Tyrone's thirty-somethings bolstered by young guns in pursuit of All-Ireland glory

“The new rules mean that every minute you’re attacking and defending, and if you don’t win enough of those wee breaks, you probably lose the game over not doing an awful lot wrong," said Peter Harte. 

Tyrone’s Peter Harte and goalkeeper Niall Morgan are aiming to win their second All-Ireland title. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

We keep going because we love the game – Peter Harte’s philosophy on the sporting longevity of Tyrone’s thirty-somethings.

Along with Mattie Donnelly and Niall Morgan, Harte is still going strong 15 years after his inter-county debut and chasing a second All-Ireland title.

And one of the reasons for his passion for gaelic football comes calling again this weekend when he throws himself into another high stakes championship battle with old adversaries Kerry.

“Myself and Niall and Mattie are very similar, we love football,” he said.

“When you play this long, you put an awful lot of your life into it, and you do grow an appreciation of trying to make the most out of it, if you can.

“Very soon you’ll not be playing, you’ll be coming down with your family to watch matches, so you want to make the most of it when you are playing, and please God, we can do that.” 

Young blood breaking through the Red Hand ranks has added a freshness to an evolving squad that has been moulded by manager Malachy O’Rourke into a force with genuine ambitions to bring Sam back to the county for a fifth time.

“Thankfully we have some great young lads, and we’re starting to see just how good they are,” said Harte (34).

“We’ve seen them in club football a lot, and we’re just hoping that that can continue, because as we’ve seen over the years, you need a big impact in the last few minutes in Croke Park to win these games.” 

Tyrone suffered an alarming slump following their All-Ireland triumph in 2021, failing to make it past the quarter-final stage, and last year suffered a shock exit at home to Roscommon.

“We have been the ones that were watching over the last few years, sitting at home and not getting to Croke Park on the bigger days.

“You probably appreciate it more in the latter part of your career, but it’s great to be back, but it’s about making the most of it now.

“Beating Dublin and then going out in the semi-final would still be a disappointment, that’s the harsh reality of the sport you play, so we just want to keep building, keep the heads down and train hard for the next day against a serious operator.” 

Harte believes any one of this weekend’s semi-finalists can have realistic aspirations of going all the way, such is the unpredictability of the new-look game.

“There’s definitely an openness feeling towards it all now.

“When the Dubs were at their peak, unless they didn’t play to their full potential, you knew that they had the team that was very hard to rein in.

“But now everybody left in it has serious ambitions to win it.

“We just want to make sure that we’re there with them, that we put our best foot forward in an All-Ireland semi-final again.” 

Kerry go into Saturday’s semi-final as favourites to advance to the decider, thanks to their stunning victory over reigning champions Armagh, while Tyrone needed a late flourish to get the better of an off-colour Dublin side.

“We have plenty of things to learn and work on, but there was great grit and determination in that last ten minutes to wrestle the game back in our favour, and then when we got that bit of momentum, we had the quality with boys coming off the bench to kick us over the line,” Harte said.

“It probably wasn’t the cleanest game of football by any stretch. In Croke Park you’re basically playing on a new surface, you play with new footballs, and when it’s greasy like that, mistakes just seem to happen more readily.

“The new rules mean that every minute you’re attacking and defending, and if you don’t win enough of those wee breaks, you probably lose the game over not doing an awful lot wrong.”