Harte aims to carry on winning

WHILE quite a few managers will be hoping for All-Ireland glory at the end of this season, what distinguishes Mickey Harte is the conviction that he has the best chance.

He says that if everything comes right for the champions — if they avoid injuries (or suspensions) and expand their panel — Tyrone will “be useful”.

That’s not just false modesty. It’s about being realistic, knowing that in this game, just as much as in the generality of sport, nothing is certain.

Just remember that the northerners are new to this business of bringing the Sam Maguire home, even though three title wins in the space of six seasons represents an extraordinary achievement by any standards. Certainly, it is so if you measure it against the lack of success by Dublin, who have won the last four Leinster titles but failed to get beyond the All-Ireland semi-final twice and haven’t made it to the final since they beat Tyrone in 1995.

In essence, Harte says that players and management will have to better manage the challenge of defending their title than they did on the previous occasions in 2004 and 2006 when they were champions.

From his perspective, he admits that he will have to do things differently, that the methods employed in the winning of their third title are now redundant.

In other respects, of course, you know that he will again resort to tried and tested ways of maximising the strength of his squad, such as the way he converted Seán Cavanagh into one of the top full-forwards in the game and how he pulled Joe McMahon out of the half-forward line to play alongside his brother Justin and help to make the full-back line so formidable (with former centre-back Conor Gormley filling the third position so capably).

“I have to find new ways of bringing new thinking, new approaches to how we play and new engagements with my players to help them to deliver new elements of their own game,’’ he comments.

“Management is about working with a team. A team ethos is all about a process.

“Last year’s form won’t win this year’s title so we have to find something new. Each of us, not just me, but the players — how we interact with each other, what we ask of each other and what methods of play we try to work to good effect.

“That’s what we will be about and finding new players, maybe find players who can move to different positions, moulding in or blending in the new kids who definitely need to get some game time with the current squad. If we remain injury-free, with those people coming back in due course, we’ll have the best headache possibly anybody could have.’’

Without divulging any state secrets, one thing they can do differently is to put into practice the lessons they learned from their previous failures. In simple terms, as long as players show an awareness of what happened, they can alter their approach.

And, if things didn’t go their way in the McKenna Cup, he is buoyed up by the attitude of the players, even at this early stage of the year. They are “more energised” than in 2004 and 2006 and that’s a good start. The challenge now will be to translate that into the type of form than can win them trophies.

And, for starters — facing Dublin in tomorrow night’s floodlit game in Croke Park — he has set his team the target of getting to the final.

“It’s very important to do well in the Allianz League. I think it’s a disservice to everybody concerned if you don’t go out to do the best you can. People talk about not wanting to be relegated, fine but I want to qualify for the final. That’s what we are in the competition for and that is what we will be trying to do. Other teams and other factors may determine differently, but that is what we are after. No mistake about it, we want to be in the final in April.’’

The Tyrone boss recognises that it will require an improvement in form from recent games to gain the two points on Saturday night. And that Dublin have a point to prove after their humiliating defeat in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final.

“We know and they know that was not a true reflection of where both teams were at the time. As Pat Gilroy said (at the launch of the League earlier in the week), what could go wrong for Dublin did and quite the opposite happened for us.

“That’s not the mind-set we’ll have going into this game — to play a Dublin team we beat by 12 points. We are going into play a Dublin team with four Leinsters in the last four years, who are always around the top table and will always be very hard to beat.

“This is a new year and we haven’t established any form to date. So, this will be the start of pointing towards that!’’