AISF Aug 23rd Tyrone v Cork

[Zulu]

Chance to banish ghost of JBM
By Brendan O'Brien

Wednesday, August 19, 2009



IT is August 1973. A miserable drizzle is falling on a Croke Park that isn't near half-full for the All-Ireland semi-final between Cork and Tyrone and a teenage Mickey Harte is watching history repeat itself right before his very eyes.



Eleven months earlier, Harte was full-forward on a Tyrone minor team that fell three points short of Cork and an All-Ireland title in the same stadium and here was the same man who did for them in '72 doubling the dose a year later.

"I remember it well," he recalls. "I was in Croke Park for that game (in '73) and obviously we wouldn't have many fond memories of the day here in Tyrone.

"It wasn't the best of games in fact, if memory serves me correctly.

"Jimmy Barry Murphy scored two goals for Cork. He really came into his own that year with the seniors but I wasn't surprised. Jimmy had played against us in the minor final the year before. He scored two goals that day as well. One of them was a penalty. He was always the kind of player who might be kept quiet for 45-50 minutes and then he would just come with a few goals. That was the kind of player he was."

Better days were just around the corner for the Tyrone minors. There was no Jimmy Barry Murphy to come between them and the Tom Markham Cup in September of 73 but the success of Harte's successors only illuminated his own disappointment.

In conversation with this paper two years ago Harte spoke of how his own side was so quickly forgotten despite coming so close and how the class of '73 was still being feted 25 years later because they had won an All-Ireland.

"We were just nothing," he said at the time and the revelation provided by Cork in 1972 of how thin the line is between failure and success has served him well in the last dozen years at minor, U21 and senior management levels.

Thirty-six years on and here come Cork again. The counties have yet to write another chapter in their mutual senior championship history but Harte has other painful experiences of the Rebels that also need exorcising.

The counties met six years in a row in Division 1A of the National League between 2002 and 2007 and, though Tyrone just about won more than they lost, the last meeting at Páirc Uí Rinn has lingered longest in the memory.

Tyrone travelled south that weekend on the back of an impressive McKenna Cup campaign and with two wins from two bagged already in the league. Cork had lost to both Donegal and Kerry but still won by eight points. Harte emits a low chuckle when he is reminded of it.

"Yeah, as some of the commentators said at the time, we took a hell of a battering. That is for sure. They were on fire that night and they showed the potential they had. I had been saying for the previous four or five years that Cork were far better than the results in the championship actually portrayed.

"It's not a surprise that eventually they would come to be a major force in the championship. I suppose they have had that thing with Kerry where they seem to have a degree ofdifficulty beating them outside of Munster but I think they are getting over those kinds of phobias now and just proving to be a quality side.

"They have an abundance of quality players with lots of experience and they have a bunch of young boys in there now as well who have been very successful at U21 level. That's the secret.

"If you can blend those two areas together then you have a serious bunch of ingredients there and Cork have that at the minute. The younger players feel at home at that level and the older ones make them feel at home."

With Cork and Kerry giving such breathtaking displays in their respective quarter-finals, the entire country is beginning to fret about the prospect of another all-Munster decider — no less than the twocounties themselves probably.

Harte's only response to that is to let out another little chortle and say merely that Tyrone will be doing their best to throw a spanner in the works but how good are Cork on the basis of their game against Donegal? John Joe Doherty's lads rocked up to Croke Park with their previously deflated reputations ballooned by victories against Derry and Galway and then folded like flat-pack Swedish furniture on the day.

"You can't really look at the Donegal game as a true picture of anything. Cork won't be doing that and nor will the rest of the country. It was one of those games where Donegal just ran out of steam, or whatever you might say.

"As the game developed they just weren't there and Cork were allowed to do what they wanted to do. That wasn't their fault. They could only play what was put in front of them. On that day Donegal didn't put up any resistance.

"I'm sure Cork will be smart enough to know that every day can't be like that. Nobody is going to run away with some silly notion that Cork think they are all that. Cork will think they are great because they are in an All-Ireland semi-final."

He knows a thing or two about easy rides after the early weeks of summer spent sauntering through Ulster.

Usually a battleground, the race for the Anglo-Celt Cup was more like a procession this time.

Armagh, Derry and Antrim were all powerless against Tyrone's combination of experience, skill, versatility, tactical nous and sheer hunger. Even Harte was taken aback by the serenity of it all. "Yes, it has been more straightforward if I am being honest about it. We would have expected a much tougher battle in Ulster. With the teams we were drawn against that is the least you would have expected to happen.

"But on any given day it didn't happen and we got through without taxing ourselves as much as we would have expected to do. That can be a good thing or a bad thing, no-one really knows.

"You might want to be more battle-hardened for an All-Ireland campaign. It probably has its advantages and its disadvantages but we can't do anything about that going into a semi-final. We're there and we'll do the best we can."

It isn't often that a Tyrone man has reason to give thanks to a neighbour from Armagh but Harte could hardly have asked for a more testing examination than that offered to them by Kieran McGeeney's Kildare in the last eight.

On reflection, the Leinster finalists were the perfect opponents. An up and coming team, powerful and mobile and on a run but one yet to discover the alchemy that allows sides progress from nearly men to supermen.

Kildare played the role to perfection. They led by four points at the break, absorbed the blows when Tyrone responded and even caught a second wind with which to chase the champions through to the finish.

Perfect.

"You need purple patches in a game and you need to make those purple patches count. We got ours at the right time against Kildare, after the break. We came out with a strong message and sometimes you need to do that.

"That was a win in itself or us. It was a nip and tuck game after that but I think we had that ascendancy because we got our noses in front and we were able to keep them there. It was good for us."

Next up, Cork. And a chance to banish the ghost of Jimmy Barry Murphy.



This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, August 19, 2009











more info »






Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/chance-to-banish-ghost-of-jbm-98990.html#ixzz0OcEUkkAv

[botman]

in fact here it is



Cork V Tyrone Preview


The Tyrone Taliban bringing Sam Maguire back to the UK

With all the talk about this fear we're supposed to have of Tyrone's footballers you'd think Cork's footballers were some junior B backwater outfit slapped together after forty five phone calls at half nine on a damp Sunday morning bank holiday. You know the type of scenario...
Eventually enough 'victims' willing to forego their hangovers are found to put a team out albeit the team has the local priest in goal (after he agreed to cancel 11 O'Clock mass), two altar boys as corner forwards and three shivering forty-four year olds half backs - the big woollen jackets they insist on wearing in the rain being the closest thing to a 'blanket defence' they can muster.

As they wait for their opposition to arrive at the pitch it doesn't offer much consolation that the full back is asking around for a spare fag while the two midfielders are taking turns vomiting (although that's not always seen as a bad thing - RTE panellist Joe Brolly has never been one to condemn Ulster's brand of puke-football).

Not that anyone is entirely sure who is acting as the 'bainisteoir' the team talk usually involves helping the unfortunate volunteers to remember the rules. "No double bouncing now lads - that's a free and make sure you rise the caid and don't pick it up straight off the ground.".



A final message to the troops, as the other team's shining minibus rolls up the lane, mixes practicality with, what could be on another day, mistaken for the wisdom of a sporting philosopher, "lads, laziness is a always free out but stupidity is a free in.".

Trotting from the sanctity of the corrugated shed towards the sodden pitch the team's sense of confusion is almost as big as the fear of the sight of their challengers - or executioners: squad of fit, muscular, pumped-up twenty-something males gunning for action, determined to avenge the enforced sobriety of a Saturday night on their Sunday morning victims.

The insinuation that Cork's footballers will be in a similar state of mind as the All-Ireland Champions run out on to Croke Park on Sunday is an insult. Far from the wincing altar boy corner forwards Cork, for one, have monstrosities of men on their panel.

Seventeen out of a squad of thirty are over six foot three. Michael Cussen is six foot seven and the Cork selectors have to contact air traffic control every time he runs onto a pitch. Nicholas Murphy, just two inches of altitude lower, often has to have his head warmed up at half time to stop mountainous snow building up on his towering noggin.

Centre forward Pearse O'Neill is so large and dangerous that it is no secret he has to be transported to matches in a pallet surrounded by yards of bubble wrap - not to molly-coddle the Cork footballer himself but to protect the public from his deadly frame.

Noel O'Leary is so intimidating that he once cut the long grass in Pairc Úi Rinn by roaring at it from the sideline. Like the turf at Flower Lodge we expect the red hands of Ulster to wilt just as easily under the red feet of Cork's skilful footballers.

Anthony Lynch is so quick and awesome that few forwards can ever find a way around him. In fact most Kerrymen find it easier to get through Macroom's traffic than find a route around the 'Ballyvourney Barricade'.

So the mind boggles as to how Cork are supposed to be in fear of Tyrone when such beastly super humans await Michey Harte's squad.

Of course we, in Cork, respect the Ulstermen and their minor achievements but it's a sort of respect that may only extend to offering a hand to carry the wounded from the pitch when the likes of Miskella, Canty and Kerrigan explode into action.

For those getting carried away with Tyrone's greatness remember that Cork have won Sam Maguire twice as many times as Tyrone. And football is their trump card - we don't need to tell you about Tyrone's hurling accolades because it would fit between the last letter in this sentence and the full stop.

Nobody's saying we haven't been to Croke Park before and had our hopes rained on but this team have been looking more and more like champions all season so we're backing the Rebels this Sunday to win by a significant margin and send the co-architects of Ulster's "puke-football" back to their drawing boards.

Christ that is truly awful journalism.

[Bud Wiser]

For those getting carried away with Tyrone's greatness remember that Cork have won Sam Maguire twice as many times as Tyrone. And football is their trump card - we don't need to tell you about Tyrone's hurling accolades because it would fit between the last letter in this sentence and the full stop.

Well jaysus that beats Banagher, Cork slagging Tyrone for their hurling accolades?  After their carry on this year they need to take a good look at themselves before they start pontificating about their contribution to hurling since the damage they have caused to hurling this year alone on a countrywide scale will take years to be rectified.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Christ that is truly awful journalism.

I can understand now how they could shoot the wrong Michael Collins.

[Fuzzman]

Have we many Cork posters on the board or are they too important to be reading such things.

They certainly seem to have a law onto themselves and with their Republic of Cork & the True capital attitude I think most people are happy to let them be in love with themselves.

Anyone else bring red & white SIPTU placards with them on Sunday.

I'm surprised they've named their team so early.
Is it another sign of we dont care what you think we're doing our own thing?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Here you go Fuzz, from today's Irish News:

Justin ready to stand tall

By Paddy Heaney

ANYONE who ventured into the rooms shared by Justin McMahon and Pearse O'Neill during last year's International Rules tour would probably have seen two sets of feet poking out from their single beds.

McMahon is six foot three. O'Neill is three inches taller.

"Pearse is a big lad," said McMahon of the player with whom he shared a room in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney last year.

The Tyrone and Cork men got on well with each other. "I suppose when you are away for that long, and you are in the same room for three weeks, you get to know each other all right. We know the Cork boys are quality. On that trip, there was Pearse, Graham [Canty] and John [Miskella]. We had good craic with them," said McMahon.

McMahon's former room-mate O'Neill is just one of the many six-footers in Conor Counihan's team of giants. "They are very big side," said McMahon of the Rebel starting line-up that includes Nicholas Murphy (6'5"), Alan O'Connor (6'5") and Graham Canty (6'2"). Throw O'Neill (6'6") into the mix and that's a quartet of Cork players in the midfield sector with an average height of 6'4".

Yet, it's not the aerial advantage of this Cork side that seems to impress McMahon the most. "They have big men around the middle, but they are great runners and great footballers," he said. "We will just have to be prepared to go to battle in terms of trying to get the ball. There will be times when I suppose it will be tough in that sector, but we are just going to have to go in, scrap away, and try and get our hands on it."

Speculation will now centre on whether Mickey Harte will change the formation of his team in order to address the formidable height of the Munster champions. The Tyrone manager has previous form in this regard.

For last year's All-Ireland final, Harte acknowledged the threat of Kerry's twin towers (Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh), by bringing Joe McMahon out of the forwards and partnering him with his brother Justin in the full-back line. For Sunday's game, it would make more sense for Justin to switch. His tall frame would be an asset at centre half-back, and the huge point he kicked against Kildare, underlines the threat he poses on the counter-attack. But McMahon clearly wasn't sure of the plans his manager has in store for him. "It's hard to know if we will be changed for the sake of their size," he said.

And pointing to the presence of Kevin Hughes (6'1"), Sean Cavanagh (6'2"), Enda McGinley (6'1") and his brother Joe (6'2"), he noted that his presence mightn't be required. "We have a few big men ourselves around that area," he said.

And it's not just the physical dimensions of this Cork side which are a concern for Tyrone ahead of Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final. The lack of previous meetings also presents new challenges. For most of their other games, the Tyrone management team have been able to devise tactics that are based on knowledge gleaned from prior encounters. But this just isn't possible with Cork. The sides have only met once in the Championship, and that was back in 1973 when McMahon's father, Paddy, was on the Tyrone squad beaten by Cork in that year's All-Ireland semi-final.

Cork's residence in Division Two has also meant that the teams haven't met in the League since
February 2007. On that occasion, Billy Morgan's side coasted to an easy 0-15 to 0-7 victory. Much has changed since that encounter in Pairc Ui Rinn. Only six players (Michael Shields, Noel O'Leary, Anthony Lynch, Alan O'Connor, Donncha O'Connor and Daniel Goulding) who featured in that League game are likely to play for Cork on Sunday.

Interestingly, Tyrone have experienced a similar overhaul in personnel. Dermot Carlin, Cormac McGinley (retired), Mickey McGee, Ger Cavlan (retired), Raymond Mulgrew, Colm Cavanagh, Colm McCullagh and Ryan Mellon all started that game but none of the six remaining panellists are likely to line-out on Sunday.

This leaves both managers in a similar position. While Conor Counihan has no direct experience of the intensity and intelligence of Tyrone's total football, Mickey Harte has no idea how his players will cope with Cork's aerial power, and their influx of new talents such as Paul Kerrigan, Patrick Kelly and Colm O'Neill. And it's not just the managers who must prepare for the unknown. McMahon noted that the same applies to the players.

"When you are going in against the likes of Derry, Armagh and Kerry, you are marking players that you might have marked in the League. You are going in with past experience and you know what to expect. But this is completely different. Up front, they have a lot of quality, and you don't know who you could be coming up against. They are very versatile. I think that adds a bit more to it. It makes for an interesting encounter," he said.

Of course, McMahon might not be completely ignorant of his direct opponent. If he is moved out to centre half-back, the position he was playing at the end of the All-Ireland quarter-final, then he would be pitted against Pearse O'Neill, his former room-mate, and the man with whom he socialised, trained and played with during last year's tour to Australia.

O'Neill will still be three inches taller, but McMahon may have picked up a few pointers that will help him address that imbalance.

[Zulu]

Have we many Cork posters on the board or are they too important to be reading such things.

They certainly seem to have a law onto themselves and with their Republic of Cork & the True capital attitude I think most people are happy to let them be in love with themselves.

Anyone else bring red & white SIPTU placards with them on Sunday.

I'm surprised they've named their team so early.
Is it another sign of we dont care what you think we're doing our own thing?

Although Cork folk don't lack confidence, especially in matters GAA, they are a great bunch of people. I lived there for many years and I couldn't say enough good things about them, they are also very level headed about this game and while they feel they have a good chance (which they do IMO) they don't regard themselves as favourites. And Fuzzman you are reading way too much into them naming their team early, if it is "another sign of we don't care what you think we're doing our own thing" then they are dead right, why should any team be worried about what anyone else thinks?

A strong Cork football team is always good for the game and we all badly need someone other than Tyrone or Kerry to realistically challenge for Sam. So enjoy it boys a bit of brashness never hurt any sport.

[Fuzzman]

Ah believe me Zulu I love a bit of brashness.
Sure its what creates the craic before matches.
I love going into the pubs before games and meeting fans from the other side as that's where the craic is.

I think both sets of fans get on well as we share our love & admiration for the Kingdom

[tyrone86]

Although Cork folk don't lack confidence, especially in matters GAA, they are a great bunch of people. I lived there for many years and I couldn't say enough good things about them, they are also very level headed about this game and while they feel they have a good chance (which they do IMO) they don't regard themselves as favourites. And Fuzzman you are reading way too much into them naming their team early, if it is "another sign of we don't care what you think we're doing our own thing" then they are dead right, why should any team be worried about what anyone else thinks?

A strong Cork football team is always good for the game and we all badly need someone other than Tyrone or Kerry to realistically challenge for Sam. So enjoy it boys a bit of brashness never hurt any sport.

I'd be inclined to agree - considering they always name their team the Tuesday night before the match it would be more noteworthy if they put it off until later in the week.

Anyway http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaa-championships/blood-sweat-and-tears-1863164.html



At the end of Kerry's All-Ireland quarter-final whitewash of Dublin Pat McEnaney sought the hand of the nearest player in his vicinity.

It happened to be Kerry's Paul Galvin. Galvin accepted the handshake from the match referee, turned to walk away and then remembered something.

It was McEnaney who had sent him off in Pairc Ui Chaoimh some weeks earlier as Cork re-routed Kerry to the qualifiers.

So, he checked his stride and turned back to McEnaney to air his view on that incident. Get it off his chest.

Obliteration

Galvin, as he had done since his return from suspension, had shouldered a fair weight in the obliteration of Dublin. Three first-half points, plenty of intelligent runs and assists that kept momentum flowing the one way and has him circling for another All Star.

A 17-point defeat in the bag, Galvin still had the memory of Cork on his mind and suggested to McEnaney that he may have been wrong in his call to send off himself and Noel O'Leary.

The TV cameras didn't pick up the incident and McEnaney had consulted with his officials.

As the third party in the incident, did O'Leary think Galvin had a case revisiting Pairc Ui Chaoimh?

"It's a hard one to know, but that's done with. Pat made his decision and I'm not going to comment on that. It's done. I have no gripes with him.

"I would be more mad with myself than Pat McEnaney to be honest. Time to move on now. There are bigger things to be worried about," he suggests.

Like Tyrone potentially winding him up, bringing out the short side in him? Pairc Ui Chaoimh, he thinks, was a timely check for him.

"I would feel that what happened to me during the year was an eye-opener. I know what is in front of me, I feel I am ready for it. I am under no illusions that there will be certain things there the next day. I'm ready for it now."

Like so many of his ilk, O'Leary's on-field persona masks the man away from it. He's quiet spoken, a stark contrast to the fiery, explosive half-back that successive Cork managers have had such a soft spot for.

Larry Tompkins gave him his break in 2000 as a 19-year-old, fresh from winning an All-Ireland minor title with the likes of James Masters and Kevin McMahon.

Billy Morgan advanced his career a bit further, admiring that whole hearted, aggressive approach that has seen him sail close to the wind so often.

He gives everything. And a bit more. In 2003, he had the distinction of picking up a yellow card in every one of the his seven league matches.

Sometimes he learns the lessons, sometimes he doesn't. But Cork don't contemplate going to war without him.

Early in the 2007 All-Ireland semi-final with Meath, he threw a punch and caught Graham Geraghty below his chin, felling him and giving referee Brian Crowe the option of sending him off on a straight red card.

Crowe consulted with his linesman and opted for yellow. The CCCC suggested to Crowe later that week that he might review his decision, but he didn't, expressing satisfaction with how he dealt with it on the day. Crowe wasn't going to deny O'Leary a first All-Ireland final appearance, even if it came at a substantial cost to his own refereeing career.

He's had past history with Galvin too and when they meet there's never a shortage of red mist.

"There is no doubt you take on a different approach on championship days. You are a bit more geared up than what you would normally be. These things happen. It makes me think a lot about certain things I've done, but in ways it has helped me as well. It's an eye-opener. Hopefully, we'll learn from it too."

Tyrone is new territory for O'Leary and Cork and it has them buzzing. He admires what they do and how they do it. "Tyrone are a good team, they play a different style to a normal footballing team. It's going to be a huge battle, but we feel we're ready for it," he admits.

"They play on the edge and you have to admire them for that. There is no doubt you would scratch your head at a lot of things they do. That's the way they play. You have to aspire to that as well. You can't fault them for that."

The wheels have turned too slowly for O'Leary and this Cork team. There's an injection of youth this year, but there's a bank of experience as well that has done a decade of service.

"We would feel we have put down a tough four or five years, we know each other inside out, it's a matter of believing in ourselves like Tyrone are doing, it's a matter of producing it now.

"Lads can't forget the past, we know what was gone before us. This is now. I don't know could you say is it a step up, it's a step along the way."

Did he think, nine years on that he'd still be waiting for a first All-Ireland senior medal?

"If you are being straight about it, I suppose no.

"You always think you would get a smooth ride after achieving something at a young age. We didn't think it would take as long, but, hopefully, we can put an end to that. But we have a big step in front of us first."

- Colm Keys

[Fuzzman]

Thanks Lads for posting up all the articles.

O'Neill in top form for Tyrone

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

Stephen O'Neill's stunning return to form couldn't have been better timed.

For most of the summer he appeared a mere mortal, apart from his superbly taken goal against Armagh in the opening round of the Ulster championship.

But then cometh the hour, cometh the man. When Tyrone's All Ireland crown appeared in imminent danger against Kildare he stepped up to the mark with some aplomb.

It was vintage O'Neill.

First out to the ball, dictating the play and picking off points with either foot.

It's no exaggeration to suggest that without him that afternoon Tyrone would have returned back home as former champions.

Like so many of his colleagues, the Clan na Gael clubman came through Tyrone's highly successful under age structures.

In 2000 and 2001 he captured two Ulster and All Ireland under 21 medals to add to to his Ulster championship honours of 1997 and 1998 as well as his All Ireland minor success of 1998.

O'Neill announced his retirement from county football in January 2008, but then made himself available for the All Ireland final of the same year.

Tyrone captured their third All Ireland that same summer, but O'Neill refused to accept the medal citing the fact that he felt he hadn't earned it, not having been part of the team on the journey to the All Ireland decider.

That noble gesture alone speaks volumes for one of the most gifted players in the game.

Footballer of the Year in 2005, he has the knack of producing his best on the hallowed turf of Croke Park as he proved so conclusively against Kildare with seven points.

Early in the year he offered a hint of what was to come when scoring eight points against Dublin under the Croke Park lights.

He's the first to admit that his display against Kildare came as a welcome relief. "I had a couple of quiet matches in the championship when I didn't manage a single score, but even on days like that you still have to work hard for the team and hope that eventually things will go right.

"I was pleased then when things fell into place against Kildare. I got a few chances and was relieved when I put them away.

"Against Kildare it was a different type of game to previous ones in that there was more space inside and that made all the difference. But I would imagine there won't be as much space against Cork," he added.

Cork's Anthony Lynch, one of the best man markers in the game, is expected to line out against Tyrone.

Don't be surprised if he's given the task of curbing Tyrone's greatest attacking threat.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/gaa/orsquoneill-in-top-form-for-tyrone-14457241.html#ixzz0OcnyuEd9

[ONeill]

Tyrone is new territory for O'Leary and Cork and it has them buzzing. He admires what they do and how they do it. "Tyrone are a good team, they play a different style to a normal footballing team. It's going to be a huge battle, but we feel we're ready for it," he admits.

"They play on the edge and you have to admire them for that. There is no doubt you would scratch your head at a lot of things they do. That's the way they play. You have to aspire to that as well. You can't fault them for that."

Something tells me he isn't a fan.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Something tells me he isn't a fan.

And something tells me he'll be even less of one come 5 o'clock on Sunday 

[Fuzzman]

What exactly does he mean by that?
Playing on the edge .....

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

What exactly does he mean by that?
Playing on the edge .....

I think he means that our lads don't get habitual yellow and red cards like himself. He must hold some manner of record for consecutive yellows?

[marym]

Conor Counihan names "dummy teams " a lot of the time. So you will not know til Sunday if this is the team or not. Would not put it past him to put Cussen in at midfield or stick Cadogan in somewhere. Even mins before the Limerick match he would not tell TV3 that Lynch  and Miskella were not playing.