Harte’s belief to be tested as Tyrone handed Donegal test

At first, their hearts will have skipped a beat or two. But not long after last night’s draw for the 2013 Ulster championship pitted powerhouses Donegal and Tyrone against each other, Jim McGuinness and Mickey Harte will have felt adrenaline course through their veins.

For new All-Ireland champions Donegal, and the established order that they have replaced up north, neighbours Tyrone, it is the stiffest draw possible.

Yet it is also a quarter-final tie that will excite the minds of two managers regarded as the most tactically astute in all of Ulster. They now have eight months to devise a master plan to overcome the other.

Ironically, Harte spoke extensively just over 24 hours before the draw about the challenge of reeling in Donegal in 2013.

He knows the back-to-back Ulster winners intimately having managed Tyrone teams against them in each of the last two seasons.

This year, only the width of Donegal goalkeeper Paul Durcan’s boot separated the teams as he pulled off a stunning late save from Tyrone’s Martin Penrose in the Ulster semi-final, securing a two-point win.

“We were probably in a better position to beat them in last year’s game,” said Harte surprisingly, recounting the three-point loss of 2011. “We actually played more good football across the 70 minutes then than we did this year.”

Asked if he truly believed Tyrone could catch Donegal next year, Harte’s response has turned out to be particularly poignant. “I believe we can make it up — but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating,” he said.

There will be high drama early in the west next summer too with Mayo, runners-up to Donegal in last month’s All-Ireland final, pitted against their great rivals Galway.

It leaves Sligo, on the easier side of that draw, perfectly placed to contest another final, though, in Munster, there’s no escaping the feeling that Cork and Kerry are poised to contest yet another decider. Cork need to beat Limerick and Clare to reach the final while Kerry must tackle Tipperary and Waterford.

Leinster champions Dublin will play Westmeath or Carlow, with the winners taking on Offaly or Kildare in the semis.

New Dublin manager Jim Gavin last night confirmed a backroom team of Declan Darcy, Shane O’Hanlon, Michael Kennedy and Mick Deegan.