something of a necessity. Harte is currently operating without a handful of regulars and will have to juggle his resources throughout the league due to injuries and other factors.
“Brian Dooher is not going to be back until mid to late March. We’ll not get much out of Brian in the league because of the nature of his injury. Brian McGuigan is getting married in the middle of March which doesn’t help when we will have four league games in a row. Damien McCaul has an injury from college football which will probably take him into the middle of the summer. Ciaran Gourley’s knee is giving him bother and Dermot Carlin is in Australia and won’t be back until the end of March.”
Conor Gormley will be another absentee this weekend (honeymoon) but Ryan McMenamin will be available after recent injury issues while Harte has also pointed to the boost of having Stephen O’Neill around from the get-go.
Dublin’s injury problems are, unsurprisingly, less troublesome as Pat Gilroy kept his squad wrapped in cotton wool for the duration of the January shadow boxing but Alan Brogan and Tomás Quinn are out of the clash.
Gilroy hasn’t used the lack of game time or exposure to the new disciplinary rules as a crutch in the run up to the tie and he seems unperturbed about kicking off his managerial reign against the All-Ireland champions.
“We don’t have a choice. It is what it is. We are happy to play in that match. It is a great honour with the fact that it is the opening of the celebrations. People enjoy playing in those occasions. It’s good for the team and the management.”
Dublin have failed to reach a league semi-final since their loss to Cork in the 1999 decider but their focus lies further afield. Nothing less than a first All-Ireland title since 1995 will satisfy the denizens of Hill 16 this summer.
“I guess we just want to take this team and bring them on to the next level and a big step for them would be to qualify for an All-Ireland final,” said Gilroy. “If we can achieve that then we will have improved the team.
“The team has played some of the best football over the past few years on occasion and it is the consistency of performance that we will look at.
“If we can bring that to the party that may make the difference.”
Ending their ten-year run of mediocrity in the league would be as good a place as any to start.
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