Harte yearned most for Kerry colossus

Shane Stapleton: What has been the score of the season?

Mickey Harte: I have to be biased here, of course, but I think Stephen O’Neill’s solo dummy on Peter Kelly in our league semi-final against Kildare, where he bought it hook, line and sinker. Then Stevie had the composure to stick it over from an acute angle. I think that’s as good a score as we’ll see this season in Croke Park.

SS: What has been the save of the season?

MH: I’d be going biased again, but Niall Morgan had a penalty save against Michael Murphy in our National League game in Omagh. That’s just biased again because I remember them so much better than others.

SS: What has been your biggest disappointment of the season?

MH: The tirade that has been launched against Seán Cavanagh to me is a most disappointing thing. He is one of the most influential players for attractive, positive football in a long career, starting with his first All-Ireland when he was scarcely 20 and now he’s 30 and he’s been a total sportsman all that time. The amount of disproportionate attention that has been given to a foul he committed in a single game, I think that’s so disappointing.

SS: From any era, if you could transfer any one player to your county, which would make yours an All-Ireland-winning team?

MH: I would pick Darragh Ó Sé. He’s got just about everything that a midfielder would need and he’d be the perfect complement to Seán Cavanagh. If you wanted someone in your team who would always make a difference in winning games, it would have to be Darragh Ó Sé. I think he was the class midfielder of the last decade.

SS: What’s the toughest training camp/day/weekend Tyrone have ever done?

MH: We don’t really go in for real tough, horrid training sessions in terms of putting people to the limit. Honestly, I prefer to be working at high intensity for shorter times and having quality in what you do. It’s always about being balanced and that the players are fit to do it at a high level. As for bonding weekends, going back in time with the U21s, we would go off and a have day of activities. A forest in Pomeroy comes to mind, we had people in from ‘One Step Beyond’ and Hugh Campbell, who has since worked with Armagh and other teams in that field of bonding and personal development through activity. There was high-wire work — climb up this pole and jump off and hit a bell while people were holding you. The thing that struck me was that this was a daunting task that you were asking players to do — for some it wasn’t daunting, but for others it was most daunting. I thought it was so good for the rest of the team to be able to encourage someone else to do it.

SS: Who is the joker on the panel?

MH: I think Joe McMahon would be the one because he just has this class ability for this deadpan expression. So making you believe that what he is saying is serious and true, and then you’re thinking, ‘are you for real?’ and then this smile breaks. He’s just a class act at winding people up.

SS: Who is the best and worst dressed?

MH: I’m going to just pick on young Tiernan McCann here for worst dressed. The boys in training think he’s the worst dressed because he’s too modern for them; he’s only a young fella, 21, and he has the Paul Galvin-style clothing. I think people approaching 30 think that’s too cool. For best dressed, I would have to go with somebody more conservative, somebody like Stephen O’Neill. He’s more of a sensible era where he puts on something that traditional Gaelic footballers would wear.

SS: What manager from another sport do you admire?

MH: It would have to be Alex Ferguson. I’m supporting Manchester United from a distance since 1966. What he has done with the team over the years that he has been manager… it’s not so much that he brought them so many titles, he did it over a period of time where the team had to be built and rebuilt and he was still able to maintain a serious turn of trophies.

* Mickey Harte is an Eircom GAA ambassador and this is the first in a series of in-depth interviews with leading GAA figures. To be in with a chance of winning tickets for the All-Ireland semis and final, go to ExperienceMore.ie