It’s Tyrone’s turn to plot an ambush but...

Football needs Kerry, but it needs Tyrone too’ (Mickey Harte) Writing in ‘Presence is the Only Thing’ about a decade locked in battle with Kerry, Mickey Harte sums up Tyrone’s attitude to their greatest rivals:

“I simply see two teams with a contrast in styles, sharing the same relentless ambition to win. We can look them in the eye. There’s respect, but no fear.” In the same book, the idea Kerry and others failed to give Tyrone the respect they deserved also emerges as a recurring theme and a key motivation.

Before the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final, Harte wondered how Kerry saw Tyrone. He concluded Kerry probably viewed his team “as a bunch of whippersnappers who did rightly in the league” but whose confidence would bend in Croke Park to the “traditional superiority” of the Kingdom.