Harte and the Tyrone public

[orangeman]

The other massive consideration is this - If MH were to resign who could do the job ? Instead of being critical, the Tyrone public would go into shock - cos there doesn't seem to be any ready made replacements - Brian Mc Ivor could do the job but doesn't want it.

[ONeill]

That'd be some shock alright - the supposed top 3 in Ulster losing their managers!

Is Mickey the longest-serving manager in Ulster?

[Rois]

I think Mickey is there until he doesn't want to be there any more.  When whisperings of management changes are to be heard, Mickey generally seems to publicly state that he's happy and will be there next year etc etc.  Who is going to try to put a man out of his job that has brought two All Irelands to the county?  It's a brave person/group who tries it.

[rrhf]

Harte is cut from a slightly dfiferent cloth than the rest of us.
Non drinking, religious, educated, articulated, self disciplined,  cool and composed under pressure, quietly rultless and ultimately professional whilst being extremely inflexible, he likes a little publicity but so what - many less successful people than Mickey likes the publicity.  I have met him personally and with a few drinks on me he gave me much more time than I probably deserved whilst discussing an under 21 defeat to Down many years ago.  The man is an absolute gentleman.  As a long suffering Tyrone fan I absolutely idolise him and what he has done for Tyrone football over the course of 15 years. There are very few men in Tyrone could get as much out of an extremely talented bunch of players but some who need reining in every now and again.  We all have our flaws.  Mickey has made a few mistakes this year some which probably contributed as much to the teams exit on Saturday as performances did.  But credit to him hes not cowering in the corner he has shown us his ambition for next year and is prepared to give it one last go.  Tyrone GAA history shows over 100 years of underachievement before Mickey Harte came along.  His record is outstanding, I believe he can bring us back there again but he needs to be more craetive than he has been.  Mickeys not going to stand in pubs and get drink bought for him the rest of his life, he wants Tyrone to win another AI title,  I will always question some of his more eccentric decisions but I will not question the fact that he is still the number 1 man for Tyrone.  Other options are PTG and also Brian Mc Ivor, The Under 21 management would be a disaster and Im a little unsure about the minor management yet. I beleive he nees the big one next year otherwise he will do more harm than good, but hes probably the only man capable of doing it within Tyrone football.     

[ONeill]

well said rrhf. Feeman'd be proud.

[Star Spangler]

Mickey believes he will win at least two more All Ireland's with this team.  That's "will" and not "can".  His self-belief is amazing.

[orangeman]

Roll on 2008 with a fit Brian Mc Guigan, Stevie O'Neill, Brian Dooher and a few tight marking defenders !

Remember Dooher against Donegal - above all else that will probably be the outstanding performance in 2008 anywhere.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

From today's Irish Times:


Don't write Tyrone off yet

Jack O'Connor's Column: Both Kerry and Dublin will be quietly glad to see the back of Mickey Harte's Tyrone

Given their respective records against Mickey Harte's boys, both Kerry and Dublin will have been quietly glad to have seen the back of Tyrone on Saturday.

It's been a surprising summer. You would have got fair odds at the start of the year on there being two Ulster teams still in the championship at the start of August and neither of them being Tyrone or Armagh. On the surface at least, there is a changing of the guard in Ulster. Both Derry and Monaghan have improved and the once great teams that Armagh and Tyrone sent out have been dragged back into the pack.

I'm not sure that it's time to write either county off for good though. The rash of injuries suffered by both teams this year was of biblical proportions. Key players who made both Armagh and Tyrone tick have been in for repairs. In Armagh's case, Ronan Clarke's ball-winning ability at full forward has been central to the way they played the game. Without him Steven McDonnell just wasn't the same man. And they missed the inspirational presence of Francie Bellew at full back.

After they beat us in the 2005 All-Ireland final, I said that Tyrone had four forwards who would get into any team of the past decade. Brian McGuigan, Brian Dooher, Stephen O'Neill and Peter Canavan. You could more or less say that they were without all four on Sunday.

Forwards like that are irreplaceable. McGuigan made Tyrone the machine they were. An injury-free O'Neill is still a truly great player. Dooher in his prime did the work of two men. Canavan called it a day two years ago and when he went he didn't just leave with his bag of tricks. His protege, Owen Mulligan, hasn't been the same player since his old muinteoir scoile in Cookstown vanished.

Under those circumstances it says a lot about Tyrone's resolve and work ethic that they still pushed Meath all the way on Saturday. Tyrone lost but still they gave a fine account of themselves. They stayed in the game. They kicked 11 wides in the second half. Despite their depleted resources they were a team still managing to get the best out of themselves even when playing a fresh side with a lot of momentum.

(One other significant factor that is coming against Tyrone at the moment is that they are now being whistled for some of the tackles that have been their trademark. There is a discernible shift in emphasis by the referees and this has decommissioned another of Tyrone's great weapons. On Saturday several marginal decisions went against them.)

Meath will be thrilled with how they have regrouped and got better since the Dublin defeat. The qualifiers have never exactly been their cup of tea but there is a bit of romance about their adventure this year. Traditionalists will love them because they stand for a lot of what is good in Gaelic football. And in Darren Fay they have a full back who is a throw-back to the old days in the way he guards that square.

Fay is what we are talking about when we look at what Tyrone were missing. Certain players inspire not just their team-mates but also their supporters. Brian Lohan, with that red helmet and the defiant long clearances, always did it for Clare.

Bellew for Armagh. If Darragh Ó Sé wins a ball for Kerry his first instinct is to drive with it and maybe scatter a few players and get everything going. It's an aura that some players carry. Séamus Moynihan had it. Darren Fay has it. It's the statement he makes in the way he plays, the jut of his jaw the way he comes out with a ball. Attitude.

If you are at a game there are certain players when they get the ball and it's not what they do so much as the way that they do it. For Tyrone, Dooher has been so close to the heart of their followers because he stands for everything that is good about that Tyrone team. Honesty. Work ethic. Teamwork.

The loss of McGuigan this summer was a huge blow. He was definitely the best playmaker in the country - by a distance. Tyrone play a different type of football to any other team out there. There is a lot of intricate moving and passing. It is like a web they weave. This year the spider was missing. McGuigan locked all the parts into each other, he knitted the play together, picked up the pieces, went deep for a ball, made the killer pass.

And we keep talking about Canavan. They say that great writers always have one person in mind who is their ideal reader, the person they privately write to please. With Mulligan it's as if Canavan's influence extended well outside the classroom. The way Mulligan held the ball up for Canavan in 2005 for that goal? I don't think he'd do that for many other players.

Are Tyrone gone? The pessimist would say that they play a high-octane game that demands huge energy levels and huge work rate. While that may not account for the waves of injuries they get it certainly takes its toll physically and mentally.

And Harte has been with a lot of the group since they were minors. They won an All-Ireland as minors. They won a couple of under-21s. Some of those players would have won five national medals at different age groups with Harte. That's a lot of mileage and a lot of time in dressingrooms and training fields listening to the one man.

On Saturday when Harte was asked would he be staying on, he said that he would, even though some people mightn't want him to. Reading between the lines, it struck me that part of his achievement is that Tyrone people now expect success every year, just like football people in Kerry or hurling people in Kilkenny.

He'll stay and my feeling is that Mickey Harte isn't one of those managers who will have to reinvent himself. There are a couple of things that will ensure that Tyrone players stay on edge. One is that culture of success and the demand for more of it.

The other is the supply coming through. Tyrone worked off a panel of something like 38 players this year. There was competition to get into the first 30 let alone the first 15. They rotated players. They brought in a corner back the last day, Damien McCaul, who nobody outside of Tyrone had heard of. Raymond Mulgrew is still developing and this year in the forwards, they had options like Tommy McGuigan, Niall Gormley, Colm Cavanagh and Colm McCullagh. When players aren't just keeping an eye out on the team sheet but watching to see if their name even comes up when the panel is announced that keeps them out of the comfort zone and keeps them honest. That's the formula that works for Brian Cody in Kilkenny.

Tyrone are right to expect success, their supply line of talent is impressive and that impatience they have makes Tyrone a very demanding place to manage a team. They have a manager who is up to those demands. Now is the time to remember that.

[Graham Garrity]

Hartes a fine manager alright  but theres men should have been hit last week and werent hit. What sorta manager would do that?

[nrico2006]

Great article Fear, liked the Web without the Spider piece in particular.

As previously mentioned, I don't know where the sudden feeling of worry has come from for the future of Tyrone.  If, and a slightly big if, we can have a squad without major injuries for next year and bring in a few fresh faces I would be fairly optimistic about our chances. 

[Maximus Marillius]

There's a lot more to this article than meets the eye of a few on here, but I'm reluctant to discuss it fully on this board. I'll just say that there is a sizable group of Tyroneites who'll never recognise Mickey's legend no matter what he achieves. And I'm talking about well-educated football men, mostly of a generation similar to his. It seems to be a long-running issue, maybe dating back a couple of decades. I know a Tyrone fanatic and world-renowned scientist whose venom towards Harte shocks me. Some of their reasons don't add up - i.e. He has touched lucky, the players are winning despite him, the Tally and Canavan fall-outs speak volumes.....i think this is what the article above is loosely addressing. Outside of the county, I'm sure it beggars believe. Mickey's single-mindedness rubs some up the wrong way.

Just to make it clear, I'm a Harte fan and he's been our greatest manager at all levels. I'll question some of his decisions OK but sure that's what it's all about.

No doubt about that ONeill...his thicked skin is legendary and also how he remodelled himself, compared to his earlier ways of dealing with teams and people.

[orangeman]

Great article by O'Connor - well written and just about sums the whole thing up.

[Leo]

Mickey Harte delivered and let it not be taken away from him but it was all about Canavan and every match without him has proven that - not an easy player to like but the difference between success and failure. Tyrone however will remain unloved for the persistent fouling (so called blanket defence where almost every pundit fails to spot the constant body fouls that are not permitted under the rules of the game - is anyone on TV seriously capable of taking a match and analysing it honestly or do they not know the rules?) and their gamesmanship (especially the dives and dramatics). As an Ulsterman I would truly like to see any team come forward (even Tyrone) and bring the fun and enjoyment back into the sport - only Monagahan come close to this at present.
We have comee to a stage in Ulster where we not only tolerate puke football but are compelled to admire it by undue hype. Thanks God for the hurling.

[ONeill]

Maybe if Down stopped worrying about if they're 'unloved', they might get somewhere soon.....

And what had Canavan got to do with the two matches against Dublin in 2005 - the two games that turned Tyrone's season around? Lazy cliched analysis. You're obviously not a follower of the game if you didn't think that 2005 brought enjoyment and fun. Some of the games then, especially the final, were of the highest quality in years.

[Pangurban]

Two All Irelands delivered will not gurantee Mickey any loyalty,affection or respect, though he has earned and well desrves all of these.Look at the example of Pete Mc Grath who was treated shamefully by Down