Hi °C | Lo °C Tyrone will carry the best weapon of all into their All Ireland final with Kerry. And that is mental toughness.
There is no team in the country more focused, single-minded and purposeful than the Red Hands.
They will have no fear of Kerry - why should they given that they have beaten them in 2003 and in 2005.
Tyrone are perfectly primed, in my opinion, to land their third All Ireland crown and maybe that’s why Kerry have considerable cause for relief that Dara O’Se and Paul Galvin will be available.
The combative qualities and leadership skills that this duo bring simply cannot be understated.
There may be an argument presented that the players who have taken Kerry past Galway and Cork should be retained en bloc but this is an All Ireland final and the opponents are Tyrone so sentiment goes out through the window.
It’s horses for courses and O Se and Galvin are two tough cookies who will find that their appetite for battle will be well and truly whetted against Mickey Harte’s side.
Tyrone showed against Wexford that their fluency, cohesion and support play are such that they will not be easily knocked out of their stride.
Wexford deserve credit for showing so much skill and courage - at one stage, it looked as if they might fold up their tent and dissolve but they stood up manfully to the task and contributed much to a fine match.
Tyrone’s win, of course, will have occasioned considerable apprehension in Kerry.
Pat O’Shea’s side would surely rather be meeting any team other than Mickey Harte’s side who will carry absolutely no mental baggage into the decider.
On the contrary, they will just relish going into battle to jettison Kerry’s hopes of making it three titles on the trot.
Both teams have shown that they have adequate resources on their respective benches to shore up their push for glory.
We tend to use the term ‘impact substitute’ rather liberally but in the closing stages of the All Ireland Championship to date, seldom has the expression had more resonance.
Last Sunday, Kevin Hughes, Colm Cavanagh and Brian McGuigan all went in to make a big impression for Tyrone while it was no surprise to see the likes of Darren O’Sullivan and Eoin Brosnan surfacing from the Kerry bench.
But Kerry’s defence in general and their goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy in particular have looked uneasy of late and Tyrone will be keen to exploit any frailties here.
The Kingdom have been conceding rather too many goals - some of them of the ‘soft’ variety - and that will be a source of worry for their management.
Obviously this will certainly be a topic of conversation in their build-up to the final and they will require no reminding that Tyrone are particularly smart in creating goalscoring chances.
They may not have hit the Wexford net on Sunday but
Mickey Harte’s boys sensibly opted for caution by taking their points when they came along.
It was a policy that ultimately paid handsome dividends.
I’m sure their fans travelled back from Dublin in fine form after what was another convincing and commanding performance at Croke Park.
I’s good to see Tyrone in the All Ireland Minor final, too.
They played copybook stuff in overcoming Meath on Sunday and a repetition of this will surely see them in with a big chance of beating Mayo.
Tyrone played a very fast, economical brand of football that saw the ball transferred quickly to a hungry attack who certainly made the most of the opportunities that landed in their lap.
Raymond Munroe has done a good job with this Tyrone Minor side and he will surely have the boys fired up for what has the makings of a very attractive final.
And if Mayo did well to beat Kerry in their replay on Saturday, then the county found itself making the headlines for what I might deem to be ‘uncomfortable’ reasons last week.
The Australian Rules training camp was held there and I would be concerned at the number of young players currently being enticed into the AFL net.
The GAA hierarchy, county boards and clubs need to do everything in their power to keep the cream of gaelic football’s young talent in this country.
The players themselves, their families, clubs and counties will be the beneficiaries of this. Whatever it takes in terms of creating jobs or offering opportunities must be done.
We simply cannot sit back and allow the best of our young talent to be kidnapped from under our noses. As a family man, I would not want to see any of my sons heading Down Under, that’s for sure.
