Hungry Harte has no room for sentiment
The Tyrone boss allows no room for sentiment when it comes to the pursuit of his objectives, and the Saffrons will be shown no mercy in Sunday’s Ulster final.
Harte is full of admiration for the achievements of Liam Bradley’s side, and wants to see the progress maintained for the good of the game in Belfast and the county.
However, he has made it clear that the All-Ireland champions are not in the business of compromising their own position for the sake of any worthy cause.
Harte said: “Antrim needed this for a long time. They have good club sides, but their players, as a unit, didn’t seem to gel. I suppose the city versus country atmosphere prevailed. How much it went on, I don’t know, but it seemed to be a bit of a factor. They seem to have overcome that and with the confidence they have, they’re beginning to show some of the form that their club sides have shown.’’
The treble All-Ireland winning manager added: “It is great, and if they stick at it, and keep working, then they’re gong to be a serious handful in the near future, never mind the distant future. I have been to clubs and schools in Antrim and it’s the very first thing I always say to them – ‘believe in yourselves and don’t be accepting that you can’t do it’.
“I do believe that’s the case, that if they start to believe in themselves, then they’ll compete with anybody.”
Harte and assistant manager Tony Donnelly compiled detailed notes as they observed Antrim’s semi-final defeat of Cavan, and the Tyrone boss is in no doubt that his Ulster final counterpart Bradley will have a similar dossier to hand as he devised a plan to exploit whatever weaknesses the Sam Maguire Cup holders may have.
“That’s the way the modern game goes. You study the opposition, you study their strengths and you try to negate them. We will give Antrim the respect that we would give any team.”
One plan that Harte has unashamedly made public since the beginning of the season is his desire to take the direct route to All-Ireland glory, having won two of his three titles via the qualifier route.
“We did set out our stall this year, we wanted to go through the front door, we wanted to win the Ulster title, we wanted to stay on the more direct route, rather than the more difficult route. We’ve been good enough so far to do that.”
And with a virtually full fit squad to choose from for Sunday’s showdown, he believes Tyrone have the strength in depth to succeed once again.
He is further heartened by the fact that when marquee forwards Sean Cavanagh and Stephen O’Neill were shackled by the Derry defence in the semi-final, scoring just one point each, other players, such as Martin Penrose, Tommy McGuigan and Kevin Hughes filled the void with compelling displays.
“I think it is good that different players on different days are the ones that stand out. I think that’s the mark of a good side, and I think we’re blessed at the minute that we have a lot of quality players.
“There’s some who will deliver virtually all the time, there’s some who will excel more than others on any given day, but as long as there’s people to compensate for the day that some of the people who excelled on a previous day, then that’s great.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we got everybody excelling on the one day? That’s what your target is all the while. It doesn’t happen very often, but it you can have it happen when it matters most, then you’re in a good place again.”
No team has gone anywhere near peak performance in the Ulster Championship this season, leading to charges of falling standards in the northern province from pundits.
Harte believes, however, that many observers are being selective in their comments, and are ignoring many positive aspects of the way the game is being played.
“I suggested in an article recently that people do tend to get what they look for, and they’re not comparing like with like.
“We didn’t have as many live televised games in the past, we didn’t have as many analysts looking into them in fine detail, and I do really believe that it’s time we started to look for the good in our games.
“I don’t know any other organisation that picks so many holes in their own performances, and that’s what we seem to be getting far too much of.
“I would ask people to open their minds to the positive things that are going on and find the good that’s going on in the game.
“Of course there will be errors and there will be things that you could check on, but the tendency is to go for the bad wholesale and forget about talking up what’s good. I think football has come on a lot. I think there’s a lot more skilful players across the whole field, I think there’s better fluency in the game, I think that the game asks more questions of players now, and you can’t be a one-position player and survive at the top level.
“I think it’s brilliant, I think the game is moving on to a new level, but some people can’t take their eyes off the past.
“I like to look to the future, enjoy the present and look to the future.”
And as the qualifiers series moves into its third round, the Tyrone manager believes the system has enhanced the All-Ireland championship.
“To have every county in the country still in the championship by July is a great thing, because it means that all of those people who are working hard all year are still there in the summer months, I think it’s good for them, rather than teams being out in early May, and their season over. There’s a lot to be said for that, and if some people get a draw that suits them, and brings them on another couple of weeks, that’s great.
“And it has been shown in the past, that some teams have come out of their own province (having lost) and have excelled by their own standards in the qualifiers.
“People will say that the stronger teams get a second chance, and that serves them well too, and we have known that to be true once or twice, so we enjoy it either way.”
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