Mickey Harte joins the Irish News

[bigpaul]

I don't know why you have included 'weekly rantings' in a post addressed to me! I never used the words or any terms even remotely like them! As I said in my first comment in this topic,I have been very disappointed in his column, both the content and his style of writing. On the matter of remuneration and circulation,I wonder, if the reward is substantial, do the editorial staff at The Irish News  feel  they are getting value for money or are other publications looking on enviously?

[Tyrones own]

I don't know why you have included 'weekly rantings' in a post addressed to me!

Apologies, that wasn't directed at you, merely quoting the general Jist of opinion from what I've read here.

On the matter of remuneration and circulation,I wonder, if the reward is substantial, do the editorial staff at The Irish News  feel  they are getting value for money or are other publications looking on enviously?

Hard to know but I suppose as long as he keeps doing what it is he does for them we'll have to assume they're happy enough with him.

[Mike Sheehy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Pnx6UdUj0&feature=related

Tyrones Own is the one wearing red

[Tyrones own]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Pnx6UdUj0&feature=related

Tyrones Own is the one wearing red

*Shakes Head*  What are ye....12, or would that be an insult to the average 12 yr old

[Mike Sheehy]

hey, what can I say, you are very devoted to Mickey.....

[Archie Mitchell]

Good article by Paddy Heaney in the Irish News today. The Kerry folk won't like it.

[Fuzzman]

Anyone care to post it?

[Minder]

Kerry's false Gods don't merit worship
My father once told me that he was actually disappointed when he first got to watch a Kerry team in the flesh.

Born in the 1940s, his knowledge of Kerry was gleaned entirely from the radio. Back then,

commentators used their considerable poetic licence to paint vivid and lasting portraits.

Brainwashed by RTE's hyperbole, my father thought the typical Kerry footballer was about seven foot tall, had shoulders the width of barn doors, and muscles rippling from every sinew. A veritable Kingdom of Cuchullains.

Then in 1958 Derry won the Ulster title and the whole show went to Croke Park to see Jim McKeever and the lads take on Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Watching from the Hogan Stand, my father still recalls the sense of anti-climax when 15 ordinary-looking men took to the field in the green and gold.

Patsy McLarnon was as strong, and Hugh Francis Gribben was as broad, and Colm Mulholland was as fit, and Sean O'Connell was as skilful, as any Kerry man. Derry won.

Fifty years ago, the mythology surrounding Kerry footballers was entirely understandable – but there is less excuse for it nowadays.

We no longer depend on Micheal O'Hehir. A constant supply of live televised games provides us with empirical evidence to make rational and logic-based decisions, yet the veneration of Kerry's false Gods continues to flourish.

On Sunday, I pored over the various Championship supplements that came with the newspapers and read pundit after pundit, ex-footballer after ex-footballer, and journalist after journalist tipping Kerry to win the Sam Maguire Cup.

Why? Why? Why? Let's consider some basic facts. As of last September, Tyrone are the best team in Ireland, and nothing in particular has changed since then.

Moreover, when Tyrone play Kerry in the

Championship, Tyrone win. We know this to be true. We've seen it happen three times: in 2003, in 2005 and in 2008.

If a horse beat another horse on three successive occasions, the losing horse is never the favourite for the fourth race. Yet this is precisely what happens with Kerry.

The counter-argument is that Kerry must win some time and there is no greater motivation than revenge.

But look at it another way. If Tyrone had lost to Kerry in 2003, 2005 and 2008, would a vast body of opinion be arguing that it's only a

matter of time before the Red Hands win? No chance.

Tyrone would be universally written off and dismissed as northern chokers. But Kerry are never subjected to this type of harsh appraisal. Why?

Less than 12 months after beating Kerry for the third successive time, Tyrone are already regarded as being second best to Jack

O'Connor's side – even before a ball is kicked.

When you think about it closely, it's actually quite insulting. For some reason there is a general unwillingness or inability to recognise Tyrone's superiority.

Bear in mind that Tyrone should actually be stronger this year. Stephen O'Neill, the former Footballer of the Year, is back. Brian McGuigan has a further year of recuperation under his belt and is hoping to start against Armagh, while Owen Mulligan has enjoyed a good League campaign and has stayed injury-free. Mickey Harte won last year's All-Ireland title without having a fully-fit O'Neill, McGuigan or Mulligan.

But in Sunday's newspapers there was little focus on why Tyrone would be better in 2009. It was Jack O'Connor and Tadhg Kennelly and David Moran and blah blah blah?

Did these people not see the League game between Kerry and Tyrone in Omagh earlier this year?

When Tyrone woke up and decided to compete in the second half, they played Kerry off the park. It was the same old story and the same old Kerry. They scored one point from play after the break.

Anyone who thinks that the analysis and predictions drawn up ahead of this year's Championship will go unnoticed by Tyrone are

entirely mistaken.

The wholesale deference towards Kerry will reinforce the notion that northern champions are seen as second-class champions.

The painful truth is that the admiration and respect that Ulster gaels have extended towards Kerry has never been reciprocated.

When Down refused to roll over and die in the 1960s, it was because they used sneaky tactics. They broke the ball. They didn't play by Kerry's rules. Mick O'Dwyer still struggles to accept that Kerry couldn't beat Down.

Pat Spillane is another Kerry elitist. Spillane told The Sunday Tribune that football is not what it was in his heyday.

Isn't it strange how football is always going through a crisis for Pat when an Ulster team are All-Ireland champions?

Then again, Pat probably hasn't watched a repeat of the 2005 All-Ireland final. If he ever does get a copy of the tape, and then brings himself to actually watch the team playing in red and white, he will witness one of the most consummate and complete displays ever

produced in Croke Park.

When Kerry were on top, we in Ulster paid them due homage. But now that Tyrone are the champions, it's not quite the same.

Kerry men will concede that Mickey Harte is a great manager, but they'll never agree that Tyrone have a better team.

And the begrudgery isn't exclusive to Kerry. It's pretty much nationwide and the media are

particularly culpable.

When Kerry win All-Irelands it is because they play champagne football. Ulster teams rarely receive the same eulogies.

Armagh "ground" their way to victory against Kerry in 2002.

In 2003 Spillane's accusation of puke football was gleefully repeated in the press. The nitpicking that started in the 60s has never stopped.

A few days after last year's All-Ireland final, two of the most respected GAA reporters in the country wrote columns criticising the referee's performance. Apparently the failure of Maurice Deegan to penalise systematic fouling contributed to Tyrone's victory.

Somehow there never seems to be the same

browbeating and state of the nation concerns when other southern teams are involved.

When Meath thumped, kicked, and bullied Tyrone out of Croke Park in 1996 the general consensus was that it was "a man's game".

When Kerry win, it's because they have the best footballers in the country. When Tyrone win, it's because of their cunning manager, or their bending of the rules, or their blanket defence, or their tactical fouling.

Sunday's newspapers confirmed all these assumptions.

Less than a year after Tyrone's epic victory and the majority of pundits and reporters still reckon Kerry are the best bet to win this year's All-Ireland title.

The radio age is dead and gone, but Kerry men

continue to enjoy the type of iconic status denied to the mere mortals from Tyrone.

In 1958, my father realised that the men in green and gold weren't gifted with any superpowers.

Others who've been in Croke Park on countless

occasions still seem to be struggling with this basic concept.

But then again, as no doubt Mickey Harte will tell his players, there are none so blind as those who will not see.

[rrhf]

Nothing new in this,  Myself and O Neill and redhandfan have been assuming our rightful superiority since 2003.  Heaney has just grabbed the baton we passed to him and ran with it.  He writes eloquently and for early season form - not bad, but would be a long way off the articles submittted by the all ireland GAA writing champion of 2008 and even the finalist - his own proof reader Kenny Archer.   

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

And this with the photo in Heaney's article today:

Utter superiority: Tyrone have demonstrated that they are a better team than Kerry time and again over the past few years, yet come the start of the Championship each season, pundits, ex-players and journalists still fall for the Kingdom myth and tip them to lift the Sam Maguire

[Fuzzman]

My father in law, a Donegal man gives out to me each time we've beaten them in the championship that we didn't beat them by more.
He's now saying that they won't respect ye til ye beat them by ten.

He's always saying its good to let Kerry believe they're better than they really are up til the last few weeks of the summer.

I'd say Spillane will be all out this year to fight their corner as it's probably been kiliing him to sit tight lipped on the box and listen to Brolly continuously go off on how wonderful Tyrone are & be so smug about it and how right he always is.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

In fairness though, Kerry have managed to do something in retaining SAM that we haven't (whether we were fit or not)...


























yet!

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

Excellent stuff. Always surprises me how this myth that Tyrone dont have great players and that its all down to the system is readily accepted by people who should know better. More fool them, the 3 Senior All-Irelands, 2 Under 21 All-Irelands, 4 All-Ireland Minor titles and 2 National Leagues won by those players is consolation enough. What a system

[longrunsthefox]

Heaney said nothing that we don't alraedy know here in Tyrone... and he was right about weekend papers drooling again about Twin Towers  - Galvin etc... we don't need the approval of begruding press and pundits down south. Nothing beats the pleasure of putting beating Kerry again ... it is so sweet.           

[tyssam5]

"If a horse beat another horse on three successive occasions, the losing horse is never the favourite for the fourth race. Yet this is precisely what happens with Kerry."

What Paddy didn't mention is that the two horses aren't starting at the same line, every year Kerry enjoy a nice little head start which has something to do with the odds. Though in fairness Kerry are a more consistent team than Tyrone, they do not lose (at least get knocked out) to poorer teams than them and Tyrone have been guilty of this charge. But when Tyrone are playing their best game they have proven themselves to be a better team; the 'consistent' Kingdom men just don't have that extra 10-20% to bring them to our level of excellence.

The 'consistent' tag for Kerry could also be filtered through the lens of the skewed provincial system, but it might be churlish to so. Cork and even Monaghan have given them tricky games, if they had 2-3 more of these tricky games to play every year then their consistency might not be so evident. But given that they have been in a least a semi final since 2002, it is only fair to give them the most 'consistent team in Ireland' accolade.

BTW the cute hoors in Kerry have nothing to teach Heaney, setting up Tyrone like that! His comments must be viewed in light of his excellent article a few year ago about 'country double-talk'.