Harte shocked at Cats’ defeat

Mickey Harte has never been slow to harvest information, lessons and warnings from other sports, and the Tyrone manager absorbed another timely nugget ahead of Saturday’s visit to Roscommon.

A regular attendee at the All-Ireland hurling final, Harte took in Sunday’s Leinster SHC final from the comfort of his sofa and was as taken aback as anyone by the manner of Galway’s surprise victory and Kilkenny’s shock defeat.

“People talk about the Kilkenny method of winning but Galway applied themselves in the manner that Kilkenny normally do. Getting the early scores was good for their confidence and the longer Kilkenny went without a score, it became a matter of damage limitation. That seems strange to say about Kilkenny but for them to come back like they did in the second half shows just how good they are and they are not out of the race for the Liam MacCarthy Cup yet.”