Winning mould to be broken for decorated managers

Barring a draw in this Sunday's GAA Football All-Ireland Senior final, a winning mould will be broken for either Mickey Harte or Pat O'Shea, both of whom have 100% records as managers when it comes to All-Ireland senior deciders.

Mickey Harte has been guiding Tyrone teams to finals since some of his current Senior crop were not too long out of nappies.

Back in 1991 he took over the Red Hands Minor team and since then has steered Tyrone sides to Minor, U-21 and Senior All-Ireland successes, with a flawless record to date in finals when the Sam Maguire Cup has been on offer.

However, Harte concedes that adding another Senior title this weekend - to those achieved in 2003 and 2005 - will be one of the toughest challenges he has ever faced wearing the manager's bib.

The Errigal Ciaran clubman is wary of the threat that Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh will pose, as Kerry bid for a three-in-a-row of titles.

"We have to deal with what Kerry have. We have not played them in championship football with their two big men up front," Harte said.

"We had a bit of experience of Kieran in the league, but the league is different.

"They have added Tommy Walsh to the mix and that's something we have not had to deal with toe-to-toe yet."

Harte believes that Kerry are now a more versatile side and that they have expanded their tactics and options in recent years.

"Kerry became a little one-dimensional when Donaghy went in. It was predictable. They've abandoned that predictability and they are much more versatile.

"You can't just say, 'that's what Kerry do, deal with that and you fix it'."

O'Shea is the 'new kid on the block' of the pair, and maintained Kerry's winning form from the Jack O'Connor era.

He took over the Kingdom reins last year and success was instant as Kerry lifted retained the Sam Maguire and once again they enter Sunday's final with O'Shea at the helm.

Unlike his Tyrone colleague, the road to All-Ireland Championship glory has been tainted with final losses along the way.

This year the Kingdom have lost both the National Football League and Munster Championship deciders, and O'Shea says that these defeats have given his players extra motivation for the All-Ireland final.

"I'll be honest about it. This team, in some respects, needed that this year. We went through heartbreaking defeats in the National League final and in the Munster final," O'Shea said.

"We exposed ourselves at times. We had to learn and we had to see a sense of motivation.

"I think we learned a lot from the suffering on the pitch that we got. They (the defeats) were not nice to take but that cleansed us in a lot of respects."

With the 'will he, won't he' questions surfacing this week as O'Shea contemplates whether or not to start the returning Paul Galvin, the Kerry supremo is keeping tight-lipped on the matter.

However, he admits that it is great to have the Lixnaw man back on the panel after serving his much-publicised suspension.

"Paul Galvin is a great boost to our team. I am delighted that he is back. He has obviously had a very tough couple of months.

"We've always said that we will try to put out the best team available to us and everybody will be considered."

Nonetheless, O'Shea concedes that the 28-year-old Galvin is lacking big-time when it comes to on-field action.

"To be fair to Paul, he has obviously had no game practice. He played 50 minutes against Clare. His fitness levels are good because he worked away on his own.

"His biggest problem would have been his lack of match practice, which is a worry."