Mickey Harte: Defeat is not a matter of life or death

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has urged supporters to keep the county’s All-Ireland final loss in context, stating that he has experienced ‘something that’s much, much worse than this’.

Mickey Harte: Defeat is not a matter of life or death

By Paul Keane

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has urged supporters to keep the county’s All-Ireland final loss in context, stating that he has experienced ‘something that’s much, much worse than this’.

The three-time All-Ireland winning manager said he could understand why passionate and fanatical fans may be ‘heartbroken about this’ following their six-point loss to Dublin.

But the father of Michaela, who was murdered while on her honeymoon in Mauritius in 2011, said the reality is that while some people consider football to be a life and death issue, ‘in real terms it’s not’.

Harte made the comments in a wide ranging interview at the team’s Citywest hotel base yesterday morning where he also discussed his brush with cancer in 2015, efforts to oust him as manager around the same time and the myth that Tyrone lack ‘marquee’ forwards.

I would have probably been more heartbroken about this if life had been different in our case,” said Harte of Tyrone’s loss to Dublin. “But the fact that I know something that’s much, much worse than this, and never could be compared to this, then I feel hurt about this but it’s not like the real hurt of loss.

Harte also suffered the loss of two brothers either side of Michaela’s death and was in charge of the Tyrone team when All-Ireland winner Cormac McAnallen passed away in 2004. Harte was manager of the Tyrone minors in 1997 too when Paul McGirr died from an injury sustained in an Ulster championship game with Armagh.

He pleaded with supporters to place last weekend’s defeat at Croke Park in its proper context.

Obviously the different perspective is that I have to think and balance all of these things and how football can become a life and death issue for people who have never experienced life and death issues,” said Harte.

“I understand that and they’re passionate about the sport and they’re heartbroken about this here and so I would never take away from their sense of hurt and loss, I would perfectly understand it, but I would like them to think outside the box as well and say there’s many worse things that you can wake up to on a Monday morning. Just think about that, that people have to think and wake up to those things, things that are more permanent, loss or hurt.

“I think about their hurt and loss as football people and fanatics and I appreciate that, and I empathise with that, but I’d ask them to think about how people wake up to something that can never be the same again, and there’s never another chance to get back to where you’d have liked to be. And then they’ll begin to understand that while it may be life and death in words, in real terms it’s not.”

Harte said his battle with bladder cancer in 2015 offered him fresh perspective on life and football. The period of his illness corresponded with Tyrone suffering relegation from Division 1 of the League and he said he was aware of ‘moves afoot to try to get me to go’ as manager in this period.

“It was the need for change, as often happens in peoples’ minds,” he said. “I think it was important that I had the football to take your mind off other things and to have something to drive for.

It’s one of those things, in the journey of life you meet many things and it’s great to have the power and strength and the grace of God to live with it and deal with it.

Harte, the longest-serving inter-county football manager, confirmed that he will lead the team again in 2019, his 17th season at the helm.

“This to me is just a wonderful opportunity to bring a new and young set of players to the highest level if we can. I believe it’s possible, they believe it’s possible, we have to go and do what will be required to make it possible.”

Critics of Harte’s team have consistently claimed that he ultimately lacks the forward talent to win an All-Ireland, citing Tyrone’s 16 wides on Sunday as further evidence.

“I just think it’s a tired soundbite, it really is,” said a frustrated Harte. “This thing called ‘marquee’ forwards, it’s something of the past. It’s not about being a marquee forward, it’s about the number of quality finishers wherever they come from on the field. The marquee (forward) maybe has strength, but it’s also going to be a great weakness. If you have a marquee forward and he’s double teamed and taken out of the game, what do the rest of the people do? Do they say, ‘Oh, our marquee forwards are not getting seven or eight points’ ... we’re beaten.

“I think you need a spread of scorers in the modern game and people capable of taking them. The fact that a forward is only described as marquee because he gets six, seven or eight points in a match, to me that is absolutely childish.”

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