Mickey Harte unsure if Tyrone are better primed to take on Dublin this time

By Francis Mooney

Mickey Harte has admitted he doesn’t know whether his Tyrone side are better prepared to handle the might of the Dubs than they were last year, when they crashed to a 12-point defeat at Croke Park.

Harte has urged supporters to turn Healy Park into a cauldron of noise and colour this evening.

The fans will set the scene for a historic occasion, but it’s up to the players to deliver.

“We won’t know until we play them on Saturday night, and when we play them, the outcome will tell us if we’re better primed or not. We would like to think we are, but we thought we were better primed when we went there last year,” said Harte.

“Last year, we thought we were going to be really competitive. As it turned out, we weren’t.”

Runaway wins over Cork and Roscommon have marked Tyrone out as one of the few genuine title contenders, but the quality of the opposition in those games leaves serious question marks over their standing. And as the new Super 8 series moves into its second phase, the form guide offers little assistance when it comes to assessing the prospects for an occasion steeped in intrigue.

“You can only measure yourself against the best, and when you’re lucky enough to get playing the best, then you need a challenge against them to see how near you are to them — and the last time of asking we weren’t near enough. So we want to be much nearer to them, and that’s the challenge for ourselves.”

Dublin leave behind the familiar surroundings of Croke Park to are making a first Championship appearance in Omagh, where they will put on the line a 28-game unbeaten run which stretches back to 2014. Along the way, they have strode to many facile victories, but they have also shown a hard, resilient edge in digging themselves out of tight spots on several occasions.

“They have been in many difficult situations; OK sometimes they get to the latter stages of the competition without being severely tested, and they have managed that well too,” said Harte.

“You might think that if you get through Leinster pulling up, as they have done a number of years, that they would be vulnerable to be caught coming out of that, but they have managed to do that and still raise the level of their own performance as required right up until winning the title.

“So there’s no getting away from it, they’re a serious outfit, and if you want to be competing with them, then we must be at a serious level of our own.”

In their last two games, the Red Hands were able to cut loose on their way to huge scorelines of 3-20 (v Cork) and 4-24 (v Roscommon).

Their vulnerability at the back was also punished, and a more considered balance between defence and attack is inevitable this evening as they face a Dublin team capable of ruthlessly punishing the slightest lapse.

“You have to be careful at the back as much as you can, but it doesn’t mean to say you can’t attack in numbers. It’s about picking the right times to do that and doing it with real quality.”

Harte is certain that his players have grown in character through an All-Ireland qualifier run that has taken them on a sun-splashed road trip since they lost their Ulster Championship opener to Monaghan.

They have laid on a number of dominant performances, but have also been stretched to the limit, and at Páirc Tailteann, came within seconds of elimination, before a Cathal McShane equaliser brought them back from the brink, forcing extra-time against Meath.

“That’s what the qualifiers are good for. If you get on a winning run and keep it going until you get to the latter stages, then the qualifiers is not the worst place in the world to be.

“But they’re fraught with danger as well, because on any given day, you can be history, at a time will be forgotten about if you go out.

“If we had gone out in Navan, it would be a nonentity of a season for us in terms of championship football, and we might well have done.

“We were 30 seconds over the added time when we actually got the equalising point, so such is the fine line between being in a decent place and being nowhere in the Championship.”