Mickey Harte Kicking Down Heavens Door 2003

KICKING DOWN HEAVEN’S DOOR

DIARY OF A FOOTBALL MANAGER: M

ICKEY HARTEw

ith Kieran Shannon

Z(7ia9f4-GGBGBI(>

ISBN 0-9546616-1-3

£11.95 / €17.50 / $22

‘There are different ways to win an AllIreland. This is another one.’

Mickey Harte

Only minutes after Peter Canavanbecame the first Tyrone man to lift theSam Maguire cup, he paid particulartribute to one man. “Words can’tdescribe what you’ve done for me, whatyou’ve done for this team, but Mickey,you know it.” It turned out Harte himselfhad the words to explain how Tyronemade that remarkable breakthrough.Back in November 2002, when Hartewas appointed Tyrone team manager,a reporter and a publisher suggestedHarte should keep a diary. To themhe sounded like a man who wasgoing to win his All Ireland.

That diary Harte kept is notonly compulsive readingfor anyone with any interest insport; it is a must-read for anyone who hasever had a dream. In getting his players todream ‘lofty dreams’, he often cited anAmerican motivational speaker called GeorgeZalucki. He tapped into the wisdom of anyone fromU2 to Avril Lavigne but particularly into the emotionalintelligence of his own players, fostered by the death andspirit of one of their former underage colleagues, PaulMcGirr. And of course he also listened to his daughterMichaela. Her plan had a habit of being God’s plan.

‘Kicking Down Heaven’s Door’ is a remarkable voyage, bringing us back tothe moment Harte was appointed Tyrone manager much to the chagrin ofmany critics. The team talks, the phone calls, the game plans; they are allhere in what must be the most revealing book on Gaelic football since LiamHayes’ ‘Out of Our Skins’. You will be in that dressing room, or as is thecase with Tyrone, in that circle.

Kieran Shannon is Gaelic Games correspondent with the SundayTribune and was the co-author of ‘Hooked: A Hurling Life’ with hurlinglegend Justin McCarthy, a book described by The Sunday Independentas ‘the best hurling book yet’ and by the Irish Times as “exceptionallywell told’.

So is ‘Kicking Down Heaven’s Door’.

all-star print

Covers Layout 18/11/03 12:01 pm


DIARY OF A FOOTBALL MANAGER

Mickey Book 1st 8 Pages 18/11/03 6:41 am Page 1

CONTENTS

1 INTO THE LINE OF FIRE 1

2 HARTE ACHES 27

3 GETTING STRONGER 57

4 OPERATION FRONT DOOR 99

5 MISSING YOU 125

6 KEYS TO THE KINGDOM 145

7 CLAWING FOR IT 153

8 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN 163

9 TOTAL FAITH 197

10 AFTER THE GOLD RUSH 215

11 POSTCARDS FROM HEAVEN 219

12 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 226


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INTO THE LINE OF FIRE

The county board think they’ve solved the problem of winning Sam.Let’s be fair – the last team to win an All-Ireland title for Tyrone atunder-21 level would have won the title with Mickey Mouse at thehelm, never mind Mickey Harte

‘Concerned Tyrone Gael’, Irish News letters section,November 2003

I thank you for your kind letter on the occasion of my retirement asteam manager. I would have preferred to have gone out quietly and Iwas dismayed by the PR disaster which I left in my wake. I wish tothank you for your support, efficiency and co-operation during my term… I wish the new management team every success and I sincerely hopethat they can deliver what we all have striven for.

Art McRory’s letter to Tyrone county secretaryDominic McCaughey, November 2003

Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into thedeepest valleys.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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Mickey Book Chapter 1 18/11/03 6:10 am Page 1

Thursday 14 November

Over the last few months I had been half-joking to my family andfriends that landing Sam Maguire would be easier than becomingTyrone senior team manager. We’ll see now. Today I was appointedTyrone senior team manager.

The phone rang just before I was heading off to train Errigal. Mywife Marian, my son Mattie and myself were all gathered in thekitchen, hoping it would be a county board officer with some goodnews. It was my daughter Michaela, in Belfast.

‘Well, have you heard anything?!’Mattie started shouting in the background, ‘Ah, stop ringing,

Michaela! Daddy, hang up!’‘Not yet, Michaela. We’ll call you when we do.’The minute I put down the phone, the minute I was picking it up

again. This time it was a county board officer; Dominic McCaughey,the county secretary. ‘Mickey. I’m calling to say that your applicationhas been successful. You’re the new Tyrone manager.’ Marian andMattie could tell from my reaction that the news was good, and theyexcitedly held my arm.

‘Well, Dominic,’ I said, ‘I’m delighted to hear that. Because itwasn’t easy here today, I can tell you.’

It hadn’t been either. Mattie and Marian were relieved more thananything else. It had been a stressful day up to then.

When I went into the shop to buy the paper this morning, EddieMallon, the newsagent said to me, ‘Well done.’

‘I don’t know what for.’‘It’s in the paper, that you got the Tyrone job.’I found my way through the Ulster Herald and there it was. ‘Mickey

Harte – new Tyrone manager.’ I didn’t know what to think. Myself andthe three other applicants were only to know within an hour of tonight’scounty board meeting what decision had been made. This was either ajournalistic gamble, a deliberate leak or someone feeding a journalistdubious information to discredit me from the start in case I did get thejob. It was a weird feeling. I thought, ‘Well, it’s better the story’s


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suggesting a decision has been in my favour rather than against it,because these stories have a habit of being true’ but I was still verywary. I went to our school, St Ciaran’s, coached the under-14s to a winover Dungannon, but whenever anyone referred to the story, I couldonly tell them I didn’t know how true it was.

That’s why, when the word officially came through, I had to expressmy dissatisfaction to Dominic. He said he was disgusted as well, thatonly five board officers had been aware of the decision. Only now werethe candidates meant to know, and then at eight o’clock, delegateswould be told at the board meeting. I took his word for it. I hadn’t timeto talk any more to him. Instead I had to head off and train ErrigalCiaran. On the way over, I phoned Michaela with the good news butwhen I arrived at training, I just took the session and didn’t say a wordabout the big news. Neither did anyone else. We’re preparing for anUlster club championship second replay against Crossmaglen Rangers.Everyone at the club has enough to occupy their mind, especially themanager. If it wasn’t for the club’s run this year, he wouldn’t have theposition with Tyrone. As much as my mind is racing, it has to prioritise.I’m just after making out some notes and it’s not what I’ll be saying tothe Tyrone panel when I meet them for the first time. It’s what I’ll besaying to the Errigal boys on Sunday.

Friday 15 November

Tonight has to have been one of the most embarrassing nights of mylife. I’m back from the Ulster Writers’ Annual Awards in the GreatNorthern in Bundoran, after doing something I’d rather never have hadto do. Adrian Logan, the UTV presenter, was the master of ceremoniesand had planned that all the national cups Ulster teams had won thisyear would be paraded through a pathway to this big fanfare. He hadJoe Kernan with Sam Maguire, Adrian McGuckin with the All-Irelandclub trophy, Gerard O’Kane, the Derry minor captain, with their All-Ireland trophy, but nobody to bring up the national league trophy.Stephen O’Neill had something else and wasn’t there. Peter Canavanwas getting himself ready for Sunday’s game and Art and Eugene most


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certainly weren’t there. About the only other Tyrone man there wasLogie himself. ‘Mickey,’ he said, ‘will you bring it up? I’d be grateful.’So I did, out of a courtesy to Adrian who has been good to me over theyears. But I was absolutely mortified doing it. I was walking up theretonight, thinking, ‘I’m an impostor here. This is Eugene and Art’s cup;this isn’t mine.’ I could hear boys thinking, ‘That Harte, he has someneck. First he takes McKenna’s and McRory’s job; now he takes theircup.’

Tonight I promised myself that I didn’t want to be ever in thatposition again. I promised someone else while I was at it. Outside inthe foyer I met Kenny Curran, who brings out a great little monthlyTyrone GAA magazine called Team Talk. Kenny said to me, ‘Mickey,there’s Joe Kernan with Sam Maguire over there. That could be younext year!’

‘Kenny,’ I said, ‘I want to be back here next year with the league,the Anglo-Celt and the Sam Maguire.’

It’s four o’clock in the morning now and I’m back in our shop herein Ballgawley, still in my tux. It’s a nuisance but it has to be done,every night, just like it has had to be done nearly every night these pasttwelve years. I check the till, make sure there’s enough coins and notesfor the morning and make a list of some items we need to order. We’relow on Jordan’s jam. And Bachelor peas. And on the Kellogg’s CornFlakes. They have to be taken care of in the morning. The league,Anglo-Celt and Sam will have to wait.

Saturday 16 November

The more I think about tomorrow, the more I think we’ll do it. It’sgoing to take a special effort to beat a team that has won three AllIrelands but I think we’ll do it. Our preparation has been very good thisweek. We had Denise Martin, who does some work with the SportsInstitute in Jordanstown, in with this match analysis software which acrowd called Elite Sports Analysis have devised. It’s excellent. You‘tag’ in a particular category of play, say kickouts, that you wantanalysed. Within a few seconds you’ll be able to see all your kickouts,


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or all the opponents’ if you wish. Pascal Canavan tipped me off aboutit and I’m glad he did. We noticed a particular aspect about his midfieldpartner’s game. Peter Loughran was on the ball thirty-two times lastSunday, which is well above the average. But we noticed that on fiveoccasions he tried to go past a player and four times he lost the ball,including one at the end that led to John McEntee’s equaliser. Thosefour occasions were what we call ‘eliminations’. This week we workedon eliminating any chance of further eliminations. Peter’s problem hasbeen that he solos the ball on the open side. He’s not naturally right-footed, so when he goes right and starts soloing with his left, his bodyisn’t between him and the ball and it’s easier for a defender todispossess him. Peter now knows that he’s to keep soloing to aminimum, and if he does go the left of a defender, he can’t be in themiddle of his solo.

Our confidence is high. We’ve twice come back from the dead nowin this fixture. We were eight points down with twenty minutes to go inOmagh two weeks ago. That was some comeback, considering we didmost of it without Peter. He got an awful belt early on and had to comeoff, though with a few minutes to go when we were back to within apoint, I said to him, ‘Are you fit to do anything here at all?’ He said, ‘Iam.’ When he came on, he won a ball, foraged past few defenders andpassed it out to Eoin Gormley who scored the equaliser. In fact wealmost won; Pascal punched the ball off the crossbar in the dyingseconds.

Last week’s comeback was even better. At half-time we were 1-8 to0-2 down, in Crossmaglen. But the first thing I did in the dressing roomwas refer to a passage of play just before the whistle. Cross werethrough on goal again but a couple of our backs threw themselves at itheadlong and John Devine ended up taking care off that deflected shot.‘I saw enough there,’ I said, ‘to know we don’t want to give up thisgame. If we did, we’d have given up that last goal. We came back lastweek in twenty minutes from eight down; now we have thirty minutesto come back from nine down. Do you think you can do that?’ Theygave their answer in the second half. This is my first season coachingthe Errigal senior team and at my very first session I told the boys that


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we needed to show people we had steel. That we weren’t just somegroup of pretty footballers; we needed to display some steel. I thinkwe’ve shown those people we have, and probably the county board too.That’s maybe why they’ve gone for me; because of the spirit Errigalhave shown these last two weeks; I don’t know. All I know is that we’regoing to need to display all that resilience and self-belief againtomorrow, but I’m confident we will.

Sunday 17 November

Errigal Ciaran 1-13 Crossmaglen Rangers 1-10

I’m going to have to make sure we use that Elite Sports Analysissoftware with Tyrone. Peter Loughran was brilliant today and wasn’tonce eliminated. Indeed the whole team played really well afteranother poor start. We were 1-2 to 0-1 down after ten minutes and thenEoin Gormley went off injured having pulled a hamstring. A year agothat might have affected an Errigal team, losing someone like Eoin whohas played for Ireland, but this Errigal team seems to thrive in that kindof adversity. Once Peter scored a goal after eighteen minutes, we neverlooked back. Young Dara Tierney did very well in place of Eoin, whilemy son, Mark Harte, scored two lovely points from play as well.

Cross looked tired. Their county players are after a long, hardseason with Armagh and they’ve been out every Sunday since so theircounty championship could be run off in time. I think they were also abit deflated by not finishing us off last Sunday on their own pitch whichwas a heavy pitch and more suited to their style than ours. Our tenacityhas surprised them and I think today it finally wore them down.

Once the final whistle went, we took the players to the middle of thefield to warm down. Five years ago when Errigal beat Cross, oursupporters came onto the field and the whole club got caught up withbeating the All-Ireland champions; the following week Dungiven beatus in the final. Today when the players came off, half the crowd hadgone home. As I told the reporters afterwards, ‘This isn’t a time forcelebration; it’s a time for preparation.’ Next week we’re playing the


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All-Ireland champions, Ballinderry. If we lose that, today will beforgotten about.

Errigal Ciaran: J Devine; B O’Donnell, C McGinley, D Neill; Emmett McGinley, PHorisk, D Harte; Pascal Canavan (0-1), P Loughran; Enda McGinley, M Harte (0-3,one free), A McGinley; R McCann (0-2), Peter Canavan (1-5, three frees), EGormley.Subs: D Tierney (0-2) for Gormley, E Cavanagh for A McGinley, S Mallon forO’Donnell.

Tuesday 19 November

Today I was introduced to the press at a reception in Paudge Quinn’sin Killeeshil, about nine miles from where I live. We produced a littlebrochure outlining all the honours I’ve won with teams and some littlebio details, just to give them a taste of the professional approach theycan expect. I felt I fielded all the questions quite well. I outlined why Ihad taken on Paddy Tally, a twenty-nine year-old, as my team trainer,that Fr Gerard McAleer would also be part of the management team;that I was well aware of the expectancy within the county to win ourfirst All Ireland and that I had confidence in the players at my disposal.I still know the headlines tomorrow won’t be so much about me butabout whom I’m replacing. Already the news on the television tonighthas taken that tact.

The board have expressed their regret for ‘all the people who havebeen hurt over the last few weeks’. The county chairman Liam Nelishas made a special apology to Eugene McKenna and his family inparticular ‘for the hurt and anxiety caused to them’. From what I know,Eugene certainly deserved an apology for finding out from a reporter,and not an officer, that the managerial position was again vacant afterArt had indicated he could not guarantee his commitment for healthreasons. But the board didn’t specify today why they were apologisingto Eugene. In trying to make the situation better, they’ve innocuouslymade it even trickier, especially for me. The apology has perpetuatedthe myth, the impression that something underhand has gone on andthat I’ve sneaked this job from someone else. The innuendo in the local


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papers and website chat rooms is that I’m a usurper, that there’s been acoup d’état. That is not the truth.

I have not stolen anyone’s property. When I applied for the positionlast month, the position was vacant. It didn’t matter if there was oneother applicant or a hundred other applicants, I was simply saying, ‘Iwould like this job.’ I wasn’t a politician saying, ‘My party is great andhis is rubbish.’ Eugene, Brian McIver and Peter Doherty weren’t myenemies; they were other people like myself who were interested in,and interviewed for, the position. If Eugene was my enemy, if I was thisMachiavellian figure some are making me out to be, then I’d havechallenged them during the autumn. I didn’t.

I have to say though, I was disappointed when Art and Eugene werere-appointed at the start of last month. I thought the time had come. Ithought the time had come for me to get back with the boys. Anotheryear away from each other and the spirit of ’97 would be furtherdiluted. Besides, Michaela always said 2003 had to be the year…

The night we lost the 1997 All-Ireland minor final to Laois, Iannounced that I would be stepping down. I had been seven yearstrying to win that All Ireland and that ’97 campaign in particular hadbeen draining. The following night when we came back to theGlenavon Hotel in Cookstown, Stephen O’Neill had been speaking toMarian, and Brian McGuigan had been talking to Michaela, both tryingto get me to stay on. Later that night Stevie came up to me and said,‘One more year, Mickey, and we’ll do it.’ By the time we were leaving,I had relented and on the way home in the car, we were picking theteam of ’98. When we got home, Michaela went to her room and wrotethe following wish list in big yellow writing. She still has it, along withthe napkin she cried in the previous night at the Ambassador Hotel inDublin. Her letter reads:

‘WE: Mickey and Michaela Harte (possibly Father G)1) WE WILL win the All-Ireland final in 1998 (minors)2) WE WILL win the All Ireland final in 2000 (u-21)3) WE WILL win the All-Ireland final in 2003 (seniors)2 & 3 with special 1997 minor team.’


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Michaela Harte was thirteen when she wrote that letter. So far she’sbeen right about everything. Especially the bit about that ’97 teambeing special.

We didn’t know it when we came together at the start of that year.We had decent talent alright, but then, we had in ’96 as well andFermanagh beat us by a point in the first round. And at one stage in ’97,it looked like we wouldn’t even get to the first round; Down had aglorious goal chance in the closing minutes of our preliminary roundgame only for it to be smothered. It meant we lived for another day. Itmeant Paul McGirr died another.

Ten minutes into that first-round game in Omagh, Richard Thorntonwon a ball in the corner. He took on his Armagh marker, turned him,came in along the endline and then fisted the ball across the square.Running onto it was Paul McGirr who dived in front of theirgoalkeeper to fist it to the net. Paul though had collided with thegoalkeeper and didn’t get up, so our team doctor, Seamus Cassidy,went onto the field, called for a stretcher and I came over to help himoff. Paul was writhing in agony but we thought at the time it wasnothing more than a few broken ribs. Seamus took him to the countyhospital in town, we played on, and at the end, held on to win, 1-10 to0-9. Paul’s 1-1 was the difference.

We stayed on to watch the seniors just about win, went for our post-match meal in Molly Sweeney’s and then called in on the way home tosee if Paul would be okay for the next game. I got out of my car, startedwalking towards the building when I saw Declan McCrossan, StephenO’Neill, Adie Ball and our equipment man Francie Goulding. Theylooked upset. I said, ‘What’s wrong.’ They said, ‘Paul’s dead.’ I couldfeel the blood draining from my face. I went upstairs and there he was,lying in his Tyrone gear, his mother Rita, his father Francis and hissisters there, beside the bed, all in a state of shock. Three hours earlierhe had gone to play a football match with us. It shook me to my core.Paul was wearing number twelve. My son Mark was wearing numberthirteen. That could have been my son I was looking at.

It was someone special as it was. Paul McGirr wasn’t just a youngfella I had become acquainted with at county trials early that year. I


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taught him in school. He was Mark’s best friend when they were small.They played together with Errigal until Francis bought a farm inDromore and Paul started to play with their under-14s. He was a gasboy. He’d stroll into training, ready to seize any opportunity for alaugh. It could have been one of the boys’ haircuts, something theywere wearing or an unfavourable club result the previous weekend. Hewas also a very good footballer. He was a brilliant ball winner for aman of his size, he could score, he worked hard and he was brave. Howbrave, everyone in Tyrone football now knows.

It was a freak accident. The goalie’s knee in the accidental collisionruptured Paul under the ribcage and punctured his liver. One of themain arteries connected to the organ had torn away. They knew he waslosing a lot of blood and sent for a specialist from the Royal in Belfast.They put nearly twenty units of blood into him but by the time thespecialist had arrived, Paul had taken a cardiac arrest and died.

The rest of that night is a blur. I just remember staying around in thehospital for a while, then going home and putting on the telly. TheSunday Game was on. Paul Bealin had just missed a penalty againstMeath with the last kick of the game but one of the pundits pointed outthat while Dublin were now out of the championship for another year,at least there was another year for them. ‘What happened in Tyrone,’he said, ‘that’s a real tragedy.’ Too right.

It was something no group of seventeen and eighteen-year-oldsshould ever have to go through. But go through it they did and gothrough it they did together. They were all at the removal, the wake andthe funeral. That week they came to live in each other’s pockets. Theyspent more time with each other than minor teams tend to do. They hadto rely on each other more than any other minor team ever had to. Onthe Friday, we brought in a clinical psychologist, Dr Niall McCullough,to talk to the boys about the different stages of grief. I suppose that wasthe start of the group work too that would become so common over thenext four years. The players talked about what they were thinking,what their thoughts and fears were. It helped when Seamus explainedPaul’s death in medical terms and how it was such a freak occurrencebut even then, not all of them were convinced. After one game that


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year, Paul’s clubmate, Joe Campbell, got a knock in the head.Afterwards in the dressing room he asked Seamus, ‘Am I going to die?’That’s how acute the whole thing was.

Comfort came in different guises. In the lead up to our next game,the Ulster semi-final against Monaghan, a woman sent holy medals toour captain, Declan McCrossan, so all the boys would be safe. Declanoffered a miraculous medal to each player and each player accepted it.Declan received something else that week; a letter from Rita andFrancis McGirr, thanking him and the team for all their support overthe previous few weeks. That day, just before we were to run out ontoClones, Declan lined up at the door and said, ‘Right, boys. We’rewalking out onto this field today.’And out they walked, behind Declan,all in a single file. That came from a seventeen-year-old, notmanagement, the maturity to decide, ‘We should do somethingdifferent in our first game without Paul McGirr.’

There has been something different about those boys ever since. Afew weeks after we beat Monaghan 4-14 to 3-7, we were eight pointsdown just before half-time to Antrim in the Ulster final. We ended upwinning by seven. In the semi-final against Kerry we were three pointsdown with five minutes to go but we came back to level. Two weekslater we were involved in probably the greatest minor football game ofthe last twenty years, a game we won, 0-23 to 0-21 after extra-time inParnell Park. Even when the boys lost to Laois in the final by a goal,there was something special about them; how many minor playerscome and beg their coach to stay on?

Twelve months after Michaela saw Stephen O’Neill and her other‘big brothers’ bawl their eyes out, some of them came back and wonthat All Ireland. Stephen was there, so was Brian McGuigan, as wasCormac McAnallen, Kevin Hughes, and the late addition to our ’97panel, Owen Mulligan. That year our polo shirts had a special crest.Around the margins was a red line and the numbers ’98 printed in thesame colour, interwoven with a black thread, with the numbers ’97printed in that same colour. That ’98 All-Ireland was not a one-yearevent; the team of ’98 all knew that the rest of the class of ’97 werethere too, including Paul. When we brought the Tom Markham cup


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home to Aughnacloy, Francis McGirr came on stage and shook handswith every one of the boys. Eighteen months later when we won theAll-Ireland under-21 title, Declan McCrossan was tapped on theshoulder after the whistle went that day in Mullingar; again, it wasFrancis.

On our piano here at home, we have a picture. It’s not of the teamof ’98, it’s not of that under-21 team of 2000, nor is it of the team thatretained that title in 2001. It’s of twenty-four young men before a firstround minor game in Omagh, including Paul McGirr. Because I trulybelieve that in the days and weeks and months that followed that awfulday, boys grew up in a short space of time. Boys learned to face andcope with adversity. Boys grew very close together. They learned toappreciate how precious life is and they learned to appreciate eachother. I still feel that bond is with us. That unspoken quest, thatunspoken desire to bring the Markham cup back to the McGirrhousehold in ’97 has turned into something bigger and more powerfulthan that. It’s as if every part of Michaela’s plan must be realised.

On that list is something about 2003. On that list is something aboutthe special minors of ’97. The cynics can think what they like. It’s timefor Gerard and me to get back to the boys.

Wednesday 20 November

Not everyone shares Michaela’s faith in me. There’s a lot of fear andloathing out there at the moment. Today’s Irish News’ ‘Off The Fence’section reflected that. A boy calling himself ‘Concerned Tyrone Gael’in particular had a lot to get off his chest.

‘We finally see the Tyrone county board for what they are! Theagenda the whole time was to get rid of McRory and McKenna. Havethey not learned from making this mistake in the past? The similaritiesare uncanny. An under-21 manager fortunate enough to take charge ofan exceptionally-talented bunch of footballers, they win an All-Irelandtitle and suddenly the county board think they’ve solved the problemof winning Sam. Let’s be fair – the last team to win an All-Ireland titlefor Tyrone at under-21 level would have won the title with Mickey


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Mouse at the helm, never mind Mickey Harte. ‘The only problem is who they will turn to this time to pick up the

pieces. Surely Eugene McKenna and Art McRory have now washedtheir hands clean of the county board. The question is would the‘interview panel’ really know a good manager when they see one.’

Well, why stop there …‘But let’s be happy for one man – Mark Harte. Surely come the first

day of the national league campaign, he will line up with the numberfifteen jersey playing for the Tyrone seniors while a number of othermore competent footballers will probably be in the stands watching thegame. This is a manager who could answer the question as to why RyanMcMenamin never played underage for Tyrone. Inter-countymanagement is no place for those who hold grudges against players.The lack of respect shown to Eugene and Art is nothing short ofdisgraceful. They are probably the only two people within the countycapable of taking the team the whole way and winning an All-Irelandsenior title.’

Well, I’d be concerned if I was that Tyrone Gael alright. You’d haveto be concerned if you had as bitter and warped a mentality as that. I’mamazed and a bit disappointed with the News for actually letting himhave that rant in a journalistic organ. If a jerk is going to throw mudlike that about the place, then make him state his name. None of hisaccusations stand up to scrutiny. If Mickey Mouse could have coachedthe boys to those titles, if it was such a game, set and match job, thenwhy haven’t they been winning all around them at senior these past twoyears? Ryan never came to trial. And why single out one player? Whatthat ‘Gael’ is saying is that only one player didn’t come through thesystem. Well, if everyone else was discovered, then the systemobviously worked!! His argument is pathetic.

So is his one about Mark. I’m going to state a few facts about MarkHarte and then I’m going to leave it at that. Mark Harte scored twogreat points off Francie Bellew the other day; Francie Bellew won anAll-Ireland medal in September. When we were three points down toKerry with five minutes to go in that ’97 minor semi-final, Mark scoredtwo of our last three points, including the equaliser, from play, from a


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desperately acute angle. In the replay he scored twelve points. Thisyear he has been the leading scorer for the county champions. He alsohappens to be the son of the county manager. That county managerwould be a fool for that fact to prevent him picking his strongestpossible panel. Whether Mark Harte gets to ever wear number fifteenin the league or championship, time will tell. But he deserves somenumber less than thirty-one.

There are a lot of other myths out there. This one that underagesuccess is a guarantee not to be successful with Tyrone at senior levelinfuriates me. It’s so lazy and so unfair. It’s particularly unfair onDanny Ball. Danny got that team five years after he won his last under-21 title with them. By then they had been through some crushingdefeats at senior level and their confidence had been severely dented.Just because that happened at that time, who has the right to say thiswill happen again? Is not the lesson there that maybe that under-21manager should get back with those players sooner rather than later?

There’s this myth that I’ll be too familiar with them. The first thingI said to the boys when I took over as the under-21 coach was, ‘You’renot minors any more and I’m not a minor coach any more.’ I’ll besaying something similar to that now. They have to grow and I have togrow. I’m expecting every one of them to be better, to become a newperson, a new footballer, an ever-growing footballer. I can’t stay backin a time warp and neither can they. That’s the symptom of a finishedproduct and there’s no finished product.

There’s this myth that we need an outside manager. Are they sayingwe don’t have people within the county who know enough aboutfootball? About winning? About these group of players? I think ourunderage success in recent years suggests differently.

People are now saying that the team is too small. This one inparticular annoys me intensely. Intensely. We lose to Sligo in the lasttwelve and now we’re too small. Were we too small when we wentnine-two up in that game? Tyrone, man for man, aren’t any smallerthan most of the other competing counties. Look at the Galway forwardline. Joyce. Savage. Donnellan. Matthew Clancy. Alan Kerins. They’resmaller than us if anything. Why not nurture what you have got? I can’t


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make a man three inches taller but I can make him anticipate a breakbetter, make him kick the ball better, make him tackle better; surelythat’s what it’s really about?

They’re saying we have no midfield. That boys like CormacMcAnallen, Kevin Hughes and Collie Holmes can’t play midfield.Again, that’s just so lazy. What people are really saying is that Tyronehave to win midfield every day. No team wins midfield every day. Andmidfield isn’t just about numbers eight and nine; it’s numbers five totwelve, sometimes even thirteen. Yes, maybe our midfield can bebetter. But that means maybe looking at our kickout strategy; maybereminding numbers five and twelve they’re part of this as well. Morethan anything, it’s about restoring confidence to those players,especially Cormac and Kevin.

People are saying now we need to do more hard training, that weneed to have the boys out four or five nights a week. I think Art andEugene were right on this one; to have only one or two sessions a week.I’ve already spoken to Paddy Tally about this and we’ve agreed,freshness is the key. Tyrone is the biggest of the six counties. It wouldbe very taxing on the boys if they had to keep making one hundred mileroad-trips four or five times a week. Quality, not quantity, is what we’llbe about.

People are saying that Tyrone shouldn’t have gone for the leaguethis year, that we shouldn’t go for the league in 2003. As I said toKenny the other night, I’ll be all out to win the league. It gives you theopportunity to create a winning culture. You can’t pick and choosewhen you’re going to win and lose. Winning the Hastings Cup in 2000gave us a huge boost heading into that year’s under-21 championship.The hurt of losing last year’s Hastings Cup final to Mayo drove us onto beating Mayo in the All-Ireland final. This year with Errigal we’vegone out to win every game and I think winning the county leaguehelped us win the county championship. It’ll be the same with Tyrone.I want to win every game, be it league, championship or even theMcKenna Cup. I think that’s how you instil confidence and steel.They’re the two qualities I feel that I have to instil. I feel I can. Theboys had to be steely to win those underage titles. Nobody can tell me


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that Peter Canavan isn’t a winner, that he hasn’t got steel. Nobody cantell me that Chris Lawn and Brian Dooher aren’t winners, that theydon’t have steel. It just needs to permeate throughout the whole squad.And from that will come confidence and results.

Right now the confidence of the players is dented. They’re hearingall these theories and myths. The confidence of the whole county isdamaged. They’re questioning the board, the players and they’reparticularly questioning me. I can cope with that. I’m used to it. Evenwhen we were winning Ulster underage titles, I had a man come up tome with a map. He drew a line down the middle and asked why I hadmore players from west Tyrone on the panel than from east Tyrone. Iknow that I’ve never been Tyrone’s favourite son. I know that I wasn’tnear the footballer that Eugene was. He was one of the best players toever play for the county; I was in and out of the team for ten yearswithout winning anything except two Dr McKenna Cups. But I haveconfidence in my ability as a manager. And I have confidence in theability of the players at my disposal. These supporters can say whatthey like. A guy who used to coach the Chicago Bulls basketball team,Johnny Kerr, once said, ‘If you listen to the supporters, you’ll soon endup sitting with them.’

I do not intend to be sitting near ‘Concerned Tyrone Gael’ any timesoon.

Sunday 24 November

Errigal Ciaran 0-10 Ballinderry 0-4

I think Ballinderry might have underestimated us today. They’dwatch a lot of Tyrone club football, probably didn’t think we were thathectic in the club championship, and then thought we just beat a jadedCrossmaglen team last week. They couldn’t cope with the pace of ourtwo young corner forwards, Rory McCann and Dara Tierney. They’dhave been preparing themselves for Eoin Gormley, a stronger playerand a bigger name, but instead had to contend with two youngwhippersnappers without a care in the world. They also struggled to


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cope with Mark. They put a blockade up to try and cut out the supplyto Peter, but in doing so, sat off Mark and he was still able to thread theball through anyway. After fifteen minutes we started to take controland never looked like letting go off it after that. Maybe Ballinderrywere a bit flat after only two games in eight weeks, I don’t know, butwe were very sharp alright.

It’s a massive win for us, beating the All-Ireland champions, butagain we followed the same routine as last week. TG4 wanted tointerview a few of the players after the game but we had to tell themno. If we beat Enniskillen in the final next week, then there will be timeto talk, then there will be time to celebrate. Now is still a time toprepare.

Errigal Ciaran: J Devine; B O’Donnell, C McGinley, D Neill; Emmett McGinley, PHorisk, D Harte; Pascal Canavan (0-1), P Loughran (0-1); Enda McGinley (0-1), MHarte, A McGinley (0-1); R McCann (0-1), Peter Canavan (0-4, one free), D Tierney(0-1).Subs used: S Quinn for A McGinley, J Lynch for D Tierney.

Sunday 1 December

Errigal Ciaran 0-8 Enniskillen Gaels 1-3

Now the boys can let their hair down. They already have. Oursupporters went mad when the whistle went in Clones today, and so didthe boys when we all got back in the dressing room. We’re just backfrom Kelly’s, our sponsors, and the place was just buzzing. We’vewaited a long time for this in Errigal; nine years now actually. Todaywe simply refused to lose. Errigal teams before us had been back inUlster finals, in ’97 and 2000, and hadn’t done it, but today we weren’tgoing to tolerate defeat. Before the boys went out into that driving rainand onto that drenched field, I brought them back to our first session inFebruary when the snow was booming down on the fifty-two of usthere. ‘Lads, do you remember that first night in Ballygawley? Do youremember us talking about that being the first step in showing we were


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steely men? Well today, we can make a massive step in showing wehave steel. To go where no Errigal team has gone in nine years, to bringthat Ulster cup back, to show the whole of Ulster we really have steel.’

We did. Pretty football didn’t win it for us today; steel and heart did.Enniskillen are a good footballing side but those conditions would havesuited them more than a lighter side like us. Whenever someone turnedquickly today, they invariably ended up going to ground. The heavyground affected the quality of ball going in; the ball would just skid offat a low trajectory.

It meant it was a very low scoring game; at half-time it was onlyfour points to two, to us. Shortly after half-time we lost Pascal throughinjury after his jaw was broken in an off-the-ball incident. Enniskillen’sNeil Cox was put off around the same time but they still kept drivingat us, and with ten minutes to go, they punched a ball to the net and thesides were level. Our backs were really up against the wall at that stage;they had the momentum and their crowd was roaring them on. But ourboys responded; they showed they had steel. Paul Horisk, who wassimply outstanding, came up the field and kicked a point. Then EndaMcGinley drilled over another. Then the whistle went.

While the rest of the place is ecstatic, I’m relieved as much asanything. To me, winning Ulster was base line. Errigal have beenwinning one in every two county titles this past decade. The county isno longer anything that special. As Pascal Canavan said to Marian andmyself the night we won the county, ‘It’s in Ulster that you really earnyour stripes.’ I think we have and I think I have now. I’ve shown thelikes of ‘Concerned Tyrone Gael’ that I’m a decent club manager atleast.

Errigal Ciaran: J Devine; B O’Donnell, C McGinley, D Neill; Emmett McGinley;P Horisk (0-1), D Harte; Pascal Canavan (0-4, all frees), P Loughran; Enda McGinley(0-1), M Harte, A McGinley; R McCann (0-2), Peter Canavan, D Tierney.Subs: S Mallon for D Harte (28 mins), E Gormley for Pascal Canavan (blood sub, 34mins), E Gormley for A McGinley (44 mins).


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Tuesday 3 December

I’ve spent the last day or two really absorbing what is theachievement that is Errigal. There we were on Sunday, ready to fightand die for each other out on that field in Clones, especially PaulHorisk and Peter Canavan; there I was on the line, and DermotMcCann, my selector and good friend, beside me. It’s amazing howthings have changed. Or amazing how things once were. Thirteen yearsago, there was no club called Errigal Ciaran. Thirteen years ago, PeterCanavan was out of minor and had never played a competitive game ofunderage club football in his life. Thirteen years ago his club wasGlencull. So was mine.

Glencull was born out of our old friend in the GAA – the split. Ormaybe it was born out of me. Back in the winter of 1982 it was decidedthere should be a winter league to keep boys active in the off-season.Although our parish was that of St Ciaran’s, Ballygawley, that parishconsisted of four church areas. Garvaghey had its own church andschool; so did Ballygawley, so did Dunmoyle, and so did we inGlencull; so why not have our own teams for the winter as well?

I ended up being the Glencull manager, which meant right away Ihad designs on winning this league. A lot of our fellas hadn’t playedfootball in some time, so I decided we’d put on the lights in our chapelyard and for a few nights, run around and do a bit of ballwork there.Our first game was against Dunmoyle. I didn’t start in it because myknee was a bit sore but when the score was still only two points eachjust after half-time I decided to put myself on to gee the whole thingup. Looking back on it, I certainly did that.

About ten minutes later, by which time I had happened to set up afew scores to put us two goals up, I went to fist a ball over the head ofDermot McCann’s brother, Brendan. When I did though, Brendanmanaged to get his hand to it and knock it up in the air. I went up topunch it on again. Unfortunately it wasn’t the ball I made contact with;it was poor Brendan’s chin. As I had caught his chin, Brendan caughtthe ball. When he came down with it, he looked at me and then swungat me. I ducked, causing Brendan to swing around so much, he fell to


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the ground. When he did, I got on top of him with my knees and saidto Brendan, ‘I could bury you here, you know that?’ I didn’t but whenI got to my feet and then Brendan got to his, the referee put the two ofus off.

Later that week I was called up in front of the club committee andtold I had been suspended. I had no problem with being banned fromplaying. What I had a problem was not being allowed to manage theteam. Because that’s effectively what they told me. I wasn’t going to beallowed inside the wire for our next game. Our next game was inDunmoyle. If you were outside the wire in Dunmoyle, you werestanding in a bog; you had to be inside the wire or not be there at alland our players wanted me there. To add insult to injury, that very samenight I was facing the committee, Brendan was allowed to represent theclub in an official GAA handball game. There was an obvious anomalythere; if he was allowed to play handball, how come I couldn’t manageour team? Several members of that committee were from Dunmoyleand they asked Cathal McAnenly, who was from Glencull, to leave. Wefelt we weren’t getting a fair hearing. So we pulled out of thecompetition. Then we pulled out of the club. And then we decided we’dstart one of our own.

There was a precedent there. Danny Ball’s brother, Paddy, hadformed a breakaway club, Aughabrack, a few years earlier. The countyboard had initially rejected their application but Paddy appealed thedecision to Ulster Council and Ulster Council recommended the boardrevise their ruling. They did. We went the same route. The board shutus down. Ulster Council recommended that decision should bereversed but the board wouldn’t. The following year, about twenty ofus went to county convention, holding placards like ‘Affiliation now!’Again they ignored us. At centenary convention, I decided enough wasenough. I went up to the table and asked for permission to speak to theaudience. I was told I couldn’t. I said I would any way. I went on toexplain to the delegates our position, that we hadn’t played any footballin over fifteen months and that we felt that should change. After aboutten minutes then, I thanked them, finished and walked out. No one saida bad word. But it made no difference. For the next six years, Sean


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Canavan, Peter Quinlivan and myself would go there and every timethe board would reject the recommendation of the Ulster Council. Iwent up to Crossmolina to visit Dr Mick Loftus when he was GAApresident but again, he was powerless. The board were not going toback down to these bearded rebels from Glencull.

We were like a club in every other way. We ran dances andfunctions, clearing out garages and workshops like that belonging toEoin Gormley’s father, Harry. We bought a wee prefab building fromthe YMCA building in Portadown which Harry and his men broughtback to Glencull with their cranes. In that prefab we held committeemeetings, fund-raising meetings, we held Irish-language classes;events like any other clubhouse would do. We ran nine-a-sidetournaments on our own pitch. We coached underage teams, includingsome handy young fellas like Eoin Gormley, Seamus Mallon and onewee lad called Peter Canavan. Our adult team would go and play anyand every county in the rest of Ulster. We’d often play in Fermanagh,Armagh and especially teams from south Derry. They played theirfootball hard up there. I remember going through with the ball one timeagainst the Loup when this boy slapped me on the head. I said to him,‘Hey boy, that’s the ball there. Are you colour blind or something?’ Thebig country lad looked at me and said in his big country-boy drawl,‘That’s one thing I’m not.’ I’ve heard a lot of lines in my footballinglife but I’ve never heard one as self-deprecating as that.

It wasn’t all fun though. After seven years we were getting tired.One year I didn’t go to convention and the mood between the countyboard and us became less confrontational. Brendan Harkin becamecounty chairman and we soon realised this was a man who realised weweren’t renegades; we were good GAA men. Good GAA men have asense of place and they love either their football or their hurling.Brendan helped put in place a spirit of reconciliation. So did the localcurate, Fr Sean Hegarty. He would tell us in Glencull that the rest of theparish were ready to listen. He would then tell them that we were readyto talk. Basically - and he’s very proud of this now – he told lies. Butit got us thinking, meeting and talking.


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While Brendan and Fr Sean were two key figures, there was a third. Noone in the parish had quite seen a footballer like Peter Canavan. Theold club, St Ciaran’s Ballygawley, had lost a county final in 1989 andit would have dawned on them they’d probably have won it if a certaineighteen-year-old had been playing. In 1990, we all came backtogether. Errigal Ciaran was formed. Glencull were let enter a team asErrigal B in the junior championship that year and then, after that,Glencull became Errigal. That same year, along with two Dunmoylemen called Francie Mulgrew and Mickey Mullin, I coached the under-16s to the Grade One league title. By 1993 the seniors had reached thecounty final. I was a sub that day but felt I could have some influenceso before the game I had a few words with one of our players. ‘Sixty-one years without a county title coming back to this parish. It’s beentoo long. Someone has to step up, someone has to make the difference.’

‘Aye,’ Peter Canavan said, ‘we’ve got to play like wicked wee men.’That day against Moortown, Peter played like Peter Canavan, we

won and the club hasn’t looked back since. We are all Errigal men, astight as any club in the country. Most of the new generation of Errigalkids would never have even heard tell of the Glencull years. For thoseof us who lived them, it’s still there. We’ll all look back at them indifferent ways. For those who didn’t play, for those who weren’tinvolved in the old St Ciaran’s club, it must have been great craic; therebel in Michaela sometimes says to me, ‘God, I’d love to have beenaround back then.’ But I know there must be others who must feel theylost more than they gained in those years. No one was pressurised intostaying, everyone only played for Glencull if they wanted to, but forthose like Stephen Canavan who wanted to play for Tyrone as well, itmust have been extremely hard.

I know. I was twenty-eight that day I went up for a ball with DermotMcCann’s brother, Brendan. The next time I played a competitivegame of football, I was thirty-six. It finished my inter-county career.But I can live with that. Because for what I lost on the field, I gainedmore from what I learned off it. I learned how to lead, how to nurturea cause. I learned that if you can create a win-win situation like thebirth of Errigal Ciaran, then that’s the way to do things. And I learned


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that there’s a stubborn streak in me. That at times, you have to fight,that at times, you have to be ‘wicked wee men’.

Last Sunday in the rain of Clones, in the cause of Errigal, the spiritof Glencull was still there.

Sunday 15 December

Tyrone had a trial match today in Edendork, a county selectionagainst my alma mater, St Mary’s Training College, or the Ranch aswe’ve always known it. We had trials last weekend as well and we’llhave another one next Sunday, but I have a good idea now what mypanel will be. I’m going to call Frank McGuigan junior up to the panel.He’s twenty-four or so now but he’s one of the best scoring forwards inTyrone club football and he’s done enough these past two weekends tosuggest he can score at county level too. Today he scored five points inour 2-20 to 1-15 win, and always looked a threat.

I’m going to call up his Ardboe clubmate, Gavin Devlin, as well. Iwas a bit concerned that Gavin might have been out of shape, havingbeen left off the 2002 panel, but these trials have suggested to me he’sstill the same Horse Devlin that was the pivot of our defence in the2001 under-21 team. He’s still a superb reader of the game, he’s stillconstantly an outlet and he still constantly encourages teammates. Idon’t think any Tyrone team should be without him and I know noMickey Harte team will.

Wednesday 18 December

Pascal Canavan indicated to me today that he won’t be playing forTyrone next year. I met him at the Glencull primary school Christmasplay where his children go and where I’ve been the video man for thatplay for nearly fifteen years. I said to him, ‘How do you feel about thecoming year with Tyrone?’ He said he wasn’t sure. I think I might havecaught him on a bad day because his broken jaw is still at him but I stillgot the impression that it’s something he’s thought about. He doesn’t


23


think he’s prepared to make the commitment and I’ve pretty much toldhim that I need a commitment soon.

I can see where he’s coming from; Pascal must be thirty-four now,he’s married with kids and he’s given a lot of years to Tyrone as it is.I’d prefer if he stayed on. He brings great stability and security to ateam; he can play that role of a holding or sweeping midfielder and healways makes himself an outlet when the pressure is on. He’d be agreat man to have with five or ten minutes to go in Clones or CrokePark. But we’re finishing up our trials on Sunday and I’ll have to cutsome boys who were definitely prepared to give the commitment.Today it appears Pascal has cut himself.

Sunday 29 December

Errigal were back training today, our first session together since thewin over Enniskillen. I think giving the boys a break, especially in therun up to Christmas, was the right thing to do. We’re going to beplaying Nemo Rangers from Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final. I’venoticed that they take a similar approach these past few years and itseems to have worked for them. I remember reading something aroundthe time of their semi-final against O’Hanrahan’s of Carlow in the 2001semi-final. The Nemo boys were allowed take a break, head off to thegym on their own if they liked; the Carlow boys kept training togetherthree or four times a week all through December. If we’re to beatNemo, we have to meet their freshness. Who knows how that gamewill go. Who knows how 2003 will go?

I already know how I’ll be bringing in the New Year. Myself andMarian will go over to her parents’ house five miles down the road inSixmilecross, just as we have nearly every New Year since we’ve beenmarried. I’d imagine Mattie will come over with us to Pat and Nan’s,but it looks like Michaela will give it a skip this year, and instead headinto Omagh with her friends; it’s her nineteenth birthday that night aswell.

It should be a nice, quiet night. Life has been very good to us in


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2002, especially me. The only downer all year from a footballperspective really was when the reserves lost their county semi-final bya point. St Ciaran’s won the under-16 and under-18 All-Irelandvocational schools titles. The county under-21 team retained the Ulstertitle even though we didn’t have nearly as much talent as the previoustwo teams. Then with Errigal, the seniors won the county league andchampionship and the Ulster club. The under-21s won their countychampionship. And the reserves won their league, going unbeaten in allseventeen games. When I look back on it, it has been an incredibleyear.

And yet I’m aware 2003 has to be better.


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2

HARTE ACHES

If you expect to achieve results that you never in your pastaccomplished, then you must expect to employ yourself at a level neverbefore attempted. People keep looking for the secret of success. Thesecret lies in the mirror!

George Zalucki

I don’t want to be a great captain; I want to be captain of a great team.Peter Canavan

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay aninvincible summer.

Camus

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Friday 3 January

Our county board really want Sam Maguire. Today confirmed thatfor me. There are two types of county boards in our sport. One kindsays to a management team, “Whatever you want’; the other says,‘Why would you want that?’ Our board’s attitude is very much theformer.

It was in Kelly’s Inn, this meeting between the board’s officers, FrGerard, Paddy, myself and Seamus Cassidy. Seamus is my brother-in-law and the team doctor. Today we spoke to the board about this systemcalled Nerve-Express he’s interested in buying from the States. PaulDoris, the former county chairman, told him about it after hearingabout it from his Dungannon clubmate, David Heffernan, the dentist.It’s something the old Soviet Union invented to measure the fitness oftheir Olympic athletes and whether their system instinctively respondsto stress in a positive or negative manner.

The way it works is this. A chest-strap sensor is attached to a playerso his heart-rate variability is picked up by a special microphone. Theimpulses from that microphone are then sent to the computer to assessthe impact of that heart-rate variability on the autonomic nervoussystem. The player lies down for a few minutes. Then, after thecomputer beeps, he stands up for another three or four minutes. Tenminutes or so after that, a read-out is compiled with a co-ordinate.Along the x-axis are thirteen gradations of the possible functioninglevels of your physiological systems; along the y-axis are seven levelsof the adaptation reserves of that player’s heart. In other words, thatread-out can tell you whether a player’s problem is physical or non-physical; whether he’s emotionally stressed or possibly physicallyover-trained. 13-7 is the worst you can get; 1-1 is the optimum.

We feel it’ll be very useful in gauging a player’s fitness, mentallyand physically. If he’s struggling, we’ll be able to confirm our ownsuspicions whether it is training-related or not. As Seamus puts it, ‘It’sa way of addressing issues which are otherwise difficult to address.’The board are favourable to it. It costs over two thousand pounds but

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HARTE ACHES

they realise it has an application beyond just this team and this year. We then spoke of another piece of equipment which would help our

cause. My friend Peter Quinlivan, who’s married to Peter Canavan’ssister, Agnes, has recently bought that Focus X2 performance-analysisvideo software that Denise Martin showed us in Errigal in the lead-upto a few of the Ulster club games. Peter will be doing a lot of workwith it for us in the season ahead so I was hoping the board might beable to compensate him somewhat for that purchase. Again theyagreed; Peter is the county hurling manager as well so they knowthey’re dealing with a solid citizen.

Speaking of solid citizens, Peter Doherty, the county under-21manager, called over to the house the other day. We talked about thethree players that are on both our panels. The fact the seniors will betraining together only one night a week for another three months willhelp Peter. I know from having managed at that level myself theimportance of your senior players attending training. Peter’s sessionswill be better sessions when Sean Cavanagh, John Devine and DermotCarlin are there. When he has an important game coming up, he canhave the players that week; when we have one, we’re to have them.There shouldn’t be any problems on that front. Like the board we’reboth seeing the bigger picture. It’s all about what’s best for Tyrone.

Saturday 4 January

I don’t know Frank ‘Pancho’ Martin and I doubt whether he knowsme, but something that American horse trainer once said struck achord with me. ‘My horses get the best hay in the country,’ heproclaimed. ‘It is grown specially and vanned across the country to mybarn. My horses are bedded down in the best straw money can buy. IfI have a stakes horse running anywhere but at Belmont, I take him tothe rack in a private van. Why should I spend months working on ahorse, then load him into a van with a lot of other horses and run therisk that he will be kicked?’

I’d like to think I have a similar attitude. The welfare of the

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KICKING DOWN HEAVEN’S DOORthoroughbreds that are our players are paramount to me. Which is whywe did what we did today. Those members of our panel who weren’tover in the Canaries with the 2002 panel underwent a medicalinterview and physio check-up. We conducted it in the practice of mylocal GP, Dr David McCord, hiring out his premises in Aughnacloy forsix hours. Each player was booked in with another for a half-hour slot.While Seamus was checking the health of one player, I talked to theother about the season ahead. I told each of them he was on the panelbecause he was a quality act but that the whole panel was made up ofquality. The only guarantee was that they’d have to fight extremelyhard if they were to win a spot on the team.

The check-up was a statement. It let each fella know this was a freshstart; that Seamus and myself wouldn’t be assuming anything. It alsolet each player know he is valued as both a person and as an athlete.How many of them routinely go to their local GPs? And how many oftheir local GPs differentiate between them and Joe Soap off the street?Today Seamus did. He was looking out for little things about theirhealth that they mightn’t have been aware of, so we could pre-emptrather than react to a potential problem. The players now know theycan come forward later in the year without fear if they have anydifficulty. They won’t be imposing on us; we’re there to help them.

I think today worked very well. Seamus learned a lot from it, mostnotably that we have quite a few asthmatics on the team and that someothers have greater flexibility problems than we envisaged. It’simportant that Fr Gerard, myself and particularly Paddy knew aboutthose. It’s important we know about the state of the boys in theCanaries too before they even start training, let alone nearchampionship time. Dr McCord’s practice will be hired out for anothersix hours next Saturday.

I got a phonecall while we were there. Tomorrow’s Dr McKennaCup game against Fermanagh is off; Brewster Park is frozen. That suitsme grand. A lot of our panel were only getting back from the Canariestonight. I had a fair idea which of them I could have used after a week’sholidays and those that I couldn’t but now I’ve been saved that bother.The game’s been fixed for next Sunday week.

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HARTE ACHES

Monday 6 January

Tonight I believe was a historic night for Tyrone football. Tonightat Quinn’s Corner our panel met for the first time. Quinn’s is knownas Paudge Quinn’s, the name of its owner. Paudge is the only Tyroneman to score a goal in an All-Ireland senior final. Tonight the boysbasically decided that it’s time another man joined him. We are goingall out to reach that final and win that final. That mood didn’t emanatejust from me or from management; it was the overriding sentiment ofeveryone who formed the circle tonight.

Willie John Dolan, our team sponsor, was invited into that circle butcouldn’t make it because of illness. Thankfully, Liam Nelis, the countychairman, could. I told everyone that Liam and the county board werein the circle, not outside it; that there would be no ‘us-versus-them’scenario as is too common in our sport. Mickey Moynagh and FrancieGoulding, our equipment men, were in it. So was Jim Curran andFrank Campbell, our liaison men. So was Seamus and our physios,Siobhan McGuinness and Sharon McCann. And, of course, so werethe thirty players. We pointed out that everyone in the circle wasimportant because everyone in that circle would be doing his or herutmost to bring that All Ireland to Tyrone.

We spoke regularly about bringing things ‘to another level’; aboutdoing things differently. ‘If you keep doing the same things,’ I said,‘you’ll keep getting the same results.’ We gave them an outline of howwe’d be approaching the year. That we’d be out to win every game, beit Dr McKenna Cup, league or championship. That we’d be usingvideo and statistical analysis endlessly. That we’d be training onlyonce a week collectively until the end of March but that each playerwould have to workout individually twice a week to a strength andconditioning programme devised by Paddy. Tonight was the first timemost of them would have come across Paddy. They must have beenimpressed. He’s only twenty-nine, which means he’s younger thansome of them, but I don’t think any of them can doubt that he knowswhat he’s talking about. They can’t doubt his conviction either.Tonight he told them, ‘I’m not going to make you sprinters, distance

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runners or weightlifters; my job is to make you the best Gaelic footballathlete you can be.’ He talked in technical but understandable termsabout diet and hydration. They were to eat, or ‘reload’ as he put it,within two hours of working out; there’s a window there when yourmetabolism is working hard to break down any carbohydrates youhave, so the sooner you eat, the sooner that food is broken down andthe recovery process starts. The days of steak and chips are out; eatingwhite meat, baked potatoes, fish and pasta is in. So is plenty of water.They’re to drink a minimum of two litres a day now, and coming up toa game, three litres. Then towards the end I declared that Peter Canavanwill be Tyrone captain for 2003. He re-affirmed just why when he wasgiven the floor. He didn’t speak for long but what he said made thehairs of my neck, for one, stand. ‘I don’t want to be a great captain,’ hedeclared, ‘I want to be a captain of a great team.’ The power of that forme isn’t in what he’s saying but in what he’s asking. He’s asking theseplayers to be great players. He’s saying, ‘I’ve had my day of doingeverything and I’ve done it as long as I can. It has to change. I’ll bedoing my best but don’t expect me to carry you again; it’s up to you tomake this work.’ He’s thrown out a challenge to everyone who was inthat room tonight.

‘I don’t want to be a great captain; I want to be a captain of a greatteam.’ That could be quoted again this year.

Thursday 9 January

Tonight the hard work started. In Augher, in the cold, under thelights. Ulster and All Irelands can be won and lost on nights like these.Men like Mickey Moynagh and Francie Goulding will do their best tomake sure they’re not lost. I know that from tonight. Some playersdespise nights like this one; Francie and Mickey seem to relish them.

Francie is our ice man. While the team were out training tonight, hefilled with water these tubs which can hold two or three men. Thenwhen we had about fifteen minutes left in our session, he carried thesebuckets of ice into the dressing room and loaded them into the tubs.When the players walked into the dressing room, their first exercise

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HARTE ACHESwas to jump into those tubs for thirty seconds, step out, head into theshower for another thirty and then back into the ice for thirty. By theend of the exercise, they had been in both the ice and the showersthree times. It helps reduce lactic acid and speeds up their recoverytime. That was the drill tonight and it’ll be the drill after every sessionfrom here on. For big Francie will be there, with his big smile. He’sjust so glad to be back with the boys of ’97.

I haven’t worked directly with Mickey Moynagh before but I knowhim; he told me last year about a cleaners in Omagh which cleans thejerseys at a very reasonable price. I also know previous Tyrone seniormanagement teams appreciated him. Wherever the next station theboys are going to be at for a drill, he makes sure the water bottles arethere. He makes sure we have 15 footballs there. He makes sure thecones that Paddy and myself put out are taken away. He makes surethe boys have energy drinks when they hit the dressing room becausehe pours those drinks into a beaker for every one of them. Mickeymust be about my age and must be more folically-challenged thanPeter or myself but he’s as energetic and enthusiastic as a teenager.Any man who respects and values his Tyrone jersey respects andvalues Mickey Moynagh. In fact, I believe the two are inter-linked.

In our dressing room on match day, your jersey is on the table,folded with the number out. If you’re our first-choice goalkeeper, yourname and number is the first that is called out. You collect your jersey,everybody else observes and you walk back to your place. It’s thesame drill if you’re number thirty. Then when everyone has a jerseythey put their two arms into it. They don’t pull it over their head yet.They only do that together, simultaneously. Those are just jerseys andthey’re just individuals until that point. But when they pull thosejerseys over their heads, they do so as a team. It is an act of unity, anact of a team.

After the game, the same principles apply. I don’t care if we’ve wonor lost, whether you were substituted, sent off or scored 2-8, you treatthe jersey with respect. We say, ‘Right, boys, we’re going to lift thejerseys.’ That means you fold it and when your number is called, youleave it back as close as possible to how you found it, folded with the

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number out. Any Tyrone team I’ve coached has done the same since1991. It has nothing to do with putting fellas down or having anauthority over them. I just can’t abide by the notion that you just flingyour jersey somewhere and someone else picks it up for you. Whatright have you to do that? That jersey has to be looked after andprepared for the next game; the best way you can have that is to leaveit in an organised and presentable fashion. I know. I was the bagmanfor eight years with the Tyrone minors. I put away those jerseys andgave them to Marian every time we played. If you throw your jersey onthe ground, you’re disrespecting people like my wife. And MickeyMoynagh.

In my eyes, no star out there tonight was bigger than him or FrancieGoulding.

Sunday 12 January

Tyrone 1-13 Fermanagh 1-11

The kind of start we wanted to get off to – a winning one. A gamelike today’s was worth four challenge games. If we were seven downshortly before half-time in a challenge game, we wouldn’t have foughtback. But today we did. It was a competitive game and for all ourflaws, we were certainly that – competitive.

Conditions were treacherous; it was like skating on ice in the firsthalf. Both teams were there though and you sensed that the playerswanted to play. Fermanagh’s certainly did. They had more than threethousand people shouting for them in Brewster Park today and theywere out to impress them. After we scored the game’s first two points,Fermanagh scored the next 1-6, with Raymie Gallagher and CiaranDonnelly particularly rampant. Just before half-time though we pickedoff a few scores, including a wondrous one from Cormac McAnallen.It gave us a real lift coming into the dressing room and within fiveminutes of leaving it again, we were ahead through a penalty fromMark Harte.

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HARTE ACHESOverall, I’m quite pleased. We were without Peter, who’s away

with the All Stars in San Diego. The five lads who were making theirdebuts with Tyrone all did very well. Gavin Devlin and Paul Horiskimpressed in the half-back line. Mark scored 1-3, Frank McGuiganscored four points, while possibly our best player of the lot was RyanMellon, who won, carried and laid off so much ball. Collectively weweren’t great but that’s something another McKenna Cup game nextweek gives us a chance to work on.

Tyrone: John Devine; C Gormley, C McGinley, M McGee; P Horisk, G Devlin, PJordan; C McAnallen (0-2), P Loughran (0-1); O Mulligan (0-1), M Harte (1-3, 1-1frees), S O’Neill (0-1); F McGuigan (0-4), R Mellon, S Cavanagh.Subs: B McGuigan (0-1) for Mulligan, G Cavlan for Cavanagh, R McMenamin forMcGinley, C Holmes for Gormley.

Wednesday 15 January

A very strange thing happened last night. It must have been aboutone o’clock when the phone rang. I answered it, thinking it might beone of the children in Belfast. It wasn’t.

‘Mickey Harte?!’‘Yes?’‘There’s something I want to say to you! There’s a few people who

should be on that panel of yours who aren’t!’Now, I had two options here. I could tell him to get lost, end up in

a slanging match and hang up, or I could tell him that I respected hisopinion but he had to respect mine. Marian beside me felt I shouldhave gone for the former but I went for the latter. I said there were alot of very good footballers in Tyrone but that I could only pick thirtyfor the panel; that if I afforded him the courtesy of suggesting hisopinion, he must expect the same of mine. I could tell from the tone ofhis voice that he was surprised, and then, that he had mellowed. Hestarted saying things like, ‘Well, that’s fair enough.’ He then put me onto his friend, who sounded like he was in some bar or niteclub withhim. He started off quite assertively too, but again he began to warmto my courtesy. I began to warm to their audacity. I asked them where

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KICKING DOWN HEAVEN’S DOORthey were. They were out in Belfast. I asked them was their night spotany good. They said it was fine. I then asked who they were.

‘Sure,’ says the second one, ‘you can call us the Midnight Callers.’And at that, we left it. As I say, a strange one.

Saturday 18 January

I don’t like challenge games. I particularly didn’t like the oneErrigal had against St Mary’s today. It ended up a mess.

We were without the two Canavans with Peter being away with theAll Stars and Pascal still out with his broken jaw, while at half-time Idecided to take off Mark Harte, Paul Horisk and Enda McGinley. I feltit was only fair. Tyrone are playing tomorrow and those three playersdeserve some minutes in that game if they’re to push for a spot on thecounty team. They had already given half an hour to their club; now weowed it to them to rest up for their game with the county. We werecertainly weaker without them though and a few of the other lads endedup coming off with injuries. After being level at half-time we ended uplosing by five points. I’m sure we’ll be ready for Nemo in a month’stime but today didn’t really help us in our preparations for it.

Sunday 19 January

Tyrone 3-16 Antrim 2-8

I was pleased with our first-half performance today in Coalisland. Iwasn’t so mad about the second half. I told the players at the break thatit was nil-all again yet Antrim came out and scored the first threepoints. In the last minute Kevin Brady found the net, which meant theyoutscored us 2-5 to 1-7 after the break. I heard Philip Jordan say toreporters afterwards that he was disappointed that Antrim won thesecond half. That he wasn’t happy means I am.

I was also pleased to hear Gavin Devlin shout to his team-matesafter Antrim’s quick burst early in the second half, ‘For God’s sake,

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HARTE ACHESraise it, boys – we’re three-nil down!’ Not only did it show thestandards he aspires to but it was a collective criticism. I’ve alreadyspoken to the lads about how personalised verbal abuse is notacceptable on this team. Like everyone else I admire Roy Keane but Idon’t admire how he scowls at team-mates, especially the Nevilles. Idon’t think it helps their game or their confidence one bit, beingadmonished like that. Fear leads to more mistakes, not less. I don’tthink Roy Keane, Peter Canavan or anybody has the right to do that. Ifthey want to help a team-mate, bad-mouthing them won’t do it.

There was little reason to bad-mouth any of our boys in the first half.Especially Owen Mulligan. Within three minutes he had scored twogoals. Within another twenty, he had added three points before goingoff with a slight knock. By then the whole team was buzzing. It wasfoggy if sunny from the line today but it didn’t seem foggy to the lads;they combined brilliantly in those first thirty minutes. In truth, thegame was over at half-time. We didn’t play so great afterwards butthere’s a lesson to be learned from that. The lads now know I don’t justsay ‘The best way to defend a lead is to attack it’ for the craic. If wedidn’t keep pushing forward today, scoring that 1-7 after half-time, wecould have been in trouble.

Tyrone: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Holmes, M McGee; P Horisk, G Devlin, PJordan (0-1); C McAnallen, K Hughes (0-2); E McGinley (0-1), B McGuigan (0-1),R Mellon (0-1); M Harte (0-5, three frees), O Mulligan (2-3), F McGuigan.Subs: S Cavanagh (1-2) for Mulligan (injured), P Loughran for McAnallen, CGormley for Hughes, B Robinson for Horisk.

Thursday 23 January

We had a pharmacist from Aughnacloy called Brendan McSorley into talk to the Tyrone boys after training in Augher tonight. We felt itwas vital that the boys knew early on what exactly is on and isn’t onthe IOC-banned substances list and which medications they can andcannot take. Just to put the boys’ minds at ease, they were all handed akit containing some basic – and totally legal – remedies. If they’re totake anything that isn’t in that little kit bag, they’re to call Seamus or

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Brendan. Brendan also gave them some tablets as part of a ten-daydetox programme. This is as good a time of the year as any to cleanout the system.

Saturday 25 January

Today Errigal had what is known in the modern era as one of thoseteam-bonding days. We went down to Sligo where we played somepitch and putt, then stopped off in Bundoran for some indoor bowlingbefore having a team meeting in Kelly’s. No one came out and said itstraight but I sensed from some of the senior players that they feel thatErrigal aren’t getting enough attention or focus from those of usinvolved in the Tyrone set-up. They’re obviously not happy with howthe game against St Mary’s last week panned out but I think theirreservations are misplaced. I think it’s better for our seven countyplayers to be available to play in Tyrone’s first two league games andtravel to the third one in Dublin. Playing for the county will sharpen uptheir game more than a series of challenge games will. I spoke to PeterCanavan about this a while back and he agreed. I must speak to thoseseven county players after Tyrone’s McKenna Cup semi-final inBreffni Park tomorrow.

Sunday 26 January

Tyrone 2-11 Cavan 0-10

Peter played his first game for us today. What a difference he makes.He was winning frees, putting them over himself, setting up scores forothers; Cavan couldn’t live with him. The wheels started to come offour wagon just before half-time though and with fifteen minutes to goCavan had closed it back to within a point of us. I wasn’t happy aboutit and had to make some changes. Peter Loughran hasn’t been able todo much collective training with us in recent weeks with the openingof his new bar and it showed. Not long after I had brought him on, I

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HARTE ACHES

took him off again. It was a tough decision but he wasn’t doing himselfor the team any favours. The move worked. Stephen O’Neill came inand kicked two wonderful points. Ryan Mellon switched from the wingto midfield where he thrived, scoring a late goal to ensure the win forus. I’m happy. We’ve now won three games from three, we’re throughto the McKenna Cup final and we enter the league next week with ourconfidence high.

I called the Errigal boys together when we were dropped off on thebus back. I told them that I’d be hoping to pick some of them to startagainst Roscommon next week, that they’d be togged out for theGalway game in Pomeroy even though I’d hope not to have to playthem, and that they’d travel down to the Dublin game the week beforeErrigal’s semi-final against Nemo. I also said that they could makecounty training for the next two Thursday nights; it would be good forTyrone if they were there. The boys are to think about it over thecoming days as will I.

Tyrone: P McConnell; C Gormley, C McGinley, M McGee; R McMenamin (0-1), GDevlin, P Jordan; C Holmes, K Hughes (0-1); E McGinley, B McGuigan (0-2), RMellon (1-1); F McGuigan, S Cavanagh (1-1), P Canavan (0-3, two frees).Subs: P Loughran for E McGinley, S O’Neill (0-2) for Loughran, B Robinson forMcGee, B Dooher for Cavanagh.

Thursday 30 January

We trained without the Errigal boys tonight. After someconsideration the boys feel they have to focus totally on Errigal untilthe club championship campaign is over. I have a feeling reports fromDunloy, where their hurlers are out something like four or five nights aweek ahead of their semi-final against Mount Sion are impacting on thethinking within our own club. Obviously up there they feel more isbetter. I personally don’t subscribe to that school of thought but it’sclear some of the boys now do after the St Mary’s game. I can seewhere they’re coming from. There’s a lot of pressure coming fromwithin the whole club. The worst thing that can be said about a player,

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even if he’s an All Star, is for a clubmate to be able to say, ‘Ah, butwhat did he do for the club that year?’ We lost to Nemo at the samestage nine years ago; the lads won’t have it said that we lost to themagain without having given it everything. And if that’s how the boysfeel about it, I have to go with it. The group ethos is often moreimportant than personal preference. Twenty years ago, I’d probablyhave said, ‘Feck ye all; it’s my way, simple as that.’ But I’ve matured.I realise that sometimes you have to compromise in the short term forthe long-term good. This compromise is for the long-term good. If Iwas to stick to my guns, there would be disunity in the club and we’dhave no chance against Nemo.

Tyrone could be down more than just the Errigal boys headingto Roscommon. Gerald Cavlan, Declan McCrossan, Chris Lawn,Seamus Mulgrew and Dermot Carlin are all carrying knocks and willhave to undergo fitness tests on Saturday. We could be down to as fewas twenty players heading to Hyde Park. I think I’ll have to call up afew lads from outside the panel, like Mickey Coleman, Peter Donnellyand Ciaran McRory. I’m somewhat helped by the fact John Devine hasvolunteered to travel as back-up to Pascal McConnell. It wouldn’t havebeen fair on Peter Ward to ask him to go all the way to Roscommon justto sit on the bench and then be dropped off the panel again. I’m gratefulto John for this display of commitment to myself and Tyrone.

Sunday 2 February

Roscommon 0-11 Tyrone 0-10

This was the last thing I wanted. I don’t like losing the first ofanything, especially a first national league game as Tyrone seniormanager. Now we’re under pressure right away. Roscommon areperceived as the weakest team in this division; Tyrone and themselvesare the only teams in our section who didn’t make last year’s All-Ireland quarter-finals. Already we’re playing catch up with the rest.

We weren’t helped by some injuries. On top of those we had by

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HARTE ACHES

Thursday night, Cormac McAnallen and Kevin Hughes had to cry off.That meant we had to assemble a new midfield by moving RyanMellon and Collie Holmes there and risking Chris Lawn at full back.The latter part of that move didn’t come off. Chris had to come off athalf-time with a recurrence of his groin injury. In other circumstanceswe wouldn’t have risked him.

For all that, we played well in the first half. We were eight points tofour up by half-time and looking comfortable. In truth, we should havebeen much further ahead, but we shot eight wides with the wind.Roscommon were all out to impress Tommy Carr, their new manager.When they were reduced to fourteen men, it seemed to inspire themeven more. The crowd got behind them and it became a real battle.

Referee Pat Foxe, I have to say, hardly gave us anything afterputting off Jonathon Dunning in the fifteenth minute. He continuouslylet them away with what might be described as over-zealous tackling.We fought hard but so did Roscommon. We were three up with twelveminutes to go but they clawed their way back and in the closingseconds Gerry Lohan pointed a free from fifty metres out. We mustnow win next Sunday against Galway. We simply have to.

Tyrone: P McConnell; C Gormley, C Lawn, M McGee; R McMenamin, G Devlin, PJordan; R Mellon (0-3), C Holmes; B Dooher, B McGuigan (0-1), S O’Neill (0-2); FMcGuigan, S Cavanagh, O Mulligan (0-4, all frees).Subs: B Robinson for Lawn (injured, half-time), P Donnelly for F McGuigan (52mins), D McCrossan for McMenamin (59 mins).

Wednesday 5 February

Tonight was a good workout for Errigal. We beat Sligo IT undertheir lights, 2-9 to 0-10. It was considerably more beneficial than thechallenge game we had against the Donegal under-21s in Letterkennyon Saturday. That was a waste of time; we blew them away. We’veanother game fixed for Saturday against the Tyrone under-21s. It’s allin keeping with this ‘More is better’ thinking that’s come in since thegame against the Ranch. I personally would be in favour of only one,

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not three, challenge games, but this Sligo game was worthwhile.On the way to the game I put on a video of the 1994 semi-final

between Errigal and Nemo. I wanted to remind the players of the thinline and yet the world of difference there is between victory and defeat.It’s something we’ve emphasised before. In the lead-up to the countyfinal against Killyclogher last September, I showed the lads the sceneafter the 2000 final when they beat Carrickmore and then the sceneafter they had lost the 2001 decider. The difference between celebrationand devastation was up to them.

I also wanted them to realise just how devastating one of their futureopponents would be. When that 1994 semi-final in Newbridge enteredinjury time, we were two points up. Most of our supporters werewhistling for full time; the rest of them were making their way down tothe wire, ready to invade that pitch. But they never did. First ColinCorkery stepped up to take a fifty-five-metre free out on the left wing;then, from the kickout, he pointed a free from beyond the forty-five-metre line. In extra time he scored the game’s only goal and Nemoended up winning by five. Nine years later Corkery is still with Nemoand the pain of that day is still with Errigal. We can make it go away.But we mustn’t give away any soft frees.

Thursday 6 February

Tonight in training we worked very hard on breaking the tackle andsupporting the man on the ball. Peter Quinlivan and myself wentthrough the video of the Roscommon game several times earlier in theweek. A few things struck us. We were caught out too often by their re-starts; they were able to find free men who then had time and space onthe ball. But the thing that jumped out at us most of all was that ourplayers repeatedly went into a crowd of Roscommon players and werepushed back too easily. And when they were, they were looking tooffload to someone else. To make it even worse, that someone elsewasn’t coming off the shoulder with authority or pace.

We set up drills tonight to address the problem. While we like our

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HARTE ACHES

players to have a range of evasive skills, they also need to deal withthe discomfort of severe tackling. The reality is that referees don’tstrictly implement the rules of our game. You’re meant to tackle withthe open hand but defenders are repeatedly allowed to use their fist.But you have to cope with it. If you get the ball and there’s peoplehanging off you, knocking you back, you have to make a decision.‘Am I going to be knocked back or am I going to get through that?’You have to go out there, feel what it’s like and know you’re capableof getting over that discomfort.

Tonight we got our players to pass the ball to someone and look forthe return. When they did, they were met with resistance right away.They had to use their strength, their arms, their determination just toget past their marker and go for that return. When they did get thatreturn pass, they then had to bring the ball across a thirty-metrechannel, with men still hanging off them, before they were allowed torelease the ball. We wanted the defenders applying that pressure, thattorture without fouling, without rugby-tackling. We don’t want peopledoing things that they’re not going to get away with in games; we wantthem taking it to the limit of the rules. Because we want our playerswhen they’re in possession to know what it’s like to deal with thatclose attention. Are you going to be turned back or are you going tobreak through? Because as I said to them, ‘If you turn back easily,you’ll be turned back every time.’

I think the signs were encouraging tonight that they won’t. They’vebought into the whole mentality of attacking that first tackle. And if bychance it isn’t on, they have someone coming off their shouldersteaming through at pace. We plan to show the Roscommon video onSaturday evening to hammer home the point.

Someone else has been hammering home another point. KevinHughes, a local writer, seems to have nothing else to do up here butpick holes in the Tyrone county board and the Tyrone management inparticular. He was casting aspersions on the idea of the Errigal men notbeing in Hyde Park and what would happen whenever they came back;would we turf out the men who were there at the minute? Anotherlocal reporter believes that last Sunday’s performance was ‘a

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disgrace’. I once again think to myself the luxury of these people whohave nothing else to think about. I’m coaching Errigal each Monday,Wednesday and Friday night; I’m coaching two school teams for Ulstersemi-finals; I’m training Tyrone; I’m doing youth work three nights aweek; I have a business to run; and, of course, I have a family. I’m verythankful and grateful that my wife and family are very supportive andso immersed in the football ethic but you want to spend time with themtoo. And I do. I think I’m maintaining a good balance. You can’t beexclusive to one thing and I think I’ve responded well in keeping allthose things going.

But then, when you lose, you’re criticised. I should expect suchremarks by this stage.

Saturday 8 February

If the word I used for the Errigal workout against Sligo was ‘useful’,I’d have to describe the one today against the county under-21s as‘lively’. Tempers were frayed and I have to say, on the line I wasthinking, ‘This isn’t a bad way to have things; this is quitecompetitive.’ We ended up winning 0-13 to 0-5 which means we’vewon our last three challenge games heading into the Nemo game in afortnight’s time.

The Tyrone panel met at five o’clock in Paudge Quinn’s. We wentthrough a good deal of the Roscommon video so they could see forthemselves what we were talking to them about on Thursday night.That should reinforce the point. Martin McHugh certainly thinks we’llneed whatever little edge we can get before tomorrow’s game. He’stipped Galway as this year’s All-Ireland champions on the basis ofthem stuffing Donegal last Sunday. Well, we’ll see.

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HARTE ACHES

Sunday 9 February

Tyrone 1-13 Galway 0-11

There were stages where I feared this could be Hyde Park all overagain. Once more we were jinxed with injury, Stephen O’Neill andRyan McMenamin both having to come off within twenty-fiveminutes of the start. And once more we were 0-8 to 0-4 up at half-time.When Galway came back to within two points of us with about twelveminutes to go, I was going, ‘This can’t happen again.’ The lads madesure it didn’t. Kevin Hughes caught a kickout, put it out to PhilipJordan, who in turn put it down the line to Owen Mulligan. Owen hadbeen skinning Kieran Fitzgerald all day and this time he did so again.Brian Dooher at this stage was streaming through the middle andscreaming for the ball, so Owen gave it to him. Brian duly steppedinside the goalie and kicked into an empty net. It was a great score anda real cushion. We scored the next four points after that before Galwaykicked a few consolation points towards the end.

It was a brilliant performance as well as a brilliant win. There wasa marked improvement in the areas we highlighted during the week.Galway found it much harder than Roscommon to pick out men fromfree kicks. We also broke more tackles. There was a greater sense ofpurpose about the team. There were plenty of individual displays to beexcited about as well. Frank McGuigan kicked four points from play.Mulligan scored four as well; that kind of inside scoring power wasn’tevident in Hyde Park. Ciaran Gourley went in at corner back for RyanMcMenamin and snuffed Derek Savage out of it. Kevin Hughes andRyan Mellon ran midfield, Brian McGuigan destroyed John Divilly,Seamus Mulgrew won a lot of ball even if he was occasionally jitteryon it, while Brian Dooher was Brian Dooher; simply everywhere.

If we had lost our first two games, we were looking at a fightagainst relegation, not one for a semi-final spot. We are a moreconfident team tonight than the one we were this morning.

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KICKING DOWN HEAVEN’S DOORTyrone: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Holmes, C Gormley, P Jordan, G Devlin,D McCrossan; R Mellon, K Hughes (0-1); B Dooher (1-1), B McGuigan (0-1), SO'Neill (0-2, both frees); F McGuigan (0-4), O Mulligan (0-4, one free), S Cavanagh. Substitutes: : S Mulgrew for O'Neill (injured, 19 mins), C Gourley for McMenamin(injured, 25 mins), C Lawn for McCrossan (52 mins), M Coleman for B McGuigan(62 mins), D Carlin for Gourley (70 mins).

Friday 14 February

We had a good session with Errigal tonight. And on Monday andWednesday. You can already see the benefits of the explosive weightswork Paddy Tally introduced them to in a session in the Altamuskinweights room a few weeks ago; I felt why confine that expertise to justthe county team? Our lads look strong, they’re moving well and they’revery keen.

One thing concerns me. Are they too keen, too consumed by thismatch? We had our press night tonight. There wasn’t a huge number ofmedia men at it but it’s nearly a good thing there weren’t. Most of ourplayers shunned the few journalists that were there. I like my playerstalking to the press. It’s a sign they’re not inhibited. It’s all very fine totalk about how focused you are but it doesn’t mean you can’t open yourmind and mouth to speak to everyone else. Mention of the press, thoselocal guys suddenly think everything is rosy in the garden again.Tyrone aren’t missing the Errigal boys and the depth of talent we haveis frightening.

Sunday 16 February

Dublin 0-12 Tyrone 0-11

Another one-point loss. That’s a bad habit we’re getting into. If wework as hard as we did in Parnell Park today though, we won’t end upon the wrong side of many more. Dublin had virtually a full-strengthteam out. Paddy Christie, Ciaran Whelan, Alan Brogan, ComanGoggins, Collie Moran, Stephen Cluxton; they were all there. The onlycertain championship starter missing was Ray Cosgrove. We shot

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fourteen wides, missed a penalty, kicked the ball into Cluxton’s armsthree times, yet still only lost by a point. In fact, we had a perfectlygood point which the umpire was about to put his flag up for; then forsome strange reason he changed his mind and signalled a square ball.It turned out to be a crucial decision.

I was thrilled with the way we played against the breeze. It wasscore-for-score in the first fifteen minutes, and when Dublin pulledthree points ahead just before the break, we responded with two of ourown. Our spirit was epitomised by Sean Cavanagh. There was aninstance in that first half when he tracked back forty yards from cornerforward to dispossess a Dublin player. That set in motion a lovelypiece of combined play which ended with Brian McGuigan pointing abeauty from out on the right wing.

Amazingly, the breeze had died down by the time we came out forthe second half. That, along with Stephen O’Neill’s late withdrawal,Declan McCrossan having to go off and that disallowed point, seemedto suggest the gods really were conspiring against us. It didn’t affectthe lads. Within a few minutes we won a penalty. Mulligan andMcGuigan looked at each other, neither of them rushing to take it. Inthe end Owen reluctantly stepped up. It was a good save by Cluxtonbut Owen knows he could have made him work harder for it. From therebound, Dublin went up the field and scored a point. Instead of beingtwo up, we were two down. We’d actually come back to go two upourselves but in the end, Dublin made some good plays to sneak it.

Ryan McMenamin and Conor Gormley had great games in thecorners. Gavin Devlin is thriving at this level. Colin Holmes is aserious option at full back for the championship. Dermot Carlin, whois still only nineteen, came on for Declan and wasn’t out of his depthat all. Neither was Seamus Mulgrew. Upfront, Owen had the better ofPaddy Christie; the pity was that his shooting was off. But the team asa whole were wayward in their shooting. It was about the only fault Ican have with them. I’m angry with the result. But that’s because I’mpleased with the performance. It could and should have been rewardedwith two points.

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Tyrone: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Holmes, C Gormley; P Jordan (0-1), GDevlin, D McCrossan; R Mellon, K Hughes; B Dooher (0-1), B McGuigan (0-2), SMulgrew; F McGuigan, O Mulligan (0-5, all frees), S Cavanagh (0-2). Subs: D Carlin for McCrossan (injured, 22 mins), G Cavlan for Cavanagh (60 mins),C McRory for Gormley (64 mins).

Monday 17 February

I was talking to my son, Michael, today. I suppose Michael, in theeyes of the Tyrone public, is the unknown quantity of the family. Theyknow Mark is currently a member of the squad, they see Michaela andMattie with me at all the games, but they see little or nothing ofMichael. That suits Michael fine; in fact, he seems to enjoy hisindependence and anonymity. But Michael too loves his football. Heplayed a key part in Errigal winning the county under-21 title last year;in fact it was both Michael and Mark who in the early ninetiesestablished the tradition of family members going to all the trainingsessions and matches with me before they outgrew it and Mattie andMichaela became my loyal supporters.

These days Michael is studying physiotherapy in Jordanstown. Hestill studies his county football too. So do his friends, particularly oneJoe McElholm, who also responds to the pseudonym, SeosamhMcGrianna after an Irish author that the boys studied in school. Joeworks part-time in a betting office. Today I told Michael he should goto Joe and put money on Tyrone to win the league. ‘And while you’reat it,’ I said, ‘put money on us winning the double.’ I’ve just given myteaching colleague Martin McCarron the same advice. After losing twoof our first three matches, we’re out to sixteen-to-one to retain thetrophy. That’s great value. I watched the video of the Dublin gameagain today and got a printout of some of the match stats. Theyconfirmed what I suspected yesterday. We’re going to be hard to stop.

Brian Dooher nearly didn’t play yesterday. He was suffering fromthe flu. You’d never have known. He had possibly the game of his life.Each player, on average, touches the ball seventeen times a game;Dooher was on it thirty-two times yesterday. Mind, he didn’t lead that

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category. Brian McGuigan was on it thirty-four times. Gavin Devlinwas on it twenty-nine times. Ardboe are going to have representationcome the championship.

The way I look at it, Dublin are one of the best five teams in thecountry yet we only lost to them by a point with a seriously-depletedteam, in Dublin, having missed fourteen scoring chances in the secondhalf alone. The table doesn’t look that bad either. Armagh lead the waywith six points out of six. We’re only two points behind anyone else,and in fact, two points ahead of Donegal. If we beat them in afortnight’s time they’re totally out of it and we’re right back in it.

Tuesday 18 February

A surreal thing happened with Mark today. The Ranch were playingWaterford IT in Dublin to decide which one of them would qualify forthe Sigerson Cup week in Cork. Paddy Tally manages the Ranch anda while back both Mark and David Harte from our Errigal squad hadagreed to go along down to Dublin for team morale. The other day Iasked Paddy to talk to Mark again. Mark had told me that in the hugelyunlikely scenario where it was close and a penalty kick was awardedwith a few minutes to go, he’d be prepared to come on and take it. Itold him I hadn’t a problem with it and Mark in turn conveyed this toPaddy. So, lo and behold, it happens; the sides are level entering injurytime when, amazingly, they’re awarded a penalty. Mark throws off thetracksuit, comes on the field and, not a bother to him, nets the penalty.A minute later, he gets the ball, scores a point and Mary’s end upwinning by three. Now they’re heading to Cork.

Now that’s what you call an impact substitution.

Saturday 22 February

Errigal moved down to Dublin today. In the morning, we’ll head offto Portlaoise for probably the biggest club game of our lives. I have tosay, I’ve been very impressed by the Citywest Hotel we’re staying in.

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The staff made us feel very welcome, the rooms are nice and the mealthey provided us with tonight was lovely. The boys look focused andeager for tomorrow. The one glitch was Enda McGinley being sick onthe bus down. I don’t know if it’s down to nerves and anxiety but he’sgetting some medication for it and should be fine. We watched Irelandbeat Italy in the rugby and then went for a nice little sharp session ona pitch just a mile or so out the road. We’re just after a team meeting.I think it went very well. The mood in the room was good. We’veprepared well, and despite those reservations I had about the balancebetween Tyrone and Errigal, I think we’re ready.

Sunday 23 February

Nemo Rangers 1-12 Errigal Ciaran 0-11

We were abysmal. Nemo were good but we were abysmal. Wefought back well in the last quarter but in truth, we didn’t deserve towin. Now the dream is over and with it, my term as Errigal manager.

This morning we went through the Nemo team and identified wherewe thought their strengths were. I must say, that scouting report wasn’tfar away from being entirely accurate. For one, I always feared AlanCronin; he’s a Brian Dooher-type player, forever running, foreverlinking the play. Joe Kavanagh was a big-game as well as a big-nameplayer and would be out to show Larry Tompkins he should be back onthe Cork panel. I also knew they had big strong players in otherdepartments, most notably Derek Kavanagh and Colin Corkery. Theone thing I didn’t anticipate was the value of Steven O’Brien. I hadseen him in the Munster final and he was grossly overweight. Heobviously got through some work in the meantime because today heproved again what a sublime footballer he is.

The goal that ultimately decided the game was shaped by him.Eighteen minutes in, he got on the ball. Our full-back line were allabout forty metres out from John Devine’s goal, as if they were playingoffside. Alan Cronin was inside David Harte and with a delightful footpass, O’Brien picked him out. That left us trailing 1-3 to 0-1 playing

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with the breeze. In fairness, we fought back before half-time to leave just that

Cronin goal between the teams. In the dressing room I said, ‘Look,we’ve been in places like this before; in fact we’ve been in worse andresponded. We’re going to have to respond again here. It’s half anhour. Give it everything and we can carve it out. Because afterwardswhen you come in, it’ll be either a day to remember for the rest of yourlife or a day to forget for the rest of your life.’

It ended up being one to forget. Dara Tierney scored a nice point tobring it back to two but after that Nemo took over. Cronin waseverywhere; O’Brien was playing deep and cutting out our attacks; JoeKavanagh was out in front every time; his brother Derek was lordingmidfield and Corkery was tapping over the frees. We had a few goalchances, especially one from Peter, but we didn’t take them to get thekick-start we needed. With fifteen minutes to go we were seven downand it looked like it could be the worst defeat of all.

The lads didn’t give up. Pascal Canavan was sick this morning withstomach problems, he was obviously affected by it, yet he keptplugging away. With about a minute to go, we got back to within twopoints. In fact, we could possibly have been ahead; Davy Harte wasput to the ground and should have been given a penalty but insteadGerry Kinneavy blew him for over-carrying. Nemo had another gearthough. We gave away the ball, they got a free, took their time intaking it before putting together a nice move which ended with DerekKavanagh steaming through the middle and pointing on the run. Thatended that.

The dressing room was like a morgue for half-an-hour. Nobodycould lift their heads, nobody could say anything, nobody could evenstand up. Eventually I had to; reporters were waiting outside and I’dbeen around long enough to know that if I’m prepared to talk to themwhen we win, I should be ready to talk to them when we lose.Afterwards we went over to the Portlaoise club where their courteousmembers had a nice buffet meal ready to carry us until we got toKelly’s. It made a completely different picture to the ones after theUlster championship games. Back then everybody waited around to

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congratulate you. In Portlaoise hardly anyone was there; the wholeparish was as dejected as the players.

The journey back was torturous; the bus back was nearly as quiet asthe dressing room we had left in Portlaoise. By the time we hit Cavanthe boys felt like a pit-stop so they went in for a drink there. I didn’t.Mattie and Michaela were sitting with me and they were inconsolable.After all the success with the county minors and under-21s, and thenall the wins we had with Errigal last year, this was a complete shock totheir system. They didn’t seem to have the capacity to cope with thefact that sometimes you actually lose these big games. I told them thatit’s a part of life, not take it as the end of the world, that you have todrive on with a new script. They seemed to cheer up somewhat whenTommy Rafferty drove us down to the local McDonald’s. After aboutthree-quarters of an hour, I popped into the pub to round the boys up.When we got back to Kelly’s, we were greeted by a polite trickle ofapplause. When we had won the county and Ulster the place had beenheaving; tonight, it was just your normal Sunday evening gathering.Again, the difference between celebration and devastation; unreal.

Errigal Ciaran: J Devine; B O'Donnell, C McGinley, D Neill; Emmet McGinley, PHorisk, D Harte; Pascal Canavan, P Loughran (0-2); Enda McGinley, M Harte (0-3,all frees), E Gormley; R McCann, Peter Canavan (0-4, three frees), D Tierney (0-2).

Monday 24 February

I didn’t really feel like going into school to train the under-14s andunder-16s this morning. When I woke up, it wasn’t their Ulster semi-finals tomorrow that I was thinking about; inevitably, it was Nemo.Only then it did really dawn on me that we won’t be in Croke Park onSt Patrick’s Day. I needed a pick-me-up. So I put in a video we havearound the house and pressed play.

It’s a talk given by an American personal development speakercalled George Zalucki. I’ve showed it to the Errigal boys a few times.I came across it when I was involved in network marketing back in theearly nineties, selling water filters. Basically network marketing

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involves people encouraging others to become distributors. You haveto be a motivated person to make something like that move. It’s all finepeople coming together and the mood in the room is upbeat but whenthat meeting is over and the people disperse, you’re on your own. Howdo you keep that motivation? That’s what Zalucki tackles. Today I feltas if I was on my own. That needed tackling.

So Zalucki starts in his passionate yet clear-headed way. He saysthat opportunity is like a coin with two faces; on one side isopportunity equal to its face value, on the other side of the same coinis obstacle. If you’re going to dream lofty dreams you must beprepared to include obstacle. ‘There’s never been a victory without abattle!’ he proclaims. You need to stay committed to your objective.

What is commitment? ‘Commitment,’ he says, ‘is doing the thingyou said you would do LONG after the mood you said it in has leftyou. For most people, commitment is, “I’ll do what it takes! Whateverit takes! For as long as it takes! Until…” And the list is endless. “Untilit’s uncomfortable. Until it’s too tough. Until my mother don’t like it.”Until, until, until.’

He tells me to become my word. And tie it to the power ofpersistence. ‘Persistence,’ he says, ‘is awesome. It is absolutelyawesome. It is what takes an ordinary person of ordinary talent andmoulds them into a champion. Because if you hang in long enoughyou’re going to get good at what you need to do.

‘See, some place, folks, there’s a Red Sea place where we need totake a stand. We need to take a stand with ourselves and recognise thatwe need to hang in. We need to DO what it is we said we were goingto do.’

Today I coached the under-14s and under-16s.

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Tuesday 25 February

St Ciaran’s, Ballygawley, U-14s 5-24 Virginia Voc. School 5-5St Ciaran’s High School U-16s 0-15 Virginia Voc. School 2-3

Just the tonic I needed. The under-14 game in particular wouldreally restore your faith in football. All but one of our points camefrom play. But they had to dig deep too. We were 2-15 to 2-3 up athalf-time yet we weren’t sure of winning; Virginia had showed theywere able to score goals against the wind. And five minutes into thesecond half, our boys could see those fears were justified; Virginia hadscored two more to reduce the gap to six points. But the boys raisedtheir game again to win well.

Justin McKenna in midfield was excellent. Justin captained theErrigal under-14s to their first ever Féile title last summer and he justkeeps getting better and better. Darren Carson, our centre forward, alsowould have caught the eye of the neutral. He’s big for his age but that’snot what sets him apart. He’s a carefree lad who just oozes skill. He’sone of the legacies of Errigal ’93. He wouldn’t have grown up in atraditional Gaelic football family but when Errigal won that Ulstertitle, the whole area went football mad.

We’re in two Ulster finals now. It’s important to me to keep thename of St Ciaran’s up there, competing for titles. Because the schoolis based in Ballygawley, it’s become synonymous with Errigal. Maybeit shouldn’t, since we have players from Augher, Clogher, Killeeshil,Galbally, Beragh, Eskra and Aghaloo as well but it drives me on thatit has. Anything representative of Errigal I want it to do well. The clubis hurting after last Sunday but we’ll be okay. We have Darren Carsonsand Justin McKennas coming through.

Thursday 27 February

All the Errigal men were back training with Tyrone tonight. Normalservice has resumed. It’s been a tough month for all of us. It’s strange.

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The month of February isn’t out and already I’ve suffered threeimportant defeats. That’s more than I lost the whole of last year. All Ilost in 2002 was the All-Ireland under-21 semi-final and the countyreserve championship semi-final. It shows you the nature of football.I know that I was living in a false world last year. I’ll always savourthat year. Now that 2003 is here and I’m familiar with the taste ofdefeat again, I’m hoping it will drive me on to want less of it in themonths ahead. If Tyrone are going to lose games this year, now is thetime. Maybe the lessons and the lessons reinforced from this roughstart will have been worth it.

My previous footballing experience has taught me the danger ofbecoming preoccupied with one particular event or opponent. I canonly hope the Nemo experience will have done the same for others.

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3

GETTING STRONGER

We are what we repeatedly do; excellence therefore is not an act but ahabit.

Aristotle

Coaches should always get their players to think in terms of wantingto, not having to.

American college basketball coach George Raveling

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Sunday 2 March

Tyrone 1-14 Donegal 0-10

As we came out for the second half today in Coalisland, this old boyran down to the wire. “Hey, Harte!’ he roared. ‘That must be the worstTyrone performance I’ve seen in twenty years!’ I looked at him, said‘You know, you might be right’ and walked on.

It wasn’t just because I wanted to avoid an argument with him; Icouldn’t have any argument with him. Whatever about being the worstthirty-five minutes by a Tyrone team in twenty years, it wasundoubtedly our worst this year. A few minutes earlier in the dressingroom I had torn into the players in a way I haven’t for a long time. Idemanded that they put more pride in the jersey, to forget about dietsand the video analysis that we had gone through this morning. This wasabout heart and guts. This was about acting on the day, on the field.This was about putting pride back into the Tyrone jersey. This wasabout Donegal not coming down to Coalisland and walking all over us.This was payback time for Donegal beating Tyrone in the league lastyear. This was a do-or-die game in terms of league survival. Wherewere we going? What was it all about? If we couldn’t dig ourselves outof this kind of dilemma, how in the height of the summer would we doanything different? I’ll leave it to you to add in the expletives; just tosay, there was at least one in every sentence.

It worked. We were particularly helped by Sean Cavanagh’sdetermination to win his midfield battle after he moved there tenminutes before half-time. Then five minutes within the restart KevinHughes had to go off after colliding with Kevin Cassidy. It wasunfortunate for Kevin but on the day, quite fortunate for us; it gave usthe opportunity to get Peter Canavan in quicker than maybe we mighthave done. Peter changed the game. With his first two touches he hadscored a goal and a point, and suddenly, we were in the lead. He wasinstrumental in a lot of our other scores after that too.

Probably the biggest factor was our improved work rate. We askedthe lads at half-time to pick it up around the middle third of the field.


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In the first half there was quality ball going into the Donegal fullforward line. It was too easy for Adrian Sweeney; time and time againhe was able to get out in front because his team-mates out the fieldwere allowed to play the ball in unopposed. In the second half we wonmuch more ball in the middle of the field and even when Donegal didwin ball, they were under far more pressure. Consequently our defencegot very much on top. And our league hopes got very much back oncourse.

Tyrone: J Devine; R McMenamin, C Holmes, C Gormley; P Jordan, G Devlin, DMcCrossan; R Mellon, K Hughes; S Mulgrew, B McGuigan (0-2), B Dooher (0-3); FMcGuigan, O Mulligan (0-3), S Cavanagh (0-4). Subs: P Canavan (1-2) for Hughes (injured), M Harte for F McGuigan, M McGee forMcCrossan, E McGinley for Mulgrew, B Robinson for Gormley.

Monday 3 March

Gerald Cavlan called me at home tonight, wondering where hestands in the scheme of things. He pointed out that three forwards cameoff the bench ahead of him yesterday. He’s afraid he’s being sidelinedand is wondering whether he’d be better of just putting everything intohis club. I’ve assured him that he’s still part of our plans, that Iappreciate that he’s an exceptional talent. I’ve also made it clear thatI’m not happy with his work rate. I said, ‘Ten years ago, Gerald, talentalone was good enough to take a player where he wanted to get. But inthe modern inter-county game, your work rate must be as good as, ifnot better than, your talent.’

I brought him back to the time he came on in the Dublin game. Theprevious time he had played against them, he had scored five pointsfrom play, highlighting what a talent he is. In Parnell Park he onlyunderlined what an infuriating talent he is. I wasn’t disappointed somuch that he lost possession the first time he got it, trying to go insidesomeone. Or that when he got another ball and tried to pass it to OwenMulligan, he kicked it straight into a Dublin man’s hands five yardsaway. What irked was when he got the ball about forty yards from hisown goal. Ger fisted it back inside to a team-mate, but instead of going

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again for the return and involving himself in the play on that side of thefield, Ger just casually sauntered up the far side. This was a player whohad missed most of the McKenna Cup, who hadn’t played in the earlyleague games because of injury, who you thought would be bursting totake his chance, who would be full of energy having just come on thefield for the last ten minutes. To me, his effort simply wasn’tacceptable. I know what a talent Ger is. I was his minor coach. He was our starplayer when we won our first Ulster title in 1993. I’ll never forget theshow he put on in the Ulster final; the pitch in Clones was all cut-up,everyone was drenched, yet Ger, at only seventeen, managed to score1-6 from midfield. He can catch the ball with most people, he can kickwith both feet, he has strong fist passes, he has good vision and he canshoot from anywhere within fifty metres of goal. But that drive, thatdesire is missing. I’ve asked him to examine his conscience in thatlight. The fact he took it upon himself to call me and ask what hisposition is encourages me. Maybe being left out in the cold for theDonegal game is the very wake-up call he needed.

Thursday 6 March

Tonight was an odd one for me; I trained the team on my own.Paddy was down in Cork with the Ranch while Fr Gerard pulled a calfmuscle when kicking a football in school the other day. It was strangenot having him there; he and me seem to have been coaching Tyroneteams together forever.

We go back a long way, the two of us. I was friendly with his brotherColm, the two of us having played on the ’72 minor side together,while Gerard was friendly with my brother Martin, who went to theBrothers’ in Omagh with him. As the seventies went on, we’d go to AllIrelands together. Gerard was in Dublin at the time and was a keenstudent of Heffo’s Army and his methods. He’d go to their trainingsessions and their league games. What I particularly liked about himwas that he’d watch players, not just the match. He was great to go toa game with that way. We’d look at how Tony Hanahoe was bringing a


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new dimension to centre-forward play. Back then centre backs werecoached to mark their men, wherever they went, though that rarelymeant going far from the forty. Hanahoe would roam, taking the centreback out of the middle and creating space for others. Fr Gerard wouldalso study how Heffo deployed Bobby Doyle as an unorthodox cornerforward, roaming out the field, linking the play, creating the space. Isoon realised I had a kindred spirit here, someone with a similarphilosophy on how the game could and should be played. When FrHegarty found he couldn’t give the commitment to coaching theTyrone minors with me, I immediately knew who else I could turn tofor the necessary guidance, spiritual and otherwise.

He’s as shrewd as ever these days, picking up on things that I mighthave missed. He’ll go, ‘Mickey, young Dermot Carlin; he’s very goodfor us when it comes to one-to-one man-marking but do you see whenthe ball is away and he’s meant to be covering back? He sometimesgets lost; he’s watching his man too much and the ball too little. He’snot getting back in covering the zone which really matters.’ Smallthings like that make all the difference.

I called Kevin Hughes aside tonight. We’re not going to risk startinghim against Armagh on Sunday. The slight neck injury he has is onlypart of it; while Kevin played very well against Galway, he was belowpar against Dublin and in that first half against Donegal.

I’ve developed this technique with my players, collectively andindividually, this past few years. If I think a drill or a session isn’t goingas well as it should; say, the quality of passing is deteriorating yetnobody seems to care that a ball was dropped; I no longer tend to bringthem in and give out to them. Instead I gather them around and askthem rhetorical questions impassively. ‘Do you think this is goingwell? Are you happy with what is going on?’

So that’s what I did with Kevin. I asked him how did he feel abouthis own performances of late. He accepted that they hadn’t been great.I asked him did he think that perhaps he was being a bit too tentative?He thought about it for a second and felt it was a fair point. He’s notbeen doing the things that he does well. Kevin has a great leap for aball. He should be able to field ball with anybody like he has for us in

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the past but he hasn’t been doing that of late. He’s been trying littlefidgety things on the ball instead of being direct and decisive.

We also talked about his tackling. We agreed that recently, he hasn’tbeen putting in tackles. He was making half-hearted challenges, thengiving up the ghost, which in turn meant people were able to ghost pasthim. The Americans call that false hustle; making it look like you’rereally trying when you’re not. So I said to him, ‘Things are loomingnow, Kevin. Cormac is almost ready to come back. Ryan Mellon isnow another option at midfield. After last Sunday, so is Sean. We stillhave Peter Loughran to see what he’s worth. A lot of people are vyingfor midfield places and there’s not much solace in looking upfronteither. There are plenty of boys fighting hard for the forward positions.It’s time to start thinking about getting your act together.’

I think Kevin took that on board. He’s a terrific lad. When his facelights up, the whole room does as well. Whenever we win some trophy,Kevin’s always the one who ends up wearing a hat. Mexican, cowboy,those T-like, chef ones; Kevin’s the man who’ll be donning it. He’smade so many big plays for us with the underage teams. We looked likewe could lose to Down in the 2000 Ulster under-21 championshipwhen Kevin used his body to hold off his man and take this high catchon the edge of the square. He turned, slotted it to the net and we wonby a point. He changed that year’s All-Ireland semi-final too againstGalway with a chipped goal. And then there have been the personaltragedies he’s had to overcome. Kevin himself would say ‘overcome’isn’t quite the right term. ‘You never recover from them,’ he says, ‘youjust learn to live around them.’

A month after she had been celebrating the 2001 All-Ireland under-21 title and life itself with her brother in Sligo, Helen Hughes died in acar crash on the lethal Ballygawley-Dungannon road. Helen wastwenty-four. Four years earlier, only five hundred metres up that sameroad, Paul Hughes was killed in another crash on his way with a fewclubmates to an intermediate league match Killeeshil were playing.Paul was twenty-two. He died on a Saturday night. Six days earlierKevin had only been a substitute when we drew with Kerry in the All-Ireland under-21 semi-final. Eight days later he started and starred in


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that classic replay in Parnell Park. One report of that game deemed that‘Cormac McAnallen and Kevin Hughes performed minor miracles atmidfield’. That reporter might not know just how right he was.

I had absolutely no hesitation in starting him in that game. It wasKevin who had passed the ball out to Mark for that equaliser, one ofmany big plays he made upon his introduction in Croke Park. In theweek leading up to the replay, he threw himself into the training. Thefootball helped him through it. So did our presence at Paul’s removaland funeral. Above all Kevin Hughes’ resilience helped him through it.

Kevin himself has been in a car crash. The week before Tyroneplayed Derry in the 2001 All-Ireland quarter final, his car hit an oil spillon a newly tarred stretch of road on his way back from training inAugher. In swerving to avoid the spill, the car skidded off the road andinto a tree. Kevin got out and played the following Sunday. ‘My nosewould’ve been the worst but the rest of me was okay,’ he said. ‘Justsome cuts and bruises.’ Suffice to say, Kevin Hughes will get over thisearly-season crisis.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch. I had the teletext on this afternoon,to find out how their game against Jordanstown was going in Cork. Itlooked promising enough at one stage; they were level at the end ofnormal time. Eventually though the final result came through: UUJ 2-11, St Mary’s 1-13. I got through to Mark and Paddy. They’re gutted.It doesn’t seem to matter that the team played well, that they pushed ateam loaded with county players while having only three or fourthemselves. Today, against their rivals, only the result mattered.

Friday 7 March

I’ve gone over the Donegal video four times now, marking howmany times each player touches the ball. A trend is developing; BrianDooher, Brian McGuigan and Gavin Devlin are the three players whoget on the ball most. Peter Quinlivan has already tagged a lot of thetape himself but I’ll give him the timing of certain passages of play thatI want put together as well. I’ll go over to him in the morning and thenon Sunday I’ll show it to the boys for about twenty minutes when we

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meet up at half-eleven.It’ll be interesting to see how Sean Cavanagh does in midfield. He

seems happy there, judging by what he’s saying in the papers. He’sprobably being a bit premature; I think he should enjoy his good daysand keep a lower profile until he’s put in a few good more midfielddisplays. Again though, that’s only down to inexperience which he’lllearn from. Sean is a very exuberant, enthusiastic lad and for the mostpart those qualities have served us well.

Last year with the under-21s would have been the first time he’splayed under me but I saw him up close earlier than that. In 2001 I wasasked in by the county minor management to give a few trainingsessions. Sean stood out straight away. He wasn’t the captain but hiswhole effort and demeanour was telling his team-mates, ‘Hey, let’s dothe job right, boys.’ He’ll be like that again on Sunday. He’s playedsome Sigerson for Jordanstown this week, which might have taken abit out of him but he’ll raise it for Armagh. Sean is from the Moy, righton the Armagh border. With his clubmate Ryan Mellon playingalongside him, he won’t be lacking motivation.

Sunday’s a big game. There was a stage there where they thoughtit’d be all-ticket. The fact the game is in Omagh now alleviates that.From the way he’s talking, Joe Kernan is backing his horse both ways.He’s leaving out some of his players from the side that won the AllIreland. Armagh don’t need the points; they’ve eight from eightalready. Either way, he can’t lose. If we win with some of his keyplayers out, we still haven’t beaten his All-Ireland team; if he reststhose players and Armagh still beat us, he’s on a real winner. There’sonly one way we can win. Win.


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Sunday 9 March

Tyrone 1-9 Armagh 0-10

Our supporters were euphoric after this one. I didn’t find it thateuphoric. It was a job that needed doing. Two league points were moreimportant to me than any bragging rights over a rival county.

It’s good to see some of the areas we highlighted before the gamebeing put into practice. That’s been the trend all year. We couldn’tbreak the tackle against Roscommon; we did against Galway andwe’ve been breaking more tackles ever since. We’re putting in moretackles. I’ve particularly asked the forwards to increase their work-rateand they have. In fairness, it’s never been a problem with PeterCanavan; he knows it’s an important aspect of the game. OwenMulligan is working much harder than he ever has. Brian McGuigan iscovering back to compensate for Gavin Devlin staying at home atcentre half back and not been dragged all over the field. SeamusMulgrew is fighting hard and tracking back for ball. It doesn’t come aseasily to Frank McGuigan but he’s improving. The whole mentality isgetting there, that when your team hasn’t got the ball, you’re adefender.

Our sideline balls were better too. We pointed out this morning thatin our previous few games there had been no outlet for the playertaking a sideline ball. Today, when there wasn’t an option immediately,boys correctly retreated away from the kick and created a space theycould run into.

It was a close, gritty kind of game in keeping with the gale-forcewind and the occasional shower that accompanied it. The sides werelevel four times in the first half but by the end of it we were a point up.The key score was Owen’s goal. It came after Peter had brilliantlyillustrated his strength by knocking Francie Bellew to the ground andthen springing himself forward to pass off to Owen. Mugsy’s finishwas exquisite. In the second half, we were always that bit ahead. WhenSean Cavanagh tired, Enda McGinley came in and scored two nicepoints. Armagh came back in the closing minutes but overall, as Joe

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admitted afterwards, we deserved to win.They were without Kieran McGeeney, Ronan Clarke and Diarmaid

Marsden but it was still a good team they had out. Steven McDonnell,for one, was there but didn’t score; in fact, he was taken off. We’venow gone five league games without conceding a goal.

I think Armagh were surprised by our tenacity and collectivetackling. They played like that themselves last year but they weren’texpecting it from a team like Tyrone. What surprise element we hadthere will be gone if we meet them in the summer or later in the league.So be it; we have to play now as we intend to go on.

Tyrone: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Holmes, M McGee; C Gormley, G Devlin,P Jordan; R Mellon (0-1), S Cavanagh (0-1); S Mulgrew, B McGuigan, B Dooher; FMcGuigan (0-1), P Canavan (0-3, two frees), O Mulligan (1-1). Subs: E McGinley (0-2) for F McGuigan (43 mins), M Harte for Mulligan (52 mins),C McAnallen for Cavanagh (59 mins), G Cavlan for Dooher (62 mins), P Loughranfor McGuigan (71 mins).

Tuesday 11 March

There’s huge disappointment in some quarters of our school today.Our under-19 girls’ team played St Louis of Monaghan in the Ulsterfinal. At half-time they were behind by thirteen points. But they cameback. They ended up scoring 3-9 in conditions which men, let alonewomen, should never have played in. Unfortunately, St Louis ended upwith 5-7. Their teachers – Maria and Cathy – were proud of the waythey fought but the girls are shattered. It doesn’t matter what age orlevel you play at, this game of ours is highly charged.

There’s another man in the school not very happy. GerryCunningham works with me and he’s a good friend. He’s also a greatArmagh fan and he tells me they’re smarting over there that we didn’tgive his countymen a guard of honour last Sunday. We didn’t mean anyoffence; in ways it was a compliment to Armagh. We were already inthe middle of our warm-up when Liam Nelis came over and told usArmagh would be coming out in a minute or two. I thought it wouldn’tbe a good idea to take our players out of that warm-up and mode of


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thinking; they were getting themselves ready to beat the All-Irelandchampions. Whether I was right or wrong, I don’t know; the fact is wedidn’t do it. Armagh can use it as a motivational tool down the line ifthey so wish. I don’t think it was a hanging offence.

Two people didn’t seem to mind anyway. About an hour or so ago,the phone rang. ‘Mickey?’

‘Yes?’‘Recognise the voice?’It took me a few seconds to work it out. ‘Are you that boy who calls

people at unearthly hours?’‘Aye, your midnight caller! Come here, I’ll put you on to someone.’The next thing, I’m talking to the other midnight caller. They

weren’t calling to abuse me; they were calling just to say well doneafter the win over Armagh and that they liked the way the team wasshaping. They like Sean Cavanagh at midfield anyway, and how RyanMcMenamin is working out at corner back. They thought he could onlyplay out on the wing but hey, they’ve been proved wrong. I asked themagain for their names and they declined but when they asked can theycall me again I said that it was fine. They’re supportive, these boys; notabusive. In fact, I actually quite like them.

Thursday 13 March

It’s hard getting training grounds at this time of the year. We needlights and we need decent pitches; that’s a difficult combination tocome by early in the year. Augher hasn’t been available this past coupleof weeks. We had the use of Errigal’s pitch in Dunmoyle last week butthis week we didn’t because so many of the club’s teams did. JimCurran, our liaison man, had to ring around all the lads who werescheduled to do their fitness test last night and say it wasn’t on. Hecouldn’t even tell them then where we’d be training tonight. Thatmeant we had to have another ring-around session this evening to tellthem all it was in Dungannon. The sooner the hour goes forward thebetter.

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The club scene has started back this week. I don’t have a problemwith that, even though we’re playing the McKenna Cup final onSunday. I said to the county board when they interviewed me for thejob, no one owns the players; not the clubs, not the county; it’s all aboutbalance. I think it’s particularly important that players who haven’tbeen playing regularly for the county team in recent weeks get gameswith their clubs; that match sharpness is invaluable.

Naturally, I’m keeping an eye out for Errigal. Peter Doherty wasnamed as the new manager last night, even though he won’t beavailable for another week or two. Pascal Canavan and CathalMcAnenly, the club chairman, are taking the training at the moment.Their first big game is against Carrickmore on Saturday. It’ll bedifficult just to stand on as a spectator and I’m sure I’ll be makingchanges in my head. I’ll have to live with the fact I’m not part of thatset-up now.

The Monaghan game is an opportunity to experiment. Some playersI don’t need to see. Brian McGuigan and Gavin Devlin have beenadvised by our physios not to play if they’re to be fully fit for the gamein Kerry ten days from now. They’re coming under pressure fromArdboe to play on Saturday. I would prefer if they didn’t but I’m notgoing to stand in their way. They haven’t missed a game for Tyrone allyear; now for Ardboe’s first game, they’re suddenly injured. Peoplewon’t see it that they have injuries; they’ll see it as them picking andchoosing their games.

I want to win on Sunday; we’re only one game from hardware. I alsowant to see some players who haven’t played much in the league. I hadparticularly hoped to play Brian Robinson and Cormac McGinley.Brian, though, injured his knee playing for his club in a floodlit gameon Tuesday while I just found out tonight that Cormac also injured hisknee playing in the Sigerson. Seamus McCallan, who I recalled to thepanel last month, is now available and will play. I don’t know if he hasthe fitness to play with the county within twenty-four hours of playingfor the club but we’ll see.


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Sunday 16 March

Monaghan 1-11 Tyrone 0-12

An awful day, from start to finish. First I hear Brian and Gavinplayed yesterday, which means they’re not a hundred per cent certainfor the Kerry game. Then I find out that Seamus Mulgrew and BrianDooher are out. Then I’m told Ryan Mellon got a straight red card forthe Moy which keeps him out for a month. It means I don’t get to restSean Cavanagh, Philip Jordan, Collie Holmes and Conor Gormley. Inow have to move Ger Cavlan to midfield and Kevin Hughes to fullforward. Handy options admittedly but not the ones I had in mind.

The whole demeanour going to the game is all wrong. Boys laughand joke on the bus and swagger into the dressing room. It isn’tconducive to competition. It shows on the field. We haven’t come toplay; Monaghan have. Tomas Freeman in particular gives us fiercebother upfront. He’s very fast and good on the ball and Monaghan arefinding him a lot. Ryan McMenamin tries his best to curtail him but it’sa damage limitation job.

At half-time it’s level, seven points each. I’m not happy. Last weekat half-time we had played against both the breeze and the All-Irelandchampions and were a point ahead; now here we were, against aDivision Two side and we’re only level with them. I tell them that thisis a final, that there’s hardware at the end of it, a game in which wehave to show consistency.

We do; we’re as bad with the breeze as we were against it. We don’tget the lift in the middle of the field that I had expected from PeterLoughran and Ger Cavlan. Stephen O’Neill is playing below par.Monaghan keep the pressure on and with twenty minutes to go,Freeman scores a goal. We have to introduce Peter Canavan. It helpssomewhat but he has to come too far out the field to get the ball.There’s no real connective play, we aren’t getting regular ball to theinside line. Then the whistle goes and we’ve lost by two points.

The day gets worse. I talk to Michaela. I find out she’s learned firsthand just how low the calibre of some Tyrone ‘supporters’ out there is.

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All through the game she had to listen to continuous abuse of the teamfrom an amadán and his supportive wife; it seems they really weremade for each other. At the start they were just mocking the team ingeneral. Then they started going on about her father. Michaela at thatstage was in tears but wouldn’t turn around to give them thesatisfaction. But it was hard for her to restrain herself. Michaeladoesn’t know whether they knew who she was, only that she has torealise that there are people out there whose brains are something theysit on. Still, it’s not good enough. I’m hurt as it is about the defeat, butI’m hurting even more having seen her that upset.

Tyrone: J Devine; R McMenamin, C Holmes, M McGee; P Jordan, S McCallan, CGormley; S Cavanagh (0-1), P Loughran (0-1); M Coleman (0-2), S O’Neill, GCavlan; M Harte (0-4, all frees), K Hughes (0-1), O Mulligan (0-2, one free). Subs: P Canavan (0-1) for Cavlan, C Gourley for Gormley, E McGinley for Hughes.

Monday 17 March

It was a quiet day. Mark, Michael and Michaela all went up toBelfast this morning so only myself, Marian and Matthew were around.We spent a good deal of it watching the sport on the TV. I was sorry tosee Dunloy get beaten well by Birr in the hurling club final, I caughtsome of the McRory Cup final between St Mary’s and Maghera, and ofcourse, I watched Nemo take Crossmolina. You can’t begrudge themthat win; they’d lost the two previous finals after all and that wasprobably the difference today. Still, when Colin Corkery was liftingthat cup, I couldn’t help but think that it could have been EoinGormley.

I also spent a lot of the day thinking about the Monaghan game.Things come at you fast and furious in this job; we have to pick a teamfor the programme for the Kerry game by tomorrow night. KevinHughes’ form at the moment is of concern. So is Stephen O’Neill’s. Ibelieve they can work their way through this but at the moment it’s nothappening for them. Gerald Cavlan is going to have up his work-ratefrom yesterday if he’s to feature strongly in the summer. The next few


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games will tell me whether he can or not.

Tuesday 18 March

I got a phonecall from Seamus McCallan today. He has determinedthat the speed of the game may have passed him by and that the countyscene is probably over for him. He knows he’ll get fitter as the yeargoes on playing more football but he has doubts now whether he canbreak onto the team. He didn’t come back to make the panel; he wastrying to make the team. After the Monaghan game he seems to realisethat won’t be as easy as it once was. I told him that I appreciate hishonesty. We’ll keep an eye out for his club form but at this stage itlooks like Seamus has played his last game for Tyrone.

Wednesday 19 March

St Ciaran’s, Ballygawley U-14s 4-10 St Paul’s Bessbrook 3-12 (after extra-time);St Ciaran’s U-16s 3-12 Falcarragh Community College 1-9

Even if Tyrone win the All Ireland, it will hardly feel as good astoday in Clones. The under-14s, as expected, won their Ulster title, butthe under-16 Arthurs Cup final was as exciting and exhilarating a gameof football as I’ve been involved in. To win it, the way we did; whenthe whistle went and I turned to Martin McElkennon, we had this lookthat said, ‘This is just something else.’ At half-time in extra-time wewere seven points down. We said to the boys, ‘If they can score sevenpoints in ten minutes, then we can do that too – or better. This game isnot over. It’s a question of do you want to be in the All-Ireland semi-final? Do you want to emulate the team of last year? You’ve raised thebar, you’ve played in a great game, but you can’t go down like this. Notafter the way you played in normal time.’

They didn’t. Brian McKenna converted a free. Then DamianMcElroy got onto a loose ball and slotted it to the net. Then Brian came

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out from corner forward to intercept a pass, just like Sean Cavanaghdid in Parnell Park last month, played a one-two and took his pointwhen there was the slight chance of the goal. It was the right decision,making sure St Paul’s could hear the footsteps. Suddenly their lead wasdown to two.

Then it was gone. Damian again was involved, as was John Kelly,before they found Ronan McRory in front of goal. Ronan’s finish wasexquisite, chipping the ball beyond their keeper. The next thing PatMcEnaney had blow the final whistle, all those St Paul’s fans who weredown by the wire, ready to rush onto the field, were holding their headsin their hands, absolutely stunned.

I can’t tell you what it was like for those boys to see Paul Marlowlift that Arthurs Cup. Of course football at that level is about more thanthe result; I don’t believe winning is everything. I do believe trying towin is though. The fun is in the challenge. You lose the sense of whyyou’re doing it if it’s only to spend an hour kicking a ball. Some of ourkids who won Ulster medals today are not strong academically. Theself-esteem they gained from days like this, the standing they get fromtheir peers, is incalculable. To me, it’s an example of what trueeducation is. Some of them may not be geniuses when it comes to thebooks but they know what it is to discipline and commit themselvestowards a goal to be the best in Ulster. They and society are the betterfor it. Now, ten years from now, thirty years from now.

St Ciaran’s, under-16: P Tierney; P Treanor, M McRory, C Donnelly; DMcDermott, N McGinn, B Canavan; P Marlow, M Donnelly; R McRory (1-1), AMonaghan (0-2), J Kelly (1-0); P Mulgrew (0-2), A Cassidy (1-2), B McKenna (0-3). Subs: A McCullough for McDermott, C McGinley for M Donnelly, B Small for MMcRory, D McElroy (1-0) for Monaghan.

St Ciaran’s, under-14: P Molloy; F McElroy, N McDaid, P McCann; P Hughes (0-2), C McRory, C McKenna (0-1); J McKenna (0-3), M Rodgers (0-1); J Halligan (1-0), D Carson (1-2), B Horisk (0-1); D Quinn (0-2), J Donnelly, D Canavan (1-0).


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Thursday 20 March

I’ve watched the McKenna Cup final a few times now. The lessimpressive it becomes. Every other game this year we’ve prepared wellfor; the time we met, we ate, watched video; all that was built in. Wetreated the Monaghan game lightly and so our performance was a joke.I blame myself for allowing that lax attitude to develop and prevail.Your preparation is your performance. If we can learn that much andtake it into the game in Killarney this weekend, then at least some goodwill have come out of the experience.

Just to be sure we all learn from it, I’m taking ten clips from it whichwe’ll view on Saturday night in Tralee. Normally most of my clips areof positive play but this calls for something different; eight of theMonaghan clips are negative. We’re going to show passages of playfrom the Armagh game too, just to underline the benefits of beingserious about your pre-mach preparation. I feel it’s no harm that theplayers are reminded of the way they can play against one team whocompeted in last year’s All Ireland, so they know how well they couldplay against the other team that competed in that final.

We’ve also prepared some footage from Kerry’s recent win overDublin. It’s a game I taped off TG4 and have studied intensely. A verydistinct pattern emerged. Seamus Moynihan repeatedly drove throughthe middle from centre back and drew people from the centre. ThenEoin Brosnan would take up where he left off and go through themiddle. Dublin were very porous that day. They didn’t have peoplestopping Moynihan before he got to that distance and so the centre halfback had to go out and tackle him. That left a huge hole in the middleof their defence. We’ve got to guard against that. Our half forwardshave to be tenacious in their tackling; they’ve got to close things downbefore they begin. We have to put pressure around the middle of thefield because they will win ball through Darragh Ó Sé. That’s the gameplan. We’ve got to attack Kerry from the start. We’ve got to make lifehard for them, we’ve got to get in amongst them and we simply haveto make sure they don’t get quality ball into Declan Quill and ColmCooper. They’ll cause us fierce bother if we allow that happen.

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Sunday 23 March

Tyrone 1-13 Kerry 0-14

Maybe losing that McKenna Cup final was the best thing that everhappened. The attitude before and during today’s game was splendid.At the start Kerry got some good ball into Quill and Cooper but afterthat our game plan worked a treat. We crowded them around the middleof the field and stopped the runs through the centre. Admittedly ithelped that they were missing Moynihan which meant the same drivewasn’t there but we still turned them over repeatedly in that openinghalf. The game could have been over at half-time. We were 1-7 to 0-4up by then and it could have been 3-7. That’s some going, in Killarney,against the breeze. It was a good thing for them Declan O’Keeffe wasin inspired form; Brian McGuigan and Owen Mulligan were both one-on-one against him but he made two fantastic saves.

The goal we did get might have been somewhat fortuitous – Peter’sshot was deflected by Tom O’Sullivan’s attempted block and loopedover O’Keeffe – but as the saying goes, you have to be in a position toavail of luck. Peter took a ball that had come off the post. I’ve beenpreaching that for a long time now; to chase every ball that goestowards the goal in the event that it may break. Peter’s anticipationmade it a good goal, regardless of how the finish looked.

We knew at half-time that Kerry wouldn’t lie down on their homepatch. It turned out a battle royal. Darragh Ó Sé won a huge amount ofball round the middle of the field. We ended up with a tight game onour hands but Peter’s goal was the cushion. Every time they got backto three points, we would score one ourselves.

I’ve yet to see the game on video but I know a few passages of playI’ll be showing to the lads in the coming weeks. I will do so, mindfulof another piece of footage that I sometimes show the lads. It’s oneFrank Dick, the Scottish motivational speaker, highlights at seminarsthroughout the world. The Lions are playing the Springboks in a crucialtest in that famous 1997 series. They play the ball across the line, a ruckdevelops and Matt Dawson, the scrum half, notices the Boks are


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fouling. The officials don’t, so Dawson starts giving out to the touchjudge. The next thing Keith Wood just dives into the middle of theruck, kicks it fifty yards up the field, runs after it and the SouthAfricans have to put the ball out. Dick gets very excited when he seesthat. He says that when the BBC in their review of the year edited outthat segment of action before showing Guscott’s drop goal, he wroteinto them. His argument? ‘How do you expect our kids to understandthe importance of interdependence, initiative, teamwork and seekingthe chance to make a winning difference, if you don’t show them? Actlike Wood has acted there! It’s not his job! He’s a hooker! But hestepped outside the box and brought his extra skills to the party to makeit work.’ That doesn’t just excite Dick. It excites me. And that’s whyI’m excited by a few incidents today.

A minute or so after he kicked a point at one end of the field, BrianDooher tracked back to block Colm Cooper in the right corner-backposition. That will be on one of our upcoming videos. So will anexceptional piece of thinking by Cormac McAnallen. With only a fewminutes to go when we were only two points up and Kerry werecoming at us in droves, Kerry won a free out the field. As it was beentaken, a few of our players were looking around, arguing with thereferee. Cormac ‘Woody’ McAnallen did not. Instead he made aheadlong run back into the centre of our defence to make sure no goalopportunity arose. As it happened, the ball was played quickly fromone Kerry player to the other, and then sent inside only for Cormac tointercept it, win a free and take it out himself. It was a big, big play.

It was great to see him back today. He knows he’s not yet match fitbut his drive, enthusiasm and intelligence were very obvious. Eventhough Darragh Ó Sé put on an exhibition of fielding, Cormac andSean did well. They worked hard and scored three points betweenthem. They now know that even if Ó Sé wins a lot of aerial ball, we canstill perform and win. That could be important because if we’re to getwhere we want to this summer, the chances are we’re going to have togo through Kerry.

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Tyrone: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Holmes, M McGee; C Gormley, G Devlin,P Jordan; C McAnallen (0-1), S Cavanagh (0-2); S Mulgrew, B McGuigan, S O'Neill(0-6, four frees); B Dooher (0-1), P Canavan (1-2, one point a free), O Mulligan (0-1). Subs: C Gourley for McGee (53 mins), E McGinley for Mulgrew (65 mins), KHughes for McGuigan (71 mins).

Tuesday 25 March

Tonight was our first Tuesday night session. We’ve gone to twonights collective training now and one individual workout a week. I’mhoping that extra session will bring our fitness on for the Cork game;we waned a bit in the last ten minutes against Kerry. But I’m happywith how we’re going now. If we beat Cork, we’ll have the same recordas the side had last year and will be on course to retain the trophy,having played within ourselves. Stephen O’Neill’s display last Sundayis another reason to be upbeat. He scored six points, two from play, andhis confidence appears to be back.

Tonight was disappointing in some ways. We had only sixteenplayers training, between injuries and letting the three youngestmembers of our panel train with the under-21s. The effort put in by thesixteen was good. It was hard, fast work. We also scheduled animportant team meeting for Saturday. We need to re-evaluate the goalsand commitments we made in early January. The Derry game is lessthan eight weeks away.

Saturday 29 March

When I referred to our first team meeting in Paudge Quinn’s, Iclaimed it could prove to be a historic one. I wouldn’t go that far abouttonight’s but it was every bit as constructive. I think we’re much thebetter for it.

We confined it to just the players, Paddy, Fr Gerard and myself.After forming a circle, we broke the twenty-eight players present intoseven groups of four, each of them around a round table with a pen and


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a piece of paper. We gave them a topic to discuss – lifestyle, trainingand match-day preparation – for maybe ten minutes, then asked eachgroup to respond through a representative before Paddy wrote some ofthe key findings and conclusions from their feedback up on theflipchart. Every player was free to speak his mind. It didn’t matter ifthey seemed like little things they were talking about; on this team webelieve little things add up to big things. We wanted to know what theywere thinking, how did they think they were doing. We asked themquestions of themselves, especially when it came to lifestyle. Howwere they delivering? You don’t tell them whether it’s good enough;you ask them is it good enough. They’re going to answer honestly.

The way I look at it, Paddy, Fr Gerard and myself have knowledgethat’s valuable but so do the players. If we collate our collectiveknowledge, that’s best of all. Many managers are dictators but I thinkthe day of the dictatorial manager is gone. There can be no superiorityor elitism about this. You cannot own people. I want players who think,who aren’t spoon-fed. They know I’m still the monitor, the arbiter, butI want to be transparent to the players. I want them to know that I makemistakes and am prepared to make mistakes and that I’m prepared tolearn from mistakes. There’s no finished product. We’re all people inthe making. I’m being made every day; I really believe that. I think itwould be a sad day that if in a year’s time, I’m the same person that Iam now. That would mean I’ve switched off, that I haven’t exploredmy own abilities. I have to do that. That’s the thrill of life. Tonight wasparticularly thrilling. By the end of the night the flipchart read like this:

LIFESTYLE- Peer group pressure- Sleep- Improve hydration- Drink compromise- Post-training supplements- Nutrition improve

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TRAINING- Earlier training time (7.30)- More game situations pre-championship- Warm-up and stretch – more time- Rushing drills- 1 hour – 1 hour 10 minutes- food to training

MATCH-DAY- 30-man panel and management only- Players’ own routine- Too many non-players in the dugout- Variety of pre-match meal

TEAM SPIRIT- Killarney first time felt like a team- Encouragement- Talking among team

I’d better explain what we meant by those points. By peer grouppressure we were speaking of positive peer pressure. The lads are to tryto be in each other’s company as much as possible. It’s easier to do theright thing, to apply our group’s norms, when you’re with somebodywhose from that group. We have no drink ban. It doesn’t matter what Ithink on the matter; it’s about the players giving the best to each otherand for each other. The thing is, a lot of our circle don’t take a drink.I’m a pioneer, just like my father and mother were and my six brothersand two sisters are still; indeed, my own children are currentlyteetotallers too. I loved going out in my Ranch days but I’d stay strictlyto the glass of orange. Stephen O’Neill is another pioneer. ConorGormley doesn’t drink. Neither does Declan McCrossan. They’ve gotthe athlete mentality; ‘I’m an athlete first and drink is a poor second.’We don’t mind fellas taking the odd drink. The will of our circle wasthat that they’d be allowed a drink or two after a game. That is the onlydrink it will accept from hereon in.


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The players also agreed that if they were staying up until half-twoor half-three in the morning, it was as good – or as bad – as a night’sdrinking. Some players admitted that they weren’t taking the requiredamount of water each day and that they’d have to improve theirhydration intake. Others accepted that they needed to be moredisciplined in taking their post-training vitamins and Pharmaton. Theyneeded to get back on line and re-commit themselves to our objective.

Then we moved on to training. A majority of the fellas said they’dprefer if we moved our sessions forward thirty minutes to half-seven.Paddy, Gerard and myself had no problem with that so that’s how it’llbe from this Tuesday on. The lads also felt it would be less time-consuming if instead of training, showering and heading off to someinn or hotel for our post-training meal, caterers would bring the food tothe training venue itself. Again, I saw the merit in it and I don’t see theboard having any difficulty with it.

Some of the boys spoke about our warm-up, that they felt it was toostrenuous and intense too early. Paddy had no problem taking it onboard. Just as I saw their point that we hadn’t been doing so muchkicking in our drills. I explained that we had been keeping so many ofour drills close together because we weren’t training in daylight; whenthe hour went forward we’d be using a greater area of the pitch in ourdrills, meaning there’d be a greater emphasis on our foot-passing.

The management have already tweaked aspects of our sessions. Atthe start of this year we had all our drills up on a flipchart in thedressing room. While the boys would be togging out, we’d explain theflipchart in more detail so they’d know exactly what they were doingand where they were going once they hit the training pitch. But we’verealised it hasn’t worked out like that in practice; it’s actually lessconfusing to explain it to the lads when they’re out there. We werewasting time when people were ready to go. Now we just give them thegeneral themes the session will cover.

After the discussion about training, the players then talked aboutmatch-day preparations. Imagine if you had the same breakfast everysingle day? Well then, why should players have the same pre-matchmeal every time? If it’s always pasta and chicken, if it’s not decorated

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differently, it dulls their mental awareness ever so slightly. Why giveaway that inch?

Another big point to come out of tonight was the importance of theplayers having their own time and space. The fellas felt there were toomany non-players in the dugout during a match and too many of themin the dressing room before it. They have no problem with the MickeyMoynaghs, Francie Gouldings, physios, doctor and liaison men allbeing there at some stage, but not in that last twenty minutes beforethey take to the field. For the final countdown that room has to becleared; it is an intimate time and place for the thirty-man panel andmanagement only. I can identify with it, I’m going to implement it, butI’m going to have to explain it to the likes of Mickey, Francie, JimCurran and Frank Campbell. They’ll all understand, I’m sure. The vowof the circle has been to do what is best for Tyrone. A clear dressingroom in those twenty minutes is what is best for the mental state of thefootballers of Tyrone. In no way does it devalue the contribution therest of the circle make to the cause.

Boys also pointed out that they could do with a bit more time fortheir own little routine after we had our collective warm-up done;again, it was a good point that Paddy and myself wouldn’t have beenaware of.

Every point on that flipchart tonight was a valid one. Some peoplewill talk about it being ‘player power’; well, if that’s player power,great. I don’t think they’re being demanding. They’re not saying, ‘Hey,we have to go to La Manga because Armagh did last year.’ Myphilosophy is, ‘Earn your privileges. Don’t demand them in advance.’These aren’t privileges they’re asking for; just small things that willmake a difference.

A lot came out of that trip to Killarney. It was about much more thantwo points; it was our first weekend away as a group. I noticed a greaterdynamism from it in training myself on Thursday night, so it was goodto hear the circle felt the same. Killarney has brought us on. Tonighthas brought us on even further.

It’s been a very interesting day all round. I had already received aneducation this afternoon. There I was a few months ago, criticising


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Ballinderry for misreading the Errigal-Crossmaglen game which theyweren’t involved in, and then I go and make the very same mistakemyself. I’m very, very lucky. Today in Roscommon our under-16s in StCiaran’s qualified for the All-Ireland vocational schools final. Wealmost didn’t. For the simple reason one of our coaches, a certainMickey Harte, was guilty of complacency.

Last week I went to the Connacht schools final in Ballinrobe withSean McKenna. It was a culture shock coming from Ulster; there wereno spectators, no atmosphere. St Brendan’s Belmullet won, 4-8 to 2-5,but I thought that we’d beat them well. Privately Sean and myselfagreed that we’d be amazed if we didn’t win by at least double figures.I didn’t declare that to our players, naturally. I told them we werecapable of beating them, that they had some strong players here andthere but the boys obviously sensed from me that I felt this wasn’t a bigask. It was. By half-time we had kicked twelve wides and only twopoints. Belmullet by then had five points. The boys in fairness shookthemselves up and in the end we scraped through, seven points to six.Some days coaches bail players out but today the players bailed me out.I feel foolish that I let my guard down. It’s an experience I will bringwith me for the rest of my coaching days. Don’t underestimate anyoneor anything and never read any judgement into two other teams whenyou’re not directly involved yourself.

Monday 31 March

It’s good to talk. It was underlined again today with another seriesof productive meetings. In school Martin and myself didn’t train theunder-16s at dinner time; instead we took them into the lecture theatre,broke them into small groups and had them assess what they felt aboutthe game and the preparation for it. It was enlightening. Essentiallythey found it extremely difficult coming off the high that was winningUlster. That game was such a classic, there’s a video of it about andsome of the lads confessed they may have watched it at least once toooften. They also found the lack of atmosphere in Roscommoncompared to Clones hard to cope with and felt they didn’t put enough

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into their last week of training. I know they have the benefit ofhindsight in saying all this but it’s good for them to be thinking likethis.

Then this evening I was over in Quinn’s Corner again for a seminaron player burnout and managing talent. All the county chairmen andmanagers within Ulster were invited. Jarlath Burns chaired it, whilethere were various speakers, including a physio, some medical peopleas well as Art McRory, Mickey Moran and Jim McCorry.

It’s undoubtedly an issue. Even at our meeting at the same venuelast Saturday night, Enda McGinley was wondering about rest betweentraining; Enda after all is just out of under-21 and between club, countyand college, has had a hectic few seasons in recent years. Severalfrightening case studies were presented tonight. Everyone agreed thatplayers were being torn between several managers and being asked todo contradictory training on alternative nights. Finding the solutionwas the problem. Everyone wants to win.

Some people were all for doing away with the under-21 competitionbut Joe Kernan and myself said that would be a regressive step. Thatgrade gives players more time to mature and develop their game. Youask people who follow the American sports and they’ll tell you; thegame is poorer for kids skipping college and going from high schoolstraight into the pros. There mightn’t be money in the college game butit’s where you have time to serve an apprenticeship. Under-21 footballis a lot like that, a critical stepping stone.

It’s all a matter of compromise, common sense and balance. Ourown chairman, Liam Nelis, sensibly suggested that there should be awelfare officer in each county who would have an exact timetable ofevery player’s commitments; he then would determine where theywent on certain days, depending on which competition was looming.The problem, of course, will be finding someone strong enough to dothat.


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Thursday 3 April

My back has been at me these past eighteen months so I went toMarie McElhinney, the chiropractor in Derry, today. I feel better afterthe treatment. She’s getting an adrenalin supplement that I findrecreates the proper equilibrium in my system. Brian Dooher goes toMarie regularly as well so she’ll probably pass it onto me through him.

There are more pressing injuries in our camp. Owen Mulligan hasn’ttrained this week. Michael McGee pulled up in training and is out forthe Cork game. Ryan Mellon has a virus to go with his suspension.Cormac is also suspended after getting a straight red card with the clublast Sunday. That’s just as bad as it could get. He needed theseupcoming games having missed so many with that knee injury. CormacMcAnallen is not the kind of player who would get himself sent off andyou’d have to ask what were the circumstances that led to that.

Brian McGuigan is still struggling with that Achilles problem.We’re not risking him on Sunday. We’re going to see how Ger Cavlanfares at centre forward. We’ve thrown down the gauntlet to Ger. It’s aposition he can play and an opportunity he can take. Ciaran Gourleyhas the adaptability to come in for McGee; he did very well on DerekSavage before his injury.

For all the absentees, training has gone very well this week. We hada heavier session on Tuesday and a lighter session tonight. We laidparticular emphasis on kick passing, fist passing, shooting and forwardplay, being conscious of what the players said last Saturday. I’mdelighted with how the training in general is going. Paddy Tally hasbeen a tremendous boost to the scene. Myself and Fr Gerard wouldn’tbe close to having the expertise he has when it comes to fitness, dietand nutrition. Paddy brings much more than expertise too; he bringswhat I call effervescence. There’s just an incredible enthusiasm abouthim. He’s always thinking, always planning, always reading up, alwayswriting stuff down, always throwing ideas at you. I know he was a weebit in awe of the whole thing at the start, coaching men older than him,coaching some big names, but I said to him, ‘Paddy, no one knowsmore than you about what you’re doing. You’re the expert.’ It’s

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working out better than I even imagined.I’ve conversed a lot with Peter Quinlivan this week and we’ve a

good deal of video work to show for it. We have to; this is a massivegame on Sunday in Dungannon. Whoever wins is certain to be in theleague semi-final. If we lose, that’s six weeks waiting for the Derrygame. That’ll be costly because Derry, more than likely, will be playingin the closing stages of Division Two. They’ve whipped everyone sofar, bar drawing with Tipperary, and I expect them to beat Longford onSunday. If they were playing competitive football and we were onlygetting challenge games, well, it’s a scenario I wouldn’t like.

Cork, like ourselves, have had a few hiccups on the road, butthey’ve beaten big teams in Kerry, Galway and Dublin. We’ll beshowing our players some clips of their win over Kerry. I’ll beparticularly emphasising one passage of play which lasts for about aminute and a half where they must have put in seven or eight hits. Theirgame this year is based on a lot of aggression; Larry Tompkins hasobviously been studying Armagh. If we’re ready for that physicalpresence it won’t have the impact Larry is hoping for. In fact we’ll betelling our players not only must they be ready for it but that theyshould retaliate first in the most positive and sensible fashion. Get inthere, put a few hits in. Don’t just give them the talented, fast-movingTyrone they’re expecting; give them that secret element, that new edge,that new steel we’ve been working on.

Sunday 6 April

Tyrone 1-17 Cork 0-14

The boys were obviously taking in the video clips we showed inPaudge Quinn’s this morning. They weren’t at all intimidated byCork’s physical presence. We set the tone, jumping into a 0-6 to 0-2lead. Cork came back to go ahead with about fifteen minutes to go butthen we pulled away again, scoring 1-6 without reply. The benefits ofstepping up the collective training to two nights a week definitelyshowed.


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I’m very pleased with Gerald Cavlan. He scored five points fromplay in front of his home crowd today. It’s now a matter of replicatingthat appetite and application. It’s important to this team that he does; ifwe have Gerald Cavlan playing close to the height of his game, we’llgo very close to winning it all.

Gerald isn’t the only man who’ll be putting a regular under pressure.Enda McGinley filled in for Owen Mulligan at corner forward and didvery well. In defence, John Devine had another clean sheet, making aparticularly good point-blank save from Mícheál Ó Croinín. RyanMcMenamin had a great game on Colin Corkery, even if Corkery didscore a few points at the end.

Ciaran Gourley struggled in the other corner. We tried him out onthe wing and moved Philip Jordan to the corner but that didn’t workeither. Philip was uncomfortable away from the wing; he had alreadyscored a point and we lost that drive he provides us with from there.Ciaran still couldn’t get to the pace of the game because of his lack ofmatch fitness. We ended up replacing him with Dermot Carlin whoproved to be a success, coming out with a lot of good ball.

Peter was Peter. It was as if he had taken umbrage to people sayingthat Niall Geary had shut him down in the Errigal-Nemo game. TodayGeary couldn’t stop him. Neither could Sean O’Brien. Peter ended upwith six points, three of them from play. He provided us with greatleadership in those closing fifteen minutes. When the ball was dead andthe sides were level, he went up the field and personally egged onvirtually our whole team.

It means we’re through to the semi-finals. In fact, we’ve ended uptopping the table, thanks to Kerry’s last-minute goal against Armagh.We play Fermanagh now. Who’d have believed that in mid-February;we had lost two of our first three games and they had lost their firsttwo. I’m quite happy with how we’re coming into these final stages.This time last year Tyrone were killing teams and people were ravingabout them; this year, we’ve come in along the rails.

The one downside is that Derry were beaten in Longford. I couldn’tbelieve it when Kenny Curran from Team Talk told me that on the fielda minute or two after our own game. I was anticipating having a better

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look at them. Now the spotlight is off them. They’ll be waiting in thelong grass for us, watching everything we do. It’s a dangerous scenario.I’d still take our spot over theirs though.

Tyrone: J Devine; R McMenamin, C Holmes, C Gourley; C Gormley, G Devlin, PJordan (0-1); K Hughes (0-2), S Cavanagh (1-1); S Mulgrew, G Cavlan (0-5), SO'Neill (0-1); B Dooher, P Canavan (0-6, three frees), E McGinley (0-1).Subs: M Harte for S Mulgrew (half-time), D Carlin for C Gourley (43 mins).

Wednesday 9 April

Great news; the GAC have decided both our game and the Armagh-Laois semi-final will both be in Croke Park. We’re thrilled about it.We’re out to enjoy the experience of a league semi-final in itself and tofamiliarise ourselves with a venue we hope to see a lot of this year. I’malso happy for Fermanagh. They haven’t played there in something likethirty years. I’m particularly pleased for Martin McElkennon. Herethey are, only five months after him coming on board with DominicCorrigan and they’re in Croke Park, having lost Rory Gallagher, PaddyMcGuinness and Liam McBarron; it’s a tribute to his coaching thatthey’re there. Even though he’s already been involved with the Tyroneminors in ’97 and won a league and reached an All-Ireland semi-finalwith Eamon Coleman in Derry, this is probably his best inter-countyachievement yet.

It’s going to be a bit awkward in our staff room next week. Otherswill wittingly or unwittingly try to stir it up but Martin and myselfwon’t rise to it. Instead we’ll just politely smile and say lines like‘Don’t mention the war.’ We have too much respect for each other toengage in any kind of dialogue on it. We’re too competitive to dootherwise. He’s like me in many ways. He’s very single-minded, keepshis feet on the ground and loves a challenge. He has an insatiableappetite to learn, constantly looking up books on other sports to takesome techniques and drills from them. He’s a lot like Paddy that way.I know how fortunate I am to be working with two such hungry, youngcoaches. The one difference is I’ll be talking constantly about the game


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to one of them this next ten days and not at all to the other. At the endof the day, Martin is not with us on this one.

Tuesday 15 April

This morning Dominic Corrigan and myself were the focus ofattention at a press reception held at the Allianz offices in Belfast. Weexchanged pleasantries and gave the media people their share of quotesand photos. It was harmless stuff really, neither of us wanting to sayanything that would give the other some ammunition for Sunday. Thereality is Dominic has already given me some fuel for Sunday. I respecthim as a football man and what he and Martin have done this year, butI can’t forget his attitude this time two years ago.

You’ll remember the Foot and Mouth crisis back then. What youmight have forgotten is the extreme measures various units of the GAAtook at the time. One was to prohibit players from the Loup playing aleague game for Derry against Fermanagh, even though Paul McFlynnand his clubmates were in the stand watching that same match. Anotherwas to share the McRory Cup between Omagh CBS and St Michael’sand let the latter side go through to the All-Ireland semi-final eventhough most of the Omagh boys were further away from the outbreakin Ardboe than the Enniskillen team. Another was to prevent Tyronefrom playing in the league semi-final. And another was to kick Tyroneout of the All-Ireland under-21 championship. The Tyrone countyboard, Art and Eugene were willing to accept the senior team’scircumstance. I know I wouldn’t have and I certainly wasn’t going toaccept ours.

We had been all set to play Fermanagh in that Ulster under-21 final.We were just after finishing our preparations in Omagh on the eve ofthe game when word came through that there had been a case of Footand Mouth in Ardboe. The next day the Ulster chairman John O’Reillycame on the air and declared that we were out of the All-Ireland seriesand that Fermanagh were being nominated to play either Cork orLimerick. I remember being on the motorway when I heard that.Michaela started to cry and I said, ‘Don’t worry, Michaela. All’s not

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lost yet. I’ll fight this to the end.’Then that Sunday night, Dominic called. He said that we’d play the

Ulster final later in the year but in the meantime Fermanagh would goon. His inference was that Fermanagh were being very understandingand fair about all this; sure weren’t they letting us have the chance ofwinning the Ulster title? I wasn’t buying it. I told him straight,‘Dominic, an Ulster title isn’t worth a damn to us; it’s all about the AllIreland.’ The whole impetus we had gained from the team of ’97 couldbe disrupted. Dominic, our own county board, Ulster Council and theGAC could think what they liked but I wasn’t going to let that happen.There was too much mileage in this whole operation to let thatmomentum go.

When the reporters started looking for my reaction, I let no doubt asto how aggrieved I felt about this decision – the public needed to know.That’s not how officialdom likes you going about things but I had noother choice. This wasn’t about keeping them happy; it was aboutkeeping our team together. Adrian Logan invited me onto UTV. I hadonly ninety seconds to make my case but I rattled off my points, lettingeveryone know that we weren’t taking this lying down. Then othermedia picked up on it. I gave one particularly good interview to RTE’sCon Murphy on Radio One. I said that people in administration had ajob to do and on most occasions they did it very well but on thisoccasion they hadn’t. This was supposed to be an all-Irelandorganisation, that if anything mitigated against any one of us in a partof the country, you would normally expect support from the rest of thecountry instead of leaving us behind. The under-21 competition hadoften been run off in September and October in the past; why the hurrythis year? Wasn’t it devaluing that very competition to eliminate thereigning holders for agricultural rather than football reasons?

Mayo didn’t think so. They were already in the final after a goodwin over Meath and wanted it played before the summer; the fact thattheir manager Kevin McStay was returning to duty in the Lebanon leftthem with less room for flexibility than I would have liked. Our plightregistered with some sporting men. Frank Murphy and Cork wereparticularly sympathetic and empathetic to our cause, saying they


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would be prepared to wait for the Ulster final to be played. On my waydown to see Cork and Limerick play in the Munster decider inKilmallock, I got a call from the Sunday Tribune’s Philip Lanigan,asking me how I felt to be back in the All-Ireland. How did I feel?Elated. I don’t think I quoted Zalucki to Philip but I could have. Theman is right. Persistence is awesome, absolutely awesome.

I believe many of our current seniors will be forever mindful of thattime. For all the bonding we did in ’97 and ’98, for all the good thatcame out of winning the 2000 under-21 title, that 2001 All Irelandcemented it all. They realised just how committed I was to their causeand careers, that I would challenge and fight for them. Because thistime I wasn’t asking them to do something for a greater cause, like thepeople of Tyrone, the memory of Paul McGirr, or the people of Omagh;I was doing it for us, the team that had been abandoned.

I won’t forget that time either. I’ll make sure we use it for Sunday,just as we did when we played and beat Fermanagh in that Ulsterunder-21 final. In this game, you need any edge you can get. As a goodcoach himself, Dominic would understand that. It’s nothing personal,strictly business.

Sunday 20 April


The dreaded word came up at half-time today: Sligo. It was patentlyobvious in the first half that cloud was hanging over us. AlthoughFermanagh were very tenacious and we were only a point down havingplayed against the breeze, our performance simply wasn’t acceptable.We decided that this was what Zalucki would call a ‘Red Sea place’. Itwas time to take a stand. We reminded ourselves not only of last Julybut that nearly all Tyrone’s performances in Croke Park over the pasttwenty years had been poor, even the few we had won like the semi-finals in ’86 and ’95. It was time to raise our standards in Croke Park.The upcoming second half presented us with a chance to do just that;to get back to a final, playing independent, expressive football.

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The boys did just that. Peter bagged a great goal within twentyseconds, which was quickly followed by a few more scores. Before weknew we had four goals. Owen got two and then Peter got another one,an absolute gem, lobbing Ronan Gallagher. Some positional as well assome mental adjustments facilitated that blitz. In the first half our half-forward line and midfield were holding the ball up and not letting it inearly enough. We had Brian Dooher playing as a roaming cornerforward, with Mugsy and Peter inside, but we weren’t getting thesupply into them. At half-time we decided we’d revert to an orthodoxfull forward line, with Enda McGinley going in and Brian moving outto the wing. It worked.

We let them get three points at the end which slightly disappointedme because I thought we should have held out. Still, I’m quite pleased.Fermanagh are well organised with Martin in the fold; we wereexpecting a tough game regardless of the public perception that was outthere.

We’ll be playing Laois in the final. They beat Armagh, by threepoints. Armagh were trying but they weren’t crying either afterwards.Playing us a week before their first championship game againstMonaghan would not have been a challenge they’d have relished.They’ll have been happy enough just re-familiarising themselves withCroke Park today. We had to win there today.

Tyrone: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Holmes, M McGee; C Gormley, G Devlin,P Jordan; K Hughes, S Cavanagh (0-1); E McGinley, G Cavlan (0-1), S O'Neill (0-3,two frees); B Dooher (0-1), P Canavan (2-4) O Mulligan (2-1). Subs: D Carlin for McGee (15 mins); M Harte for McGinley (64 mins); F McGuiganfor Cavlan (64 mins); S Mulgrew for S O'Neill (65 mins).


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Sunday 27 April

St Ciaran’s, Ballygawley 6-6 Tullow 0-4

Vicky Aragon once said that the thrill and the test of a trainer wasn’tto win with the most obvious, most fancied horse; anyone could winwith it. The joy and the challenge was winning with what peopleperceived as the third or fourth horse. This season has been like thatwith this under-16 team. At the start we doubted whether they wouldget out of Tyrone. Now they are All-Ireland champions. Every one ofthem is a credit to the school, his family and most importantly, tohimself.

Today wasn’t their toughest test but it looked tough enough at half-time. We were only 2-3 to 0-2 up then. We told the boys that Tullowwould fancy their chances with that wind but that the elements weren’tgoing to win the game; it was going to be our energy and application.We reminded them that they were only thirty minutes away frombringing back-to-back All Irelands to the school, something our schoolhad never done before. It was a very focused and determined StCiaran’s that took to that field for the second half. They missed theirfirst few chances but kept their heads and shape and finally it began tohappen. We got a point, then a goal and then the floodgates opened.

Aaron Monaghan was outstanding, scoring two penalties and threepoints. Aidan Cassidy was class at wing forward, as was CiaranMcGinley from midfield. The backs were excellent, especially PaulMarlow at centre back; he took up their best player and shut him down.Aodhan McCullough and Barry Canavan along the wings and NiallMcGinn at full back also starred. Along with last year’s success atunder-16 and under-18, that’s three All Irelands in two seasons for theschool now.

There was one disappointing note to the day. Holy TrinityCookstown, the team Peter coaches, lost the under-18 final, 4-9 to 2-7to Causeway from Kerry. You could say they’ve done very well to getthat far but that’s not the way a competitor like Peter will look at ittonight. That’s two big games this year in Portlaoise alone that he’s

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lost. Next Sunday he’ll be looking to make sure it’s Portlaoise that ismiserable after a big game, not him.

I was talking to a few Laois people today after the games andthey’re really looking forward to it. With Mick O’Dwyer there, they’retalking the big talk. Whether they can walk the walk, as McGeeneyputs it, we’ll see. The same has been said of Tyrone, that we’ve hadunderage success, that we’re good at this time of year but when itcomes to senior football and the senior championship, we don’t deliver.We want to show that underage football is meaningful at senior level,that it can be translated into senior success. We did it from eighteen totwenty-one; I don’t see why we can’t do it from twenty-one to twenty-three and twenty-four, especially with Peter Canavan, Chris Lawn,Brian Dooher, Ger Cavlan and Collie Holmes to complement us. It’stime to lay this myth of us being nice wee league footballers to rest. Asnice as today was, I want another national title going home to Tyronethis day next week.

St Ciaran’s: Paul Tierney; Paul Treanor, Niall McGinn; Conor Donnelly; AodhanMcCullough, Paul Marlow, Barry Canavan; Ciaran McGinley (1-0), John Kelly (0-1); Aidan Cassidy (1-0), Aaron Monaghan (2-3), Ronan McRory (1-0); BrianMcKenna (0-1), Mark Donnelly, Paudge Mulgrew (1-1) Subs used: Barry Small for C Donnelly, M McRory for Canavan, Damien McDermottfor Marlow, Ryan Gartland for M Donnelly, Marc Tierney for McGinn. Other subs: Damian McElroy, Mark McCormack, Stephen Quinn, Dominic Molloy,Jeff Mulgrew, Eoin Quinn, Emmett Quinn, Daniel Boyle, Aidan McElroy.

Wednesday 30 April

I was down in Dublin for a league final press reception today. It wasin the Allianz building just over from the Burlington and I must say Ienjoyed it. Micko was there, full of life and memories; I couldn’t havedreamt of this some time back, sitting beside the manager of all time.Liam Sheedy, the Tipperary hurling selector, seems a lovely fella whileI was very impressed by how Brian Cody handled a question aboutCharlie Carter. He said he was at that reception as Kilkenny teammanager and with that went the responsibility for picking the team best


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suited for a given day. He said that tensions come and go, that he wasa player himself and a sub himself and knew what it was like to startone day and be on the bench the next. ‘If there's any player on the panelwho's not picked to play and isn't unhappy, then he's not worth a curseto the team,’ he said. ‘I love to see subs disappointed not to be picked.’A very intelligent response that, to a question he obviously hadanticipated.

Thankfully, our team news isn’t as headline-grabbing as Brian’sbusiness with Charlie. What news we do have is mostly good news. Wehave a bigger panel to pick from than all year. Chris Lawn is back inthe frame. Ryan Mellon appears over his sickness and suspension.Cormac is also back. We’re going to play him at midfield on Sundayinstead of Kevin Hughes; Cormac needs the game. Brian McGuigan isgoing to come back in at centre forward. Ger Cavlan has done quitewell there, but as he pointed out to reporters after his five points againstCork, Brian McGuigan has probably been the best centre forward inthe country this year. I’m glad Ger is seeing that we’re doing what wefeel is the best for the team. If he and the lads continue to see it in thatlight, then I won’t have to be fielding any Charlie Carter-like questions.

I had a good chat with the man who asked that hard question aboutCharlie. Brian Carthy is a very nice man; he even left me over to mysister’s house when he spotted I was looking for a taxi. On the wayover I told him about the plan Michaela drew out for us in ’97. Nowhere we are, in a league final and only six championship games awayfrom achieving an ambition she predicted six years ago. She has suchfaith in God and her own belief in this whole process that I’m nearlyinclined to believe her at this stage.

Sunday 4 May

Tyrone 0-21 Laois 1-8

Well, that’s one of the cups I talked to Kenny Curran about inBundoran delivered. We very much deserved it too. We never trailed atany stage nor looked like we ever would.

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We opened up well, scoring the first six points. Then we gave awaya sloppy goal, allowing Ian Fitzgerald fist a forty-five to the net. Theyscored a point or two after that again to bring the huge Laois supportinto it and at half-time we were only 0-10 to 1-4 up. In the dressingroom we told the boys that while the scoreline was flattering Laoissomewhat, we’d have to raise it even more in the second half, that therewas no point in coming this far and not finishing off the job. It’s oftensaid people don’t remember who won the league in a given year. That’snot true – what is true is that people forget who else played in thatleague final.

The boys responded as well as we could have hoped for. Conditionsdried up and soon so did the supply to the Laois forward line. Ourcombined play and work rate was very good. Peter and Owen werebuzzing, Brian Dooher was picking up a lot of ball, Stephen O’Neillwas showing just why he won an All Star in 2001, Sean Cavanagh wasgoing well while Gavin Devlin was superb at the back. We ended upscoring seventeen points from play. Four of our forwards ended up withthree points each from play, including Ger Cavlan who did very wellafter he was introduced.

The one downer was an incident between Gavin and ColmParkinson. On TV he looks to have stood on Parkinson. When thereporters asked me about it afterwards, I told them the truth, that I waswatching the match, not television, so I couldn’t comment on it. Itseems to be the big talk among the media but I can’t see themsuspending Gavin. The referee booked him on the day havingconsulted his umpire. They let some Kilkenny and Tipperary hurlersoff with worse in a league game there a few weeks ago.

There were no wild celebrations. We had our normal ritual of eatingsome bread and chicken in the dressing room within half-an-hour of thegame being over. When we got back for a bigger meal at Kelly’s Inn,there was a small gathering for us; in fact I’ve seen more people thereafter some Errigal games. The boys took themselves off to Hennessy’sin the Moy, an establishment run by Peter Loughran. They’re allowedto drink but as I said in my speech, they’ll know how much theyenjoyed tonight come Tuesday because Paddy’s session will tell them.


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Tyrone: J Devine; R McMenamin, C Holmes, M McGee; C Gormley, G Devlin, PJordan; C McAnallen (0-1), S Cavanagh (0-1); B Dooher, B McGuigan (0-1), SO'Neill (0-4, one free); E McGinley (0-1), P Canavan (0-6, three frees), O Mulligan(0-3). Subs: G Cavlan (0-3) for McGinley (42 mins), R Mellon (0-1) for McGuigan (59mins), C Lawn for McMenamin (62 mins), D McCrossan for Gormley (67 mins).

Thursday 8 May

The team that were crowned national champions four days agoweren’t even the best team in Tyrone tonight; our second fifteen beatour first fifteen in an in-house game in Dunmoyle. Actually, with someof the injuries we had, it was really thirteen-a-side, but still, it told a lotabout how fierce the competition for places is. It was particularly goodto see Chris Lawn playing fifty minutes after his brief runout againstLaois; he’ll be in contention for the Derry game. Ciaran Gourley waslooking sharp again after his injury troubles and poor display againstCork. Frank McGuigan and Mark Harte showed well against the twocorner backs, Ryan McMenamin and Mickey McGee. We’ll have moreof these games before the season is over because tonight was aninteresting encounter played at a tough pace.

Tuesday night’s session was conducted at a tough pace too. Paddyensured we were as good as our word on that. It involved bits ofstamina and circuit work and from the way the fellas responded, theydidn’t go overboard on Sunday night.

There are some difficulties we could do without. There’s a huge on-off saga concerning club games this weekend. I have clubs inundatingme with phone calls. It’s wearing me down when I should be preparingsingly for the Derry game in ten days time.

It’s like this. The GAC here in Tyrone have scheduled games for thisweekend. Clubs are talking about refusing to play them. We understandthere’s a rule which states players aren’t obliged to play with theirclubs within thirteen days of an inter-county championship match.Right now there’s great pressure on our players to break that thirteen-day rule. I have a great relationship with the county chairman, LiamNelis, but I’m disagreeing with him strongly on this one. I feel he

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should just bite the bullet and call the games off. The clubs are willingto play the weekend after the Derry game. That doesn’t seem to matterto the GAC. They’re being very pig-headed about it all. Liam’s attitudeseems to be that if you appoint someone to a spot in the GAC you can’toverrule them. I don’t agree; do you really have power if you’rehanding it over to someone else?

I don’t think they’re being fair to anyone here. We’ve alreadyallowed five league games to be played before the championship; therehas been many a year that didn’t happen. It’s not fair to clubs either.You take Errigal. They’re being asked to play two club games withoutseven players against a Dromore team missing only one county man.Or take Ardboe; they have four county players to Carrickmore’s one.The big problem is the way our league is decided. In Errigal we wereproposing that you’d have a top four, with semi-finals and a final todecide the league winner, and a similar bottom four format to deciderelegation issues. That way, clubs could countenance playing a fewleague games without their county players. But that’s not how it is.Instead it’s decided purely by who finishes with the most points. Again,I disagree with that; what’s the point playing for a league title if it canbe won by default? Or in clubs realising there’s nothing to play for andso treating it as a glorified challenge game circuit?

Right now the clubs are being told that if they don’t play thematches, the other side will get the points. That’s hardly acceptable. Ifit goes that way you’re into a whole series of appeals; it’s an awful fussto create over no good reason. I have enough mitigating factors as it iswithout our internal ranks working against me.

One of those other mitigating factors is another GAC, the nationalone that is. You’d swear we never kicked seventeen points from playagainst Laois; all the talk is about the Gavin Devlin incident. I’ve seenit since and I was disappointed. I said it to him, ‘Gavin, that was crazy.’He admitted, ‘I know; I don’t know why I did it.’ It was incredibly outof character. But while it looked bad, it wasn’t vicious. He didn’t drivethe boot in. It was a token gesture; ‘You’re down there and I’ll keepyou down there.’ I’m wondering now whether he’ll get a fair hearing.There’s a much greater hue and cry about this than there was about the


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hurling game in Nowlan Park. The same criteria that applied to NowlanPark should apply in Gavin’s case; if the referee dealt with the matteron the day, that should be the end of it. Paddy Heaney from The IrishNews was onto me. He had already been onto Tony O’Keeffe, the GACchairman. O’Keeffe is essentially saying that while they made theirdecision regarding Nowlan Park, they’ve put in a rider to say that itwasn’t a precedent for future cases. I can’t see the consistency in that.If they take Gavin to task, we look forward to challenging it becausewe feel it’s very challengeable.

While things could be better, they could be worse too. I like ourprofile at the moment with the media. Martin McHugh isn’t giving usmuch credit, saying the championship is a completely different ballgame. He’s also saying there’s a brand of gamesmanship we’reintroducing, that our players are going down injured. That statementjust baffles me. Martin’s fine in my book though if he keeps writing usoff. So is Dominic Corrigan. He thinks Derry will beat Tyrone. That’smusic to my ears. They’re all following last year’s script. All theyremember is that Tyrone, as national league champions, lost to Sligo.They don’t seem to acknowledge that Tyrone had two wonderful gameswith Armagh, the second without Peter and could have won both. I alsobelieve they haven’t given sufficient credence to the fact that we wona harder league this year. Kerry and Armagh were in Division Two lastseason; they weren’t this year and we beat them both. People thinkwe’re still only a league team, that when it comes to the real prize wewon’t be there. Let them keep thinking that and let that drive us on.

We’re going back to the Citywest this weekend. We need a pre-championship camp. Paddy already has sent the kitchen staff there thefood we want prepared. I’ve talked to Jimmy McCann, the outdoorpursuits instructor, about some exercises we could do and he’s lent ussome equipment. We have a few short, sharp sessions planned, somepool sessions, some golf and a few team meetings which we’ll leave tothe players to talk about their lifestyle and their goals. We’re alsoputting a CD together. I’ve asked everyone to pick a song that makesthem feel good about football. Every little motivational tool countsnow. Every single day I’m going to have to come up with a little saying

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that says what we’re about. It’s the championship and everything stepsup.

As the circle would say, we’re going to another level.


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4

OPERATION FRONT DOOR

Tyrone are playing vibrant attractive football but they continue to lookmore like an under-21 team. They lack power and tend to loseconfidence in the close games. They can turn over almost anyone in aone-off but Sam is well beyond them.

Joe Brolly, Breaking Ball 2003 championship preview

Brian Dooher is a bad footballer. If Tyrone win an All Ireland withBrian Dooher, I’ll eat my hat.

Colm O’Rourke

Next!

The Tyrone team bus’s verdict on Cormac McAnallen’s choice of song

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Sunday 11 May

There’s things I want, there’s things I think I wantThere’s things I’ve had, there’s things I wanna haveDo I want the dreams? The ones we’re forced to see?

Ryan McMenamin’s song, ‘Just Looking’, The Stereophonics

It’s the championship alright. It started today and with it, theinevitable shocks. On the bus back from Dublin we heard that Limerickbeat Cork by ten points; the margin of victory, rather than the victoryitself, amazed me. Then we stopped off in the Glencarn in Castleblaneywhere we saw Monaghan beat Armagh. Imagine; the championship isonly a weekend old yet Armagh and Cork are out of their provincialchampionships.

I felt Monaghan over-celebrated a bit, even if their work rate wasexcellent, just as Paul Finlay’s free-taking was. I could understand iftoday’s game had been under the old system and Armagh would nowbe dead and buried. But this overt display of euphoria, outside thehidden confines of their own dressing room, showed a bit ofinexperience. I think they’ll live to regret that. I think Armagh will stillbe there when the shake-up comes. They were without McGeeney andOisin today but they’ll return. Joe will use this setback as a rallyingcall.

I think these two shocks will help us. There’s no chance of us nowbeing overwhelming favourites against Derry and no chance of theboys being complacent.

It was good to get out of the county with all the club games thatwere on. Our weekend camp was very productive, especially lastnight’s team meeting. We decided on some topics for discussion, so wedivided the lads into five groups to explore them. We referred to thegreater intensity we’d be meeting from here on in, particularly fromDerry. We talked about increasing our own intensity, particularly inexecuting more blocks. We spoke about the importance of our workrate; the term ‘Hunt’ went up on the flipchart. So did ‘positivelyruthless’, that if we had the chance to kill off teams, we’d do so and


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avoid another Sligo. We talked about time management and propersleep, about solidarity no matter what, about positive body languageeven when the going was tough.

We then asked two questions: out of ten, what did they think weretheir chances of winning the All Ireland, and what did they think wastheir level of commitment towards that goal? The average response tothe first question was six and a half out of ten. The response to thesecond was eight out of ten. The latter poll did not impress Peter. ‘If it’snot ten out of ten for any of ye boys, you shouldn’t be in this room.Hunger shouldn’t be an issue here at all.’ I knew where he was comingfrom. He was basically saying, ‘Look, I’ve been here before. Unlessit’s a ten thing you’re not going to be even anywhere near it.’

I wasn’t overly concerned though. I thought it was healthy to hearone or two other boys honestly admit, ‘Well, no Tyrone team has wonit before.’ The younger players didn’t want to come across as toococky. If they answered ‘Ten’ to the first, well, they probably fearedthat they’d be giving the impression that winning a senior All Irelandwould be just as easy or as difficult as winning at minor or under-21.There was actually a humility to it. Clarity was lacking in what theywere being asked and it’s taught Paddy, Fr Gerard and myself to bemore precise in our questions. It was still a good exercise. Peter’sreaction has made them even more committed. There’s a realdetermination there to be the best and a very fine focus for the Derrygame.

Tuesday 13 May

Can't stop, addicted to the shin digcop top, he says I'm gonna win big

Chris Lawn’s song, ‘Can’t Stop’, Red Hot Chili Peppers

I had to call Ryan McMenamin aside at training tonight. He’s not onthe team for Sunday. It’ll be the big talking point around our selectionbut I believe it’s the right call in both the short and long term. Ryan hasbeen carrying a bit of an injury and his form has dropped since he hit


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Croke Park; I fear he’s been in a bit of a comfort zone in recent weeks.We have a strong panel. If you’re struggling, we have someone to comein. In this case it’s Chris Lawn.

It wasn’t easy coming up with our forward line either. GeraldCavlan came on and played very well against Laois, while EndaMcGinley started that game very well before faltering somewhat. Itwas between the two of them for that sixth spot but I’ve given the nodto Enda. Gerald has shown the impact he can make coming off thebench. He could do that again on Sunday.

The GAC are meeting as I speak. Judging by the soundings in thepress, it looks rather ominous for Gavin Devlin. Whether he’ll get ahearing before Sunday, I don’t know yet. It’s a cloud hanging over usbut we’ve named him to play. Gavin is desperate to play. He’s fromArdboe, right on the Lough shore. If you’re from there, right on theDerry border, well, you want to play in games like Sunday’s.

Friday 16 May

It’s been an intense week this, preparing for the Derry game, butI’ve ensured I’ve enjoyed some of the diversions my diary hasprovided. As I keep saying, balance is everything.

On Wednesday I received the Tyrone Courier personality of themonth at the Dungannon sports shop. It was a very nice honour to get,as was the fifty-pound voucher that went with it. Later that night Iattended a Club Tyrone information night in Kelly’s Inn. They’re agroup of people dedicated, among other things, to ensuring thatconstant funds are available for the promotion of Gaelic games atcounty level. I made a point of thanking them for their commitment tothe county teams. ‘A big effort is being made on the field and it takespeople like you to meet it off the field,’ I told them. ‘You’re the peoplewho make camps like last weekend’s possible. We want you to knowthat it is money spent wisely. I cannot guarantee you success in termsof winning more trophies. I can guarantee you that everyone on ourpanel is doing everything in their power to be the best they can be. AndI am quite happy with where that will take us.’


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Tonight I was in the Valley Hotel for the Clogher Valley rugby clubfunction. It was a bit strange, being a men-only affair, but I washonoured to be there. There was a time not so long ago when youcouldn’t have dreamed of a Tyrone football manager being asked to it,so I thought it was important to acknowledge their gesture with mypresence.

Being there briefly took me back to my youth. I actually playedsome rugby when I was in my last year in the Brothers’ in Omagh. Iwas overage for our McRory team, so I lined out for the OmaghAcademicals youth team, or the Colts as we were called. Sometimes Iplayed at full back, sometimes at out half, sometimes out on the wingbut more often at centre. My pace meant I was quite handy; in fact thecoach there recommended that I go to the Ulster under-19 trials. In theend, I declined. The rugby was just a bit of enjoyment. I didn’t want tospoil that outlook.

I enjoyed tonight too. I was made feel very welcome, the food wasgood, as was the company, while Jim Neilly, the BBC commentator,was very amusing in his after-dinner speech. Many people wished mewell; some even joked that there’d be a bit of rugby to Sunday’s game.I don’t know about that but it will be physical, competitive and intense.Mickey Moran and John Morrison like their teams to play goodfootball just as I do, but Derry-Tyrone games take on a dimension oftheir own. The rivalry between the two counties is incredibly intense.Only Armagh would have been as difficult a first-round draw but we’revery confident we can overcome it.

We have a lot of video footage that we’ll show to the boys tomorrowin Galbally. We’ve analysed our own game against Laois, and the twoTyrone-Derry games from 2001. Even in the Ulster semi-final that yearwhich Tyrone won, it was evident that Tyrone were on the back foot inthe last fifteen minutes. It’s also obvious from watching those twogames that they try to find Paddy Bradley every time. We expect themto carry the ball out of defence a lot – Mickey Moran teams generallydo – so we have to put pressure on the ball out the field. We have to putpressure on them all over the field. If you don’t in a Tyrone-Derrygame, you’re finished.


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Sunday 18 May

It's almost like success is a maiden lady sitting on the alter of riches,saying alluringly, ‘If you want me, remember, the road to my altar ofriches is going to be laden with obstacles.’ If you do not quit, you shallacquire the knowledge and skills along the way and be victorious.

George Zalucki

Tyrone 0-12 Derry 1-9

As our team bus was making its way through the crowd in Clonesbefore today’s game, Mickey Coleman’s choice of song was beingplayed on our CD. It was that old Labi Siffre song from 1987. In it,Siffre sings, ‘You thought that my pride was gone; oh, no. Somethinginside so strong.’ The boys were silent when it was on so they musthave been listening. Today they actualised that lyric. With twelveminutes to go, we were four points down. You could almost hear peoplethinking, ‘Typical Tyrone; always threaten, never deliver.’ Theythought that our pride was gone, but no. The players responded to thathuge challenge. We introduced Gerald Cavlan, Kevin Hughes andRyan McMenamin and they all made a big impact. Ger kicked a greatpoint while Kevin kicked another in the closing minutes after receivinga cross-field pass from Ryan. In the end we even had three chances togo ahead but wasted all three of them. Still, we came back. There’ssomething inside so strong.

In the lead up to this game we had anticipated that we could allowDerry to get twelve points and we’d still win the game. We reckonedwe’d score fifteen or more ourselves. We managed the Derry quota butdidn’t reach our own. We’re fortunate to have another chance.

It’s so vital that we have. Defeat was not an option today. Our firstAll Ireland has to be won through the front door. If we had lost today,if we lose next week or in an Ulster semi-final or final, we still haven’tproven beyond doubt that we can deal with the knockout scenario. Thatelement of doubt will creep back in when the heat is on in Croke Park.How are we to have the confidence we need against the likes of


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Galway, Kerry or Armagh if we’ve lost in Ulster? A previous championcan win it through the backdoor, like Galway did in 2001, like Kerryso nearly did last year, like either of them or Armagh or Meath couldthis year. But if a new team is to break through, it has to be through thefront door.

We started well today. In the first fifteen minutes we were huntingfor the ball in packs, turning them over and notching some nice scores;Brian Dooher in particular was flying. Then Mickey McGee pushedPaddy Bradley over the sideline. It was the kind of call you’d normallyget away with but this time we didn’t and Bradley converted a verygood sideline kick against the breeze. Then some of our passingbecame wayward as did some of our shooting. When we were seven-two up, we had the chances to go nine-two up. But we didn’t and justbefore the break, we turned the ball over and Bradley punished us witha point.

They got a lot of heart from that. Enda Muldoon scored the firstpoint of the half with an effort that bounced over the bar, then Bradleyscored another and then Muldoon scored one more. There was nofluency to our play. They had thrown a cordon across the field, betweentheir half-back line and full-back line, which meant we couldn’t get theball through to Peter and Owen. With Derry having an extra man backthere, indeed, sometimes a second, it meant when our players got onthe ball they were finding it extremely difficult to pick someone out.Then nine minutes in they played a long ball down the middle whichColin Holmes didn’t quite cope with. It ended up falling on the back ofDerek Dougan’s neck, he slipped it to Paddy Bradley and then Bradleycrashed it to the net. They followed it up with a few more scores,Bradley again the chief tormentor. Thankfully we showed some steeland spirit to eke out the draw.

Tempers became frayed at the end; Conleth Gilligan ended upgetting sent off in an altercation with Ryan McMenamin. Emotionswere running high throughout actually. Mickey Moran was veryanimated on the sideline, especially about the referee. I don’t feel thatwas justified. Pat McEnaney did well. Like any other referee he didn’tgive all the calls you’d expect but over the seventy minutes it levelled


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out. We lost some things we thought we’d get, and we won some freesthat other days we wouldn’t. I have no cause for complaint and I don’tsee why Mickey has either.

I will give Mickey one thing. Both he and John Morrison devised avery good game plan. They’re quality coaches as they proved withDonegal last year. We’re going to look at some video if we’re to comeup with a game plan to beat them in Casement next Saturday.

Already I know our work rate has to improve. When we workedhard, Derry weren’t there, but we stopped and allowed them into thegame. Defensively we didn’t use our spare men well. We tended tohave extra men back but they were just covering space and allowingour corner backs get the run around in one-on-one situations, especiallyfrom Bradley. The players who get back have to go and help someonein trouble. We can’t afford to give Bradley any more isolations. Thequality of ball into the inside forwards also has to be looked at; Owenand Peter didn’t get a score from play between them.

Peter Quinlivan will be seeing a lot of me this week.

Tyrone: J Devine; C Lawn, C Holmes, M McGee; C Gormley, G Devlin, P Jordan;C McAnallen, S Cavanagh; B Dooher (0-3), B McGuigan, S O'Neill (0-1, free); EMcGinley, P Canavan (0-6, five frees, one 45), O Mulligan. Subs: G Cavlan (0-1) for O'Neill (half-time), C Gourley for McGee (48 mins), KHughes (0-1) for McGinley (63 mins), R McMenamin for Lawn (63 mins).

Tuesday 20 May

The GAA supporter is a strange and resourceful creature, which shouldnever be under-estimated and never, ever trusted.

Liam Hayes, ‘Out of Our Skins’

Well, they’re still out there, the amadáns who are allowed set freetheir ideas in the letter pages of The Irish News. I’m not convinced bythe merits of this ‘Off the Fence’ section; these people don’t have tovalidate their arguments. There was some J Daly boy in it today, callinghimself a Tyrone fan. He says Chris Lawn slows Tyrone’s whole playback to second gear. He thinks Brian McGuigan should be played in the


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corner because he hasn’t got the strength and power for centre forward;I ask myself, ‘Did this man watch a league game this year?’ Heparticularly hammers me for selecting Enda McGinley and MickeyMcGee, hinting that I’m picking them out of favouritism and that theyboth ‘need to be axed if Tyrone are to have any chance of competingfor an All Ireland’. That’s an incredible statement. While I’m thinkingof leaving them out for Saturday, they’ll both have a big part to playbefore the summer is out. The lead-up to last week totally justified theirinclusion. For our ‘supporter’ to claim Enda is ‘forty per cent belowcounty standard’; again, how can that argument be valid?

It just shows you the vitriol that’s out there. Here we are, winningthe league final by ten points, getting a draw with a good team in Derrybut it’s still not good enough; we’re supposed to be perfect. You’ddread to think what would happen if we were to lose. I don’t intend togive such imbeciles that opportunity.

Thursday 22 May

Learn as if you were to live forever;Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Former basketball coach John Wooden

The secret between a draw and a replay is having something new.You must have a new script. People’s minds tend to stay in the drawngame and capture what went on there but I think you must make thepoint to your players that it’s a new game. This week we’ve impressedthat on our players.

Ryan McMenamin stays on having come on the last day. We’renaming him at right half back and Conor Gormley at left corner back.That’s not how they’ll line out though; they’re going to switch. Ryanplayed all his football last year at wing back so Derry will think we’rereverting to old ways again but Ryan will be the man who takes upPaddy Bradley.

Declan McCrossan is also coming in. Gavin Devlin’s hearing isscheduled in Dublin for Saturday morning. It’s absolutely farcical,


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calling a player before the GAC when he has a match a hundred milesaway a few hours later. The timing of the meeting suggests it’s now amatter of how many games Gavin misses. I told Declan tonight thathe’ll be playing centre back. Normally we want our number six stayingat home, a role Gavin has perfected, but again, we’re going to trysomething different. Declan will follow their centre forward, who wethink will probably be Paul McFlynn. That roaming role should suit aball player like Declan.

What should help Declan is that we’re going to have CormacMcAnallen playing deep as a holding player. Anthony Tohill didn’treally play in midfield last Sunday; instead he played in front of his fullback line and behind his half back line. I think they’ll use him the sameway again, which means we can afford to drop Cormac back in asimilar role and let Sean Cavanagh play the football in the middle ofthe field. We’ve also decided that Chris Lawn will take up Muldoon,regardless of whether Muldoon drifts around midfield or takes up onthe edge of the square.

Offensively we’re making significant changes. We won’t be playingthe predictable game we’ve been playing all year, the game everyonehas had time to watch and Derry have had time to negate. While ourpreference, our philosophy, is to be deliverers of the ball, not carriersof it, we need a Plan B against Derry. We’ll be carrying the ball moreand running at Derry more and looking to play diagonal passes topenetrate this cordon.

To give Derry something else to think about, we’re putting a bigman on the edge of the square. Kevin Hughes has been named at lefthalf forward instead of the injured Stephen O’Neill. But as soon as theball is thrown in, Owen Mulligan is coming out to Kevin’s position,Peter is moving to the corner and Kevin is going straight in at fullforward. It means we have the option of the hanging ball close to goal.It mightn’t always be quality ball but it will be dangerous ball.

On a lighter note, I see that the other Mickey Harte is singing forIreland at the Eurovision on Saturday night. The reference seems to beon the tip of everyone’s tongue, especially any radio interviewer. Theway I tend to answer it is well, I definitely can’t sing and I don’t know


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what Mickey Joe’s management skills are like. I just hope that like himI have reason to be singing on Saturday night.

Saturday 24 May

Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?One without a permanent scar?And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?

Kevin Hughes’ song, ‘Drops of Jupiter’, Train

Tyrone 0-17 Derry 1-5

A good day in general for us, but it had its bad moments too. Thismorning Gavin Devlin was hit with a three-month suspension. Weexpected the book to be thrown at him but not so hard; six weeks andthey’d have made their point just as forcibly. He travelled to Dublinwith our secretary, Dominic McCaughey, and back with him too, so wehad the mobiles on to find out where they were when we were cominginto Belfast. Their car and our bus stopped on Kennedy Way. WhenGavin came on board he was given a rapturous reception. It wasimportant that we stopped for him. It gave Gavin a lift and gave us agreater sense of cause.

As disappointing as Gavin’s suspension was, it didn’t compare tothe news the Derry camp were hit with this morning. Patricia Bateson,the sister of former county player Declan and current minor James, waskilled in a car crash. Patricia was only twenty. The minor game wasobviously cancelled while her cousin, Kevin McGuckin, didn’t line outfor the senior match. It undoubtedly affected the performance of theirBallinderry players. Enda Muldoon didn’t have a good game and itwasn’t all down to our brilliance; he would know the Batesons well andI don’t think his mind was properly on the game. We could identifywith what he was going through; tragedy has visited our teams in thedirect form of Paul McGirr and Kevin Hughes’ brother and sister. Butthere was no talk of the game being put off, so we had to go on doingwhat we had come to do.


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One goal was to prove some critics wrong. The last thing we playedbefore we got off the bus was Joe Brolly’s analysis of last week’sdrawn game on The Sunday Game. Joe is a very intelligent,entertaining, articulate and likeable guy but he went completelyoverboard on how ‘masterful’ Derry’s defence was and how ‘spineless’we were. It was very hurtful to us – and classic ammunition for us.

We dominated from the start. Sean Cavanagh set the tone bywinning the ball from the throw-in and kicking a brilliant point on therun. It turned out his partner in midfield, Cormac, hardly got a chanceto play the role we had assigned for him. Early on he got a slap fromAnthony Tohill in the face; then in another incident he got hit with aboot in the nose and split his lip. It meant he had to go off after lessthan ten minutes, so we brought Ciaran Gourley on as a blood sub. Itthen transpired Cormac had to go to hospital so Ciaran stayed on anddid very well at the job we had assigned for Cormac.

Declan McCrossan also thrived in his role. He ended up markingGareth Doherty, which suited us fine because McFlynn would havebeen a greater creative threat there. Declan ended up followingDoherty, giving him the opportunity to go forward. As it turned out, heended up kicking a point. In fact, Chris Lawn did likewise just afterhalf-time, his first point in fourteen years of playing for the county.

Those points by Declan and Chris finished the game. We had been0-10 to 0-2 up at half-time, playing with the breeze, which I always liketo do in a first half. We were more clinical than last week; we couldhave been as much ahead at the same juncture in Clones. Our policy ofcarrying the ball and running at their defence worked. They ended upgiving away frees which Peter converted brilliantly. Derry and MickeyMoran in particular were constantly complaining. I don’t know why;few of those frees were handy. On several occasions Mickey engagedwith Doctor Seamus and a few of our substitutes; thankfully I did soonly once with some verbals about a decision across the park. It wasn’ta nice scenario; the pressure seemed to be getting to Mickey. He wasn’thappy with Pat McEnaney last week, today he wasn’t happy withMichael Curley.

I was happy with our work rate. At half time we told them to keep


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it up, to attack the lead, something which we hadn’t done in Clones.Geoffrey McGonigle came on for them and scored a goal and threepoints from frees to add an air of respectability to it. We weredisappointed with conceding that goal but happy enough with whatwent before it. Ryan ended up holding Bradley scoreless from play; infact Bradley was taken off at the end. Owen and Peter didn’t score fromplay either but they won plenty of frees. Owen in particular linked theplay well as a wing forward; Niall McCusker didn’t look comfortableout there at all. While I reminded reporters afterwards that we’re notthe finished article, we’ve shown we can vary our game and that wehave steel. Any team that beats Derry by nine points has.

Tyrone: J Devine; C Lawn (0-1), C Holmes, R McMenamin; C Gormley, DMcCrossan (0-1), P Jordan; C McAnallen, S Cavanagh (0-3); B Dooher, B McGuigan(0-2), O Mulligan; P Canavan (0-8, seven frees, one ’45), K Hughes, G Cavlan (0-1). Subs: C Gourley for McAnallen (injured, 7 mins), P Horisk (0-1) for Gormley (60mins).

Monday 26 May

They ask me why I teach, and I reply,‘Where could I find more splendid company?’

Glennice L Harmon, ‘They Ask Me Why I Teach’

Today I met an old friend at Belfast International Airport. The firsttime I met Declan Gallagher, we were both in a boys’ home on the ArdsPeninsula. I was a fresh-faced teacher just out of the Ranch, teaching abit of PE, a bit of English and some religious education. It wasn’t theeasiest post I could have landed, that home in Kircubbin run by the DeLa Salle brothers; these were troubled kids, some of them sixteen andbarely able to read and write. I knew I had it a lot easier than themthough. There was nowhere else for them to go; this was their home. Ifound a real sense of achievement in trying to understand them andhow the real world worked. And I particularly enjoyed dealing withDeclan Gallagher. Declan was born from a relationship between hismother from Belfast and an African medical student. I was his favourite


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teacher and he was my favourite pupil. He had a lovely, affable manner,a smile that would light up a room and was extremely eager to learn.There was a sense of apathy, even hopelessness among some of ourstudents but Declan was never afflicted by it; he rose above it. Then,after five years, a job as a youth tutor in my home parish of ErrigalCiaran came up and I got it. That was September 1982, and graduallyover the years that followed, that boys’ home in Kircubbin seemedalmost like a different lifetime.

Then one Christmas Marian and myself were taking the children tosee Santa in Dungannon. We were walking along the mall in Curley’sOaks Centre and passing this man when I stopped, turned around,glanced back and shouted, ‘Declan?’ He was already looking at me.‘Mister Harte!!’ We must have stayed there for ages, talking like long-lost friends because, well, that’s exactly what we were. At that timeDeclan was being fostered to a family in Donaghmore, so he was backin Tyrone for the weekend to visit them. After that meeting, we’ve keptin touch and met up.

Today he headed off to London to live with his partner and their twokids to take up a new lecturing post. I didn’t know he was going quiteso soon; we happened to be there dropping Marian’s friend Jo back offafter the bank holiday weekend. It was terrific to see him. I’m delightedthat he has been so positive on life’s journey and I’m proud of the factI made an impact on someone like him in that environment. That homein Kircubbin is long gone but it did well to turn out a young gentlemanlike Declan Gallagher. When anyone asks me about my first job, thefirst thing I tell them about is Declan Gallagher.

It was good to see an old friend. I needed the lift. It’s almost certainwe’ll be without our first-choice midfield for our next game.

Sean Cavanagh looked like one of the best midfielders in thecountry on Saturday; how many men have scored three points by half-time against a midfield boasting Anthony Tohill? Sean was just afterfinishing his exams, in flying form; now we don’t know whether he’llplay for us again this summer. He chipped a bone in his ankle playingfor the Moy yesterday. He could even miss the Ulster final too if weget to it.


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When Sean was sitting in the Accident and Emergency waiting areain Craigavon last evening, his midfield partner walked in with afractured cheek bone. Cormac McAnallen seems to be jinxed this year.

That next game will be against Antrim. They beat Cavan inCasement Park yesterday, somewhat against the odds but not againstthe run of play. I was there and it’s patently obvious that we’ll have towatch their target man Darren O’Hare; he scored two goals yesterday.They have some other very mobile forwards. Kevin Brady’s link playand use of space was impressive yesterday but I think his roaming stylewill suit Declan McCrossan. We should win but it could be tricky. Atthe airport a few Antrim boys came over and were asking how did wehope to live with young O’Hare. The banter’s starting already. So is thepreparation.

Monday 9 June

There … is a fierce determination to redesign Gaelic football. Much ofthis process is predicated on the theory that Gaelic football is, orshould be, a ball-propelling game. This is utter nonsense. Ever sincefootball was invented, it has been a ball-possession game.

Former Down great Joe Lennon

The Ulster championship is getting some awful criticism this past fewweeks. I wouldn’t be as paranoid about it as much as others up here are;there have been some bad games here, just as there have been some badones in the other provinces. I’m just not sold on some of the criticismsand solutions being offered.

Martin McHugh in The Star and Tommy Conlon in the SundayIndependent believe the game is too crowded, that it should be reducedto thirteen-a-side. Martin was a good footballer and Tommy is a goodwriter but I think their argument is sheer nonsense. They’re saying thepitch is too small for the modern player. But if you had a bird’s eyeview of the pitch, you’d notice everything is played in the middlechannel. I believe when David Alred, the kicking specialist whomrugby teams regularly hire, was asked by John Morrison to study both


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the Gaelic ball and game, Alred pointed out, ‘Do us a favour; use theflanks. At the moment you could run a bus lane on either wing.’ He’sso right. There are fifteen players at the moment and at most they’reusing only two-thirds of the pitch. So if you took two men off eitherside, all you’d have would be a smaller number of people bunching themiddle of the field. It would be better if Tommy and Martin wouldhighlight that few teams use width in their play. Why don’t we havemore teams with their forwards playing a wider game before cuttingin? Why do we play up the middle like a horde?

They have to understand that in the modern game, people are notallowed to field high, clean possession. If they are, it’s a weakness ofthe opposition. So what if our game is not about high fielding? There’sa myth that we used to have this wonderful game when everybodycaught the ball above their heads. Few clean catches were ever made.If clean catches can still be made, great; but if you have to reach intothe skies to catch a ball, it probably isn’t the best ball anyway.

If you look at some of the old TG4 so-called classics, they wereactually atrocious. They were catching the ball sure, and then justturning in some direction and driving the ball forward as far as theycould. There was no cohesion to it, no teamwork, no finesse and verylittle skill. Do we want to stay in that zone?

I was a frustrated county player. More specifically, I was a frustratedcounty corner forward. I played in the era of the big man. Cornerforwards were there to gather up the pieces that went into the fullforward and he didn’t quite get. It was never discussed how to bring usinto play; the two points I got in that 1980 Ulster final came from ballsnever intended for me. And that school of thought is still veryprevalent out there. You hear pundits on The Sunday Game forevertalking about how great some forward lines are because they can wintheir own ball. What do they mean? That they can win crap ball thatshouldn’t have been sent in to them in the first place? Win your ownball by all means if it’s half-decent; you have to fight for ball if it’s notgood. But that’s different than having to win stupid ball that shouldn’tbe sent into you. I think it’s an insult to the intelligence of your playersto ask them to fight for ball when a team-mate has it. I shouldn’t have


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to fight as hard as the opponent to get it. Why should a team-mate whohas one hundred per cent possession make it forty-sixty or fifty-fifty?His ambition should be to make it at least sixty-forty for me. It’s notabout the big high ball, letting it go anywhere and let the best man winthe fight for it. These same pundits, if they were commentating onsoccer, would detest route-one stuff as crude, thoughtless stuff; why dothey love it in Gaelic?

It’s become common currency to claim that in 1998 Galwayreverted to old, traditional football and that their win over Kildare wasa victory for the heart of football. The stats show that’s just patentlyuntrue. Galway kicked the ball less that day than Kildare. Galway’sgoal might have come through a long ball but the Kildare full-back lineshould have dealt with that long ball. Galway were a treat to watch butanother reason people enjoyed that final so much was because ofKildare’s possession game and disciplined defending, and the factGalway played more similarly to Kildare than you’d think. As I’ve saidbefore, I want my players to be deliverers, not carriers, of the ball. Butthey have to know where they’re delivering the ball to. In the leaguewe played direct, long ball into Owen and Peter but it wasn’t aimlesslong ball. I don’t care what size a player is; if he has to go up and winthe ball in the air and come down, he will not be as effective assomeone who gets the ball and can move at pace instantly. I thinkthere’s great skill and timing into linking play rapidly together, be it atclose quarters or not.

The game’s moved on, boys. Get out of your time warp and yourFord Anglia.


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Tuesday 10 June

We'll crucify the insincere tonightWe'll make things right, we'll feel it all tonightBelieve in me and I believe in you, tonight.

Ryan Mellon’s song, ‘Tonight Tonight’, Smashing Pumpkins

I’m going to start phasing Tony Donnelly into the set-up on Sunday.It’s time. I’d have had him in from the start if we could. But then, thatwould have been impossible.

Tony has been my best friend since our college days. He just has thisbrilliant take on life. He’s so positive and jolly, even when life isdealing him all spades and clubs while diamonds are trumps. He’s alsovery knowledgeable about football; I had him in with the minors in1991 at a time when Fr Gerard was visiting his brother Eugene on apre-arranged trip to Australia. We visit each other regularly, and ourengagement always leaves me feeling enriched about football inparticular and life in general. Sadly, Tony couldn’t be part of mymanagement team until now. Not for the first time in the history of theGAA, its very strength became its very weakness – parochialism. Tonywon’t thank me for saying this but there’s no denying thecircumstances surrounding the departure of Eugene McKenna –something beyond the control of Tony and myself – took precedenceover clear thinking and appreciation of his position. Tony’scontribution to Augher is at least on a par with any of their greatestsons or daughters, including Eugene. But true to his unselfish nature,Tony put the club first and declined his role on the management team.

This is the championship though. I can’t wait until after a game tohear what Tony thought of it; I need to know during it. I have itarranged that on Sunday he’ll come down from the stand at half-timeand talk to me along the dressing room corridor. I value his input. Soshould Tyrone.

I’ve picked the team for Sunday. Injuries necessitated the movementof Kevin Hughes and Gerald Cavlan to the middle of the field. That lefttwo vacancies in the forwards. Stephen O’Neill was an automatic while


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it was between Enda McGinley, Mark Harte and Frank McGuigan forthe other. Mark is the best option for this game. He’s been going verywell in training, put on a very good display for Errigal againstCookstown in the championship the other week and I just think Antrimand the wide spaces of Casement Park will suit a nippy, quick, scoringforward like him.

Sunday is also Paul McGirr’s sixth anniversary. It was mentionedtonight. We shall never forget.

Sunday 15 June

Teams win games. Squads win championships.Alex Ferguson

Tyrone 1-17 Antrim 1-9

I’m happy enough with today. We scored seventeen points but it’sthe nineteen wides the critics will hone in on. That’s fine. Our shootingdoes need to improve and the words of the critics will motivate theboys to make sure it does. Sure the critics were saying we had nomidfield either not so long ago. Well, we have at least two pairingsthere now. Gerald Cavlan and Kevin Hughes were both excellent today.Gerald put on an exhibition of fielding, something which John Devinedeserves some credit for too, while Kevin’s breaking of the ball wasexemplary.

Today is the sixteenth competitive match we’ve played this year.The stats Francie Goulding and his Clann na Gael clubman Paddy Bleekeep telling us that in only two of those sixteen games have we beenbeaten in midfield; against Dublin when they beat us by one ball, andagainst Kerry when Darragh Ó Sé beat us by four balls – and that sameday Cormac and Sean scored three points between them. We’re comingalong nicely. Today confirmed that.

We had some shaky moments early on. Antrim were awarded apenalty that wasn’t and Kevin Madden put it away well. That put them1-2 to 0-3 up. Owen was on fire upfront though and soon had us ahead.


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At half-time we were 0-11 to 1-4 ahead. I told the lads they needed toraise their game and improve their shooting; Stevie alone had fivewides by then. We did somewhat; Stevie scored one more before hehad to go off injured, Peter kicked over some sweet points and then atthe end, Owen scored a good goal to give a more comprehensive lookto the scoreline.

Declan McCrossan is playing very well at the moment. He matchedup perfectly with Kevin Brady, and by going forward, forced Bradyinto tracking back. He’ll be playing in the Ulster final. At least fourteenother Tyrone men will too. Ultimately that was what today was about.

There were a few downsides to the day. John Devine got a bang inthe kidneys and showed real courage in finishing the game. He’s inhospital tonight and could miss a few weeks’ training. His clubmate,Mark Harte, got a sneaky knee in the back the very first ball he wentfor. Tonight, I don’t know how he played on; I suppose the adrenalinemust have kept him going. He’s barely able to walk and I’d say, likeJohn, he’ll struggle to play for Errigal in the coming weeks.

Tyrone: J Devine; C Lawn, C Holmes, R McMenamin; C Gormley, D McCrossan (0-1), P Jordan; K Hughes, G Cavlan (0-1); B Dooher, B McGuigan, S O'Neill (0-2); MHarte (0-3, all frees), P Canavan (0-7, two frees), O Mulligan (1-3). Subs: EMcGinley for O'Neill (58 mins, injured), C Gourley for Lawn (70 mins).

Monday 16 June

Brothers and sistersWhen they insist we're just not good enoughWell, we know betterJust look 'em in the eyes and say‘I'm gonna do it anyway.I’m gonna do it anyway.’

Mickey Coleman’s song, ‘Something Inside So Strong’, Labi Siffre

I’m still in shock about what Colm O’Rourke said yesterday. I thinkthe whole county is. Yesterday Colm O’Rourke told the nation that


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Brian Dooher was a bad footballer and that if Tyrone won an AllIreland with him, he’d eat his hat. I couldn’t believe my ears, hearinga man of Colm O’Rourke’s intelligence say something like that. To beso critical of any amateur player is very unfair but to say it about BrianDooher?! The 1996 Ulster Player of the Year at nineteen years of age?Who kicked three points from over thirty metres in that year’s Ulsterfinal? Who gets on the ball over thirty times a game? Who just kickedthree points against Derry the other week? The man who never stopsrunning, who never gives up? I’m not going to say anything about it tothe team because I don’t have to. They know the value of BrianDooher.

I remember the first time I saw Brian Dooher play. It was at the trialsfor the 1992 minor panel. At the end of that process I thought long andhard about whether to include Brian. In the end I didn’t. Nine of theteam that had reached the 1991 Ulster final were still eligible. Brian,meanwhile, was still young enough to feature in ’93. In truth, at thattime Brian’s game was too raw. He could carry the ball endlessly butthat was his very problem; he was holding up the play. But he was agood honest lad, one I knew who’d be back for ’93. I heard he said –and I could just imagine him saying it in that thick drawl of his – ‘Iwent to every one of ‘em trials –six of ‘em – and they didn’t pick me.’After the first trial in ’93 I said to him, ‘Brian, forget it; you’re there.Don’t you worry about this.’

That ’93 team wasn’t as talented a team as the one of ’92 but it wasa considerably more successful one. Brian Dooher at midfield was oneof the main reasons why. If Gerald Cavlan was its class act, then Brianwas its heartbeat. While Ger put on an exhibition in the Ulster final,Brian was simply everywhere. I remember the jerseys weighed abouttwo ton coming home that evening from a drenched Clones and I’d sayBrian’s alone must have weighed one of them.

That year didn’t finish as we hoped it would. Meath gave us aneducation in the semi-final. We thought we were a quality outfit butTrevor Giles, Ollie Murphy, Darren Fay, Hank Traynor and PaddyReynolds played at an intensity and level we had never experiencedbefore. It was absolutely crushing, that 3-15 to 0-10 defeat. When a


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minor team come together, they want to stay together forever. There’ssome cruel finality about the day it ends. No one that year felt it quiteas acutely as Brian. I’ll never forget that evening when we stopped offin the Boyne Valley Hotel. Brian was taking a lift from someone elserather than going the rest of the way on the bus. Before he did, he cameover to me, his eyes filled with tears, and shook my hand. ‘Mickey, itwas the best year I’ve had. I wish it would never end.’

‘Sure Brian,’ I said, ‘some day we might team up again. You’ll bewelcome on any team of mine.’

That’s truer now than it was even then. Every team would love tohave a Brian Dooher. In their rush to be all like Eamon Dunphy, I thinkThe Sunday Game panellists are being the antithesis of him. In hisforeword to the 1986 re-print of his classic ‘Only A Game?’ Dunphydedicated it to the ‘good pro’. ‘Most of his virtues are invisible fromthe stands and terraces,’ Dunphy wrote. ‘If you are in the shit, havegiven your man that crucial yard or two, the good pro will rescue you,leaving his man to get in a saving tackle or making what looks to thecrowd like a simple interception. When you are attacking, he makeshimself available to receive the ball – not just when you’re well up orwhen, with nothing lose, you’re well behind – but when it takes a bitof moral courage, when you are struggling to make the breakthrough.In attack or defence, in January mud, April wind or August sunshine,every game is a test and there are so many ways to cheat, to walk awayfrom your responsibility to the team. The good pro never does. He ismy man.’

He’s mine too. Colm O’Rourke can put on the pan and be ready toeat that hat because when we win our first All Ireland it’ll be with BrianDooher.


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Wednesday 18 June

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind. Hang it on a shelf of good health and good time. Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial. For what it's worth, it was worth all the while. It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's rightI hope you had the time of your life.

John Devine’s song, ‘Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),Green Day

Colm O’Rourke is not the devil. This I know. Tonight I saw him inthe flesh in our own school. He had no horns in his head, no tail at theback; instead he was a model of courtesy and Christianity at thepresentation of All-Ireland and Ulster medals to our teams. It’samazing but I had forgotten to include in my last diary entry that hewas the man I had asked last week to do the honours; Colm, mind, musthave temporarily forgotten about the date too, judging by his commentson Sunday. I have to say, I was very impressed by him tonight. He waswitty, thoughtful and very willing; he was still in our school until oneo’clock this morning, signing autographs and posing for photographswith the kids and the parents. Both Adrian Logan and himself madeexcellent contributions and I know it’s a night our boys will remember.

I was half-tempted to say something to him. In the end I decided notto. I feel a bit like Eisenhower when he was hopping mad about thisgeneral who had messed up. He decided to write a letter, listing all thethings that general had got wrong and all the things he hated about him.He never posted it. There was no value sending it to the man; it woulddo neither of them any good. The important thing was to get it all offhis chest, just like I am here. Some day I’ll let Colm know he was outof order but this was not the night. The man with the pen always hasthe last say. I want to save the return salvo for the right time and theright place. After winning an All Ireland would be nice.

Tonight Colm was the only man with a senior All Ireland in the


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room. I admire him for that. And to be honest, a bit of me admires hissheer neck as well. He wasn’t one bit apologetic; he acted as if hehadn’t said a thing. I like him. I just don’t like some things he’s said.

Friday 20 June

Music, the great communicatorChris Lawn’s song, ‘Can’t Stop’, The Red Hot Chili Peppers

I was listening to the radio today when Rod Stewart’s ‘Maggie May’came on. And straight away, Stephen O’Neill came to mind. ‘MaggieMay’ is Stephen’s song on our CD. And I know, if any of the other boyswere listening to that station, they’d instantly have been thinking ofStevie too. That’s the value in that exercise. These songs are importantto people who are important to the circle. It gives you an associationwith the rest of the circle when you’re not with them. When these boysare seventy and ‘Maggie May’ comes on the radio, they’ll rememberStephen O’Neill, what he did for them and the times we had. Mattiehere was telling me that he heard ‘Dirty Old Town’ the other day. Thefirst thing he thought of was Joe Campbell; it was Joe’s choice whenthe 2000 under-21s were asked to pick a song. It’s the same with EndaMcGinley’s ‘Sweet Home Alabama’; Adie Ball chose the same in theunder-21 days. Though Joe and Adie aren’t on the current countysquad, their musical choices will be forever etched in the memories ofthose from 2000 who are.

Those CDs on the bus to and from games are generating somebanter and craic. Fierce speculation goes into why each fella pickedwhat. Some selections have surprised people. Mickey Coleman is thegas man of the panel yet he chose that Labi Siffre song, showing there’sa serious side to him too. Peter’s choice of Puff Daddy’s ‘I’ll BeMissing You’ also seems a strange one; perhaps it’s his nod to the spiritof ’97 because Mark chose that as a tribute to Paul McGirr with theunder-21s three years ago. In fact, the younger lads are surprised byhow ‘funky’ – that’s how Mattie describes it any way – the older boysare. Chris Lawn has chosen The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Can’t Stop’;


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Mattie here loves it. I myself was surprised by Cormac McGinley opting for Paul

Simon’s ‘You Can Call Me Al’; I thought he was a bit young to begoing for something from the mid-eighties. I went for Mary Black’s ‘ASong for Ireland’ – I just love the mood and emotion of it – but I reallylook forward to some of the other boys’ songs. Kevin Hughes picked‘Drops of Jupiter’ by some crowd called Train; it’s got this brilliantanthem and feel to it. Ciaran Gourley’s choice of Marc Cohn’s ‘SilverThunderbird’ is sheer class. I think it’s going to be the sleeper of thisyear’s team. In 2000, it was Kevin O’Brien’s selection. He went for aDavid Gray track. Gavin ‘Horse’ Devlin would go to him, ‘Here boy,what’s that about?’ Of course a few months later David Who? became,well, David Gray.

Some boys are getting an awful slagging, of course. That’s atradition too. One current star – who I can’t name here, it just wouldn’tbe fair! – went for Culture Club’s ‘Karma Chameleon’ in the under-21days; for the first weeks the slagging was relentless before the songgrew on everyone. I don’t know if Cormac McAnallen is going to begiven such latitude this year. Whenever Cormac’s song comes on, thewhole bus shouts to Michaela, ‘Next!’As Mickey Coleman says, ‘Well,Cormac, you didn’t pick that for the melody anyway!’ If you listen tothe lyrics of Cormac’s song, you’ll know why he went for it. Why elsewould he go for Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’?!

Paddy Tally is getting an even harder time. Poor Paddy; again, likeCormac, he went for lyrics to motivate his team-mates and for histroubles ended up been ribbed by them. He’s gone for this track called‘Superstar’ by some act called Love Inc; the musicologists in the housetell me the best way to describe it is as a light-rave anthem. When itcame on, Declan McCrossan quipped, ‘Tally, have you beenfrequenting the Galbally under-14 disco?!!’


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There are twenty-three other songs that have been compiled byMichaela and Orla Kelly, the sister of Mark’s girlfriend, Sinead. For therecord – literally - they are:

Peter Loughran: ‘The World’s Greatest’ - R KellyRyan McMenamin: ‘Just Looking’ – StereophonicsColin Holmes: ‘Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ – U2Sean Cavanagh: ‘Days Like This’ – Van MorrisonPaul Horisk: ‘Mister Jones’ – Counting CrowsMark Harte: ‘Place Your Hands’ – ReefDermot Carlin: ‘Elevation’ – U2Michael McGee: ‘In The End’ – Linkin ParkJohn Devine: ‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’ – Green DayPhilip Jordan: ‘Iris’ – Goo Goo DollsPascal McConnell: ‘Just Like A Pill’ – PinkBrian Dooher: ‘With or Without You’ – U2Gavin Devlin: ‘Keep Me A Secret’ – AinslieOwen Mulligan: ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’ – Avril LavigneBrian Robinson: ‘Live The Dream’ – CastSeamus Mulgrew: ‘Breathless’ – The CorrsFr Gerard McAleer: ‘Eclipse of the Heart’ – Bonnie TylerDeclan McCrossan: ‘A Little Less Conversation’ – Elvis PresleyConor Gormley: ‘Lisdoonvarna (Live)’ – Christy MooreGerald Cavlan: ‘Fairytale of New York’ – The PoguesBrian McGuigan: ‘Just Because’ – The Pat McGuire BandRyan Mellon: ‘Tonight Tonight’ – The Smashing PumpkinsFrank McGuigan: ‘November Rain’ – Guns ‘n Roses

We have a lot of critics out there. Colm doubts some of ourforwards. Damian Barton doubts whether we have the size. And, nodoubt, if they knew about the CDS, they’d doubt our musical taste too.No one but no one though will be able to doubt our team spirit. We’reliving the dream, having the time of our lives, even if we still haven’tfound what we’re looking for.


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5

MISSING YOU

It’s a test now of Tyrone’s nerve now more than anything. If they’re notable to win a game like this, they can forget about coming through theback door and winning the All Ireland. It’s time for fellas to stand upand be counted.

Colm O’Rourke, The Sunday Game, half-time Ulster final day

One thing I know is that the world will not allow me to just play. It willnot allow me to be number fifteen in the world. So I do it right or I don’tdo it at all.

Boris Becker

Words can't express what you mean to meAnd though you're goneWe still a teamThrough your family I'll fulfil your dreams

Peter Canavan’s song, ‘I’ll Be Missing You’, Puff Daddy

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Sunday 22 June

Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.Former Wimbledon champion Stan Smith

Well, they’re back.Today I was in Clones to see who we’d be playing in the Ulster

final. It’s Down. They beat Fermanagh by five points though for a goodpart of the second half I was looking at Fermanagh as the team we’dmost likely be facing. They came back from being five points down athalf-time to score six points without reply and then Brian Burns wassent off for Down. Then Fermanagh lost their shape and discipline.James McCartan’s introduction was a factor but Shane King’s was evenbigger; whatever the Fermanagh boys felt about his defection to Down,they didn’t handle it well. They became totally preoccupied by oneFermanagh man and forgot about the thirteen Down men who wereplaying with him. Fermanagh lost it as much as Down won it.

You could read that the other way of course. Down won it as muchas Fermanagh lost it. They showed typical Down self-belief, GregoryMcCartan lorded midfield, while in Dan Gordon they have a very goodtarget man with good hands; I know Paddy rates him very highly fromcoaching him in the Ranch.

Liam Doyle, Benny Coulter and Michael Walsh weren’t outstandingbut their talent is. We will have to watch the three of them verycarefully. We know, deep down, that Down could very easily be wherewe are today. The quality of their player is very close to ours. Thedifference is they haven’t had the extra games, and with it, the extraconfidence and experience that comes with winning underage games.

I often think where history would have taken either side but for oneor two huge plays. In the 1997 minor preliminary round, we playedDown. With two minutes to go, we were two points up when KarlOakes had a glorious chance to win the game for Down. Just as he waspulling the trigger, our goalkeeper, Aidan O’Connor from Kildress,dived in to take it off his boot. From that we went up the field, RichardThornton scored a goal and we ended up winning by five. By the time


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we reached the All-Ireland final, Aidan had been dropped to the benchbecause his kickouts weren’t as good as I’d have liked, but Fr Gerard,myself and the boys of ’97 are still grateful for what he did that dayagainst Down. If he hadn’t made that save, Karl would have scored.Richard most likely wouldn’t. We’d have had been facing a secondconsecutive first-round round exit, Mickey Harte would never havebeen let near another Tyrone team and Down would probably havebeen the team that would go on that year and dominate the Ulsterunderage scene for the next five.

It was the same in our first-round game in ‘98. A minute into injurytime, Down were two points ahead. Then Aidan Lynch scored a left-footed free and an Enda McGinley shot clipped the top of the bar andwent over. The following Sunday five thousand people showed up inNewry for the replay, a massive crowd for a minor-only bill, in whichwe won twelve points to six. Since then, we’ve beaten Down threetimes in the under-21 grade, including last year. That was possibly thesweetest win of my coaching career. The nucleus of Down’s team werefrom the All-Ireland winning minor team of ’99; we had a teamperceived to be considerably less gifted yet our boys won by two points– in Newry.

This summer is the first since 1999 that Down have won a game atminor, senior or under-21 level. We’re a big reason for their stagnation.Now under Paddy O’Rourke it looks like they’re back on track. WhenDown get any momentum they can be lethal; they’re like Cork inhurling, they can come overnight. We can’t let that happen. I’ll betelling our boys, “We’ve got them down because we’ve beaten them.This is not the time to start giving them their head. This is a chance toshow the value of being a winner. We have experience to call on whichthey don’t have.”

After watching today’s game I think their backs are vulnerable to thepace of our forwards. If our attitude isn’t right, we’re vulnerable tothem. The theme for this next game is very simple. “Keep Downdown.”

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Tuesday 8 July

Thinking of the dayWhen you went awayWhat a life to takeWhat a bond to breakI'll be missing you

Peter Canavan’s song, ‘I’ll Be Missing You’, Puff Daddy

Last Friday I lost a very good friend. So did Peter Canavan. OnFriday Sean Canavan died. Peter Quinlivan called at half-six, his voicebreaking as he imparted the bad news. Sean had passed away about anhour earlier in Omagh. We knew Sean hadn’t been well on the Mondaywhen an ambulance had called to the house but Peter’s call still cameas a shock. It’s hard to imagine life without Sean Canavan around theplace any more.

Sean was a figurehead around these parts. He was a smaller ifbroader man than Peter. The Canavans ran the post office inSeskilgreen, only a mile or two from Glencull here. Sean’s wife Sarahwas the postmistress but it was rarely the post you called in for. Insteadyou’d come through the backdoor where inevitably Sean would besitting in the corner with a cigarette in his hand. Even if you did just goin to collect your family allowance, you’d never get away without aconversation. Inevitably plenty of our chats revolved around football.Sean loved his football, and especially skilful footballers. Heparticularly cherished good passers of the football. He’d say, “This boy,he’d hit you the ball on the breastbone.” That was a great expression ofhis. “On the breastbone.” That’s where the ball needed to be for Sean.

Sean liked straight talking as well as straight passes. He would oftenbe critical of Peter, though Peter could take it from him. I would havetold Sean that the turning point for me of the 1999 Ulster semi-finalagainst Down was when Peter had a free which he could have scoredwith his eyes closed. Tyrone were six points up and another pointwould have finished Down. For some reason, Peter chose to kick it toGer Cavlan who had made this run, but by the time he got the ball he


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had been closed down and he ended up shooting wide. Down won thatgame by five points and that wide was their signal to come back. Seanwould have said, ‘You couldn’t be more right’ and I’d be amazed if hedidn’t tell Peter the same thing. Sean wasn’t there to praise Peter; hewas there to challenge him.

He would defend you to the last if he thought you were right though.During the whole Glencull episode Sean was my great confidant, mygreat supporter. When people would be claiming I was leading theyoung people astray, Sean would say, ‘Well, he doesn’t smoke, hedoesn’t take a drink, he takes them for games; if that’s setting a badexample, well, good luck.’

The kids could tell something was up when I was on the phone withPeter Quinlivan. They had a quick word with each other before theyhad to reveal a secret. Marian and myself are twenty-five years marriedtoday and the kids had arranged a mass for us on Saturday followed bya night out in Paudge Quinn’s with all members of our family. But I hadto say, ‘Listen, that’s lovely, we hadn’t known a thing about it, and itwould have been great. But you couldn’t have a celebration down inthat church with Sean Canavan in his house only half a mile up theroad.’

That Friday night I went over to that house for the removal and theplace was thronged. On the Saturday a few of the locals and myselfstayed up all night with Peter while on Sunday we had the funeral. AllSean’s children are taking it badly but Peter in particular is. He knowsjust how much football meant to Sean. We were wondering why hechose ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ as his song; well, it’s particularly poignantnow.

I felt I had to say something to Peter. I said, ‘He has some greatmemories. He’s seen some great times with you. He’s rightly proud ofwhat you’ve done.’

‘I know,’ Peter nodded. ‘It’s good. But he might have missed thebest.’

‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I believe he will have missed the best.’Those were the words we put on it. That he will have missed the

best. I sense there’s a great desire there to prove that right. But I’ve also

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told Peter, ‘Look, we’re going to be working away. Whenever you feelready to come back, come back. You’ll be very welcome, in your owntime.’

Tonight as Paddy and myself were setting up the cones in Omagh,the first player came onto the field. That player was Peter Canavan.

Sunday 13 July

Life is ten per cent what happens to you and ninety per cent how youreact to it.

Former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz

Tyrone 1-17 Down 4-8

Seven minutes into the second half, as Paddy O’Rourke wasjumping up and down along the touchline in front of me, I could seethe headlines blazing across the heavens. ’Fourteen-man Down destroyRed Hands – Old Tyrone failings come back to haunt them.’ I could seeall the pundits who had talked about us being a national league team,an under-21 team, grinning and saying, ‘Told you so.’ Then it gotworse. One of the last things I told the players before they went out wasthat Liam Doyle, Michael Walsh and Benny Coulter were class actsthat could beat us. In one segment of play, they showed just how. Doylewon a Mickey McVeigh kick-out with an incredible leap. What madeit even more spectacular was that by the time he had landed, he wasfacing our goal before kicking a great pass with the outside of his bootto Walsh. Another few quick passes later, Coulter had pointed, Downwere nine up and it looked like 1999 all over again.

The players, at that point, had disappointed me. We played somenice football in the first half but we weren’t being positively ruthless.We were keeping two or three points ahead, tipping along, thinking,‘We can do this any time.’ Then, a few minutes before half-time,Coulter cut in along the sideline and then the endline to bury a goodgoal. That should have jolted us but when Gregory McCartan wasdismissed rather harshly moments later after throwing the ball at Brian


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McGuigan, we re-entered that comfort zone. At half-time we told theboys to guard against that. I stressed that only one of them could be thefree man, the rest had to work as hard as they would against a fifteen-man team if they were to win their own corner. Ten minutes into thesecond half they hadn’t.

Just when it looked like it was going to be the same old Tyrone storyall over again, the boys somehow found the courage and conviction todecide it wasn’t. At that stage I thought we were gone. But while youmightn’t always win, you can always compete, you can always battle,you can always make the other team hear the footsteps. The legendarybasketball coach Red Auerbach once told his players, ‘If you’re goingto lose, lose like champions.’ Too many Tyrone teams haven’t. Apartfrom the win over Derry in ’95, it’s hard to think of a game whenTyrone have come back like, say, Meath. If Tyrone went two or threepoints behind, they seemed to panic, give up and lose by six or eight.Today I still thought we could come back and frighten Down, just likeMeath had in ’91. But I’d be lying to say I thought we would pull themback the whole way.

The comeback started about two minutes after Coulter’s point. Ahigh ball was played in, Enda McGinley did well to break it to Peterwho then played the ball into Sean Cavanagh. McVeigh somehowtipped Sean’s shot onto the crossbar, his third great save of the day, butjust when it seemed to confirm it wasn’t to be our day, Peter gatheredthe rebound, turned on his left foot and was dragged down. Peter’srecord at penalties would not be the best. If ever he was to pass on apenalty, this was it. But he didn’t. It was the Ulster final, his team werenine points down with twenty-five minutes to go; it wouldn’t be right,he felt, to abdicate that responsibility onto someone else. It was asbrilliant a penalty as it was brave, chipping into the top right corner andsending McVeigh the wrong way.

After that, it was game on. We just came at them in waves, playingas good a quality and brand of football as we’ve ever played. BrianMcGuigan was everywhere, demanding the ball; Philip Jordan wasbombing forward; Cormac McAnallen was holding the centre; SeanCavanagh began to forage more; Owen Mulligan was breaking their

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tackles and Peter was simply buzzing. With five minutes of normaltime left, we had somehow drawn level. Then, suddenly, it was a caseof mission impossible: the sequel.

I was scared when Liam Doyle was lining up to take his free. It musthave been Down’s first shot at the goals in nearly fifteen minutes, andit must have been over fifty metres out, but that was within the rangeof someone of Doyle’s class. His effort didn’t quite reach that farthough, and instead dropped short of the square. As it was on its waydown, Dan Gordon, for the second time in the game, got his fist to itwith his back to goal and it ended up in the net. For a second, everyTyrone man was stuck to the ground. After the mountain we hadclimbed, we had to go climb another one? Were the headlines stillgoing to be right?

Again the boys showed there’s something inside so strong. RyanMcMenamin kicked a ball into Owen and again he broke a tacklebefore hammering over the bar. Then Ciaran Gourley, who had comeon for Declan McCrossan just after Down’s third goal, intercepted apass and surged forward to kick a point. And then Brian Dooher playedthe ball into Peter who won a free and converted it. We even had a fewchances to win it at the end but we can live with missing them. We canstill win the Ulster championship.

It was clear from talking with the reporters afterwards that theythought it was an exceptional game. I’m sure it must have been aspectacle to the neutral but there were some things that I saw there thatdidn’t please me. We conceded four goals. Those didn’t start with thegoalkeeper or the full-back line, even if those are positions I’ll have toconsider. There was very poor communication across all sectors of thefield and our mental approach for a long period of the game wasn’twhat it should have been. The boys did show great character to comeback but that will be forgotten if we don’t finish the job next Sunday.

Tyrone: J Devine; R McMenamin, C Lawn, D Carlin; C Gormley (0-1), DMcCrossan, P Jordan (0-1); C McAnallen, S Cavanagh (0-2); B Dooher (0-1), BMcGuigan (0-1), K Hughes (0-1); E McGinley, P Canavan (1-6, 1-5 frees), OMulligan (0-3).Subs: C Gourley (0-1) for McCrossan (42 mins), B Robinson for Lawn (65 mins).


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Tuesday 15 July

Always believe in your soulYou've got the power to know You're indestructibleAlways believe, because you are gold

Cormac McAnallen’s song, ‘Gold’, Spandau Ballet

Before training started tonight, I called Cormac McAnallen aside.‘How do you feel about full back? I believe that’s where you should beon Sunday.’ Cormac said what I thought he would: ‘That’s alright, nota problem.’ I told him he wouldn’t be named there, that I didn’t wantthat bit of information given to anyone any earlier than they needed toget it. Again, that secret won’t be a bother to Cormac either.

I’m confident he can do a job there. He’s played there with his clubEglish, with UCD and particularly for Fr Gerard in St Pat’s. CollieHolmes and Chris Lawn are both really struggling with recurringinjuries, so Cormac’s the best man to take up Dan Gordon. He has thephysical presence, he has the fielding ability and above all he has theattitude and tenacity to make it work.

I often say to players, ‘You must try to learn something everysession. You must strive to be a better player walking off this field thanyou were walking onto it.’ Cormac McAnallen is the embodiment ofthat. You should just observe that man when you’re talking to him. Hisneck stiffens, his eyes open up wide and his ears are peeled for anyinformation that is about. His intensity at every drill is a sight tobehold. A training session with Cormac McAnallen is a better trainingsession for him being there, it’s as simple as that.

He’s had to absorb some harsh lessons in his time, one being thatmany supporters don’t know their football. When Cormac made hisdebut at nineteen against Fermanagh in 1999, Ger Cavlan and himselfcleaned out Paul Brewster and Liam McBarron. After that, the worldwas expected of Cormac. In his next game, Down won midfield andCormac was slated. The more initiated eye would have noticed Cormacwas hung out to dry that day. Tyrone’s game plan revolved around

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finding Cormac with their kickouts. Down put two men on him and itwas clear from an early stage Cormac wasn’t going to find the ball inthat pocket. Yet Finbarr McConnell – I assume upon instructions – justkept kicking the ball out there all day. I know Cormac was deflated bythe abuse he received after that game but it was incredibly unfair,especially on a nineteen year-old.

It tells you a lot about Cormac that he was even making his debut atnineteen.

He’s incredibly mature, a real leader in a quiet, unassuming way. Weknew he had the right stuff when we played him at centre half with theminors in 1997 but he really bloomed when we made him captain in’98. Fr Gerard noticed that when the boys split up into groups to talkabout the aftermath of the Omagh bomb; a lot of the other playerswould say, ‘I’ll be in Cormac’s group’ even though he mightn’t say aword. They felt safe around Cormac. I feel safe with him being aroundthe square on Sunday. Cormac McAnallen is gold.

Thursday 17 July

A little less conversation, a little more action pleaseDeclan McCrossan’s song, A Little Less Conversation, Elvis Presley

I’m just after getting another call from our two anonymous friends.‘Well, Mickey, who’s playing full back on Sunday?’

‘Well, who do you think?’‘Well Chris Lawn didn’t look too good now going off last Sunday. I

suppose he’s out?’‘Aye, it’s looking that way.’‘Is Collie Holmes back?’‘No, Collie’s injury is still at him.’‘Brian Robinson came in at the end last Sunday. Brian can play full

back.’‘Aye, he can, but not this Sunday.’‘Ciaran Gourley?’


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‘No.’‘Mickey, come here – are we going to have a full back on Sunday?’

Gerald Cavlan came to training tonight and declared himself fit. Ihad to tell him, ‘Ger, it’s too late. I didn’t know that.’ He wasn’t thereon Tuesday night, he didn’t call, so I had to keep with my initialdecision of giving Seamus Mulgrew his debut. Gerald pulled out of thedrawn game last week, citing a groin injury, and I know he’s been verybusy opening a pub in Dungannon. Still, not showing up at training, notcalling me, these injuries; it’s not the kind of enthusiasm you needgoing into an Ulster final. I’ll list him on the subs but Seamus isstarting. He did well in the league and he’s been very lively and honestin training.

Pascal McConnell is coming in for John Devine in goals. Maybe Irushed John back a game too quickly after that injury he picked upagainst Antrim. I wouldn’t blame him for any one of the four goals buthe might have prevented one of them had he his usual presence andsharpness. Pascal is a great option to have in reserve. He has physicalpresence, a fine kickout and like his older Finbarr, he’s a good shot-stopper for such a big man. I’ve been impressed by how he has appliedhimself in training since I picked John ahead of him for the leaguefinal. It’s difficult being a goalkeeper; an outfield player can go for anumber of positions, a goalie can only go for one. Pascal has beenpatient and deserves his chance.

Ciaran Gourley is staying in, having come on for Declan McCrossanthe last day. It has nothing to do with Declan taking off his jersey andheading straight to the tunnel when we called him ashore. I didn’tnotice it at the time but I’ve watched the game five times on video nowand I didn’t like what I saw in that incident. But I’ve decided to leaveit. I don’t think it was a sign of petulance. I’d say he was disgusted notso much that I took him off but because I had reason to take him off;his performance, not his substitution, was what had him fuming. I’vedeliberated over this one for a while and the more I have, the more I’vesaid, ‘Leave it. Declan knows.’ I don’t want to cloud the issue. If Imention it to him, he’ll think I’m really saying, ‘I’ll make you pay for

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that.’ I want it to be solely a footballing matter. We felt Declan wasn’t fulfilling the role we needed from him. He

didn’t have an easy one on Sunday, admittedly, trying to hold the lineagainst a Down half-forward line that was rampant. But it affected therest of his game too; Declan is one of the best foot-passing half backsin football but last Sunday his distribution was poor. At half-time weselected him as our spare man, to do a sweeping job. It would havebeen made for Gavin Devlin. It wasn’t as suited to Declan’s game butlast Sunday showed it could be to Ciaran Gourley’s. Ciaran took hischance and that’s why he’s in.

We’re conscious that whoever wins on Sunday has a nice course forthe All Ireland. They’d be heading into the quarter-finals against a teamwith plenty of match practice but with no more than themselves. Somesupporters are saying Sunday will follow the Derry games; a draw oneday and a comfortable Tyrone win the next. I don’t believe that for aminute. It will be a tough encounter. Down only thought they couldcompete with us before last Sunday; now they know they can. But Ithink we’ll win. I like the adjustments we’ve made. The boys knowthere was a lack of leadership and communication for two-thirds of lastSunday’s game. There’s a greater resolve there. We know from the lasttwenty-five minutes that we are the better team. A target of ours is notto concede a goal. If we meet that I think we’ll win because I feel we’llscore more points than them.

Sunday 20 July

Go on, leave me breathless.Seamus Mulgrew’s song, ‘Breathless’, The Corrs

Tyrone 0-23 Down 1-5

Just before we were meant to hit the field today, a shower of raincame pelting down. We held back and stayed in the tunnel for a fewminutes until the Ulster Council officials started shouting at us to getout there. When we did it was dry, so were we, but Down weren’t. Even


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before the ball was thrown in, we were already a step ahead of them. There was a furious pace to the start of the match and thankfully we

were the ones who set it; in fact, we carried on from where we left offlast week. Down couldn’t get enough possession to get the ball throughto Dan Gordon, a big reason being that Kevin Hughes was breaking theball wonderfully all over the field. Brian McGuigan was veryinfluential once more, while all our backs were on their toes. RyanMcMenamin, Philip Jordan and Conor Gormley were excellent, youngDermot Carlin once again was very solid, Cormac dealt with what hehad to while Ciaran Gourley held the line well.

Down became very negative when they went about seven-twodown. They brought back one of their corner forwards to play ahead ofOwen and Peter. I feel it was too late at that stage; they couldn’t affordto take another man out of their attack. Enda McGinley came out intothe middle of the field for us where there was a lot of breaking ball. Athalf-time it was pretty much over, at eleven points to three. Wereminded the players that Down had a nine-point lead with less thanthirty-five minutes to go last week and didn’t hold on to it, so we hadto attack our lead. In fairness, that’s what the boys did. It led to Downbecoming frustrated and towards the end they had two men sent off.Gerald Cavlan did well when he came on for Brian Dooher and kickeda nice point. So did Frank McGuigan.

The one disappointment was the goal we conceded at the very end.Ryan jumped up in disgust at that. I think that means we’ve nowconceded a goal in each of our last seven games when we hadn’tconceded one in the seven league games before that.

Peter Canavan made an excellent speech when he was presentedwith the cup. He brought the memory of his father into it without beingover-sentimental, referring to the day they watched Frank McGuigan’sclassic performance in the ’84 Ulster final and wishing Sean couldhave seen the cracking game last week. He held up well but I saw someof Peter’s family outside afterwards and they were very emotional.

After the game I also spoke to the reporters. I was mindful thatthey’ll be talking us up now, so I pointed out that we weren’t thefinished product last Sunday and we still aren’t now. It’s a point myself,

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Paddy and Fr Gerard will be making to the players. Today was theinevitable rebound from realising the fine line between success andfailure but what will we be like the next day? We’ve played poorlyenough in every second game this championship.

The boys look like they’re hardly going to get carried away. Therewas no great sense of jubilation today, just one of a job well done onthe way to trying to do a better job. We know we’re getting closer. I’mdelighted now that our comeback didn’t earn an outright win lastSunday. We needed this extra seventy minutes to put things right.

The Midnight Callers agreed. They phoned me a few hours after thegame, like they’ve been doing for the last few games. I don’t mind;they only keep you for five minutes, max. They complimented metoday on my choice at full back. I asked did such a masterstroke notnow entitle me to know their names.

‘No! After you win the All Ireland!’

Tyrone: P McConnell; D Carlin, C McAnallen, R McMenamin (0-1); C Gormley (0-1), C Gourley, P Jordan; K Hughes (0-2), S Cavanagh (0-1); B Dooher (0-1), BMcGuigan, S Mulgrew; E McGinley, P Canavan (0-11, seven frees, 1 ’45), OMulligan (0-4).Subs: G Cavlan (0-1) for Dooher (58 mins), F McGuigan (0-1) for McGinley (63mins), M Coleman for B McGuigan (73 mins).

Saturday 26 July

Question number one. ‘Is what I’m about to do now, moment bymoment by moments, is it leading me towards my objective or awayfrom my objective?’ And pick!

George Zalucki

Today we asked the players to mark out of ten their commitment toand belief in winning the All Ireland. When we asked similar questionsin the Citywest before the championship, we were getting back eightsand sixes. Today it was all tens. The circle considers itself nine weeksaway from an All Ireland. There is no point in thinking any other way.Publicly we’ll be saying that we’re taking one game at a time but


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ultimately we have to be aware of the big picture. It can’t be one bigsqueeze for the next big match; it has to be a process, a philosophy, away of living.

Our preparations had been going well all week as it was. We wentto the pool in the Glenavon last Monday to help recover from the matchin Clones and then had a nice bite to eat. We had good workouts onTuesday and Thursday. Today has helped the team bond even further.We were out training in Dunmoyle at half-eight in the morning, thenhad breakfast in Kelly’s before we went into the local hall here inBallygawley for a game of indoor bowling. Some boys at the startthought it was a bit corny, but we had a few members from the Errigalbowling club there to give some coaching. After that it became quitecompetitive as the fellas picked teams and played a competition for afew quid before we headed over to Askin’s for lunch.

It was in Askin’s we had the meeting. It showed how the dynamicsof the team have changed. At the start of the year the managementwould pick who would be in what group and make sure there was onesenior player in each. There was no point in having Peter Canavan,Chris Lawn, Collie Holmes, Brian Dooher and Ger Cavlan all in theone group, or Cormac for that matter, another one of the team’s leaders,even at twenty-three. Now we don’t have to be as prescriptive aboutthat; they choose the groups themselves, as they did today.At the end of the meeting, the flipchart looked like this:

- All in last 8 there on merit - All deserve respect, either qualifiers or provincial champions- League and Ulster mean nothing if not in last four- New level- Local area 99% listen, 1 % talk- Newspaper, TV, media – avoid them- One game at a time- Lifestyle revisited- Water- Alcohol – none to exit or end- Keep your mind on the group for next nine weeks

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- Honesty- No complacency- ‘Enough achieved’ – no!

The draw for the quarter-finals is tomorrow night so we had to getour heads right for that. Derry, Cork, Meath and Dublin are long goneat this stage so any team that’s still there must be good. Any differentattitude and we’re inviting another Sligo onto ourselves.

We also spoke about how to deal with the expectation within thecounty. Our supporters are excitable so we’ve come up with a guidelinewhen the players are in their own community. They’re to be polite topeople, they’re to listen to what people say, but they’re not to getinvolved in making bold predictions that could be quoted back at themlater on. Ninety-nine per cent listen, one percent talk.

They’re to be careful not to be taken in by the media attention either.They’re not to avoid reporters but they are to avoid their reports. That’sfor the consumption of the public, not our team.

The players also decided to renew their commitment to each other.We spoke again of going to another level, of deciding to be different,so some decisions were taken that were fitting of people who want tobe different. The players talked about drink. Some thought theoccasional pint might be okay but the majority said no, so that’s theway it’ll be. There won’t be a drop taken next weekend if we win ourquarter-final; the self-imposed ban is in place until it’s all over.

I’ve just told Marian that I’m going to make a sacrifice of my own.I’m very fond of sweet stuff. I love chocolate, desserts, a biscuit to gowith my cup of tea. But if I’m to empathise with those boys who aregiving up the drink, I have to give up something myself. So, no moredrink for the boys and no more chocolate for me. At times it will be astruggle, but then so is what we’re trying to achieve.


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Thursday 31 July

I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during theircareer. You learn a lot from it.

Lou Holtz

We only announced the team to play Fermanagh tonight. The onehold-up was Stephen O’Neill. I spoke to him and asked was he readyfor seventy minutes or was he content to be on standby. Stephen saidhe mightn’t have seventy minutes in him just yet and that he’s contentto wait for his chance. But he also made it clear that he’s gettingstronger and that he’s dying to get back in.

Gerald Cavlan is back in for Seamus Mulgrew. It was a hard enoughcall because Seamus did nothing wrong against Down. But Gerald’sattitude has been good in training this past week. When it is, you haveto pick him. He has years of experience and is just a quality footballer.

Bringing John Devine back in didn’t take as much deliberation.Pascal McConnell is a good goalkeeper but he made a few key errorsin the Ulster final replay. In one instance this speculative high ballcame in and Pascal let it through his hands. Fortunately Kevin Hugheswas there to bail him out. In fact, that was one good thing to come outof that incident. Between the two Down games we spoke about howpoor our covering at set-pieces and our support on the goal-line hadbeen for Down’s fourth goal. Kevin’s save reflected well on hislearning. There was another incident when Packie came out to receivea short free from Cormac. He ended up getting tied up, was blown forover-carrying and when Jamesie McCartan came flying in to take theball off him, Packie hit him a slap across the face. It wasn’t a punch butit could have passed for one and Packie was lucky not to be put off. Hedidn’t show the composure that we’d expect from one of our players.Perhaps he was guilty of trying too hard and in this instance that costhim.

So, it’s Fermanagh we’re playing. The draw wasn’t finished onSunday night when Paddy Heaney from The Irish News was on thephone. It didn’t give me much time to think but then I had been

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thinking about Fermanagh a bit after their win over Mayo and withMarty’s involvement with them. I reminded Paddy that Fermanagh hadonly lost to us by two points in the McKenna Cup, that we scored onlythree more scores than them in the league semi-final, that those threegoals had saved us a lot of football and that Fermanagh had improvedsubstantially since then.

We should win. We’re the better team. But our attitude has to becompletely right on the day. I’ve decided that on the bus to the gameI’m going to show the last fifteen minutes of the Sligo takeover lastyear. Fermanagh would consider themselves a better team than Sligo.They’ve beaten them in the league these past few years and they’vebeaten better teams than Sligo did last year en route to playing us.Fermanagh have had wins over Donegal, Meath and Mayo thissummer; none of them would be seen as a soft touch if we were playingthem.

With Martin there, I know how hard Fermanagh have worked.They’ll be very hungry for this, with nothing to lose. It’s a difficultgame for Tyrone, especially for the boys from the ’97-98 era. They’vealways been favourites in everything they’ve done. They need to learnto live with it. Sunday will tell whether they can.

Sunday 3 August

A man walks down the streetHe says why am I soft in the middle now?Why am I soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?I need a photo opportunity, I want a shot at redemptionDon't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard

Cormac McGinley’s song, ‘You can call me Al’, Paul Simon


Today was all about being positively ruthless. That was the term weused during the week, at last night’s team meeting in the Citywest andagain at half-time in Croke Park today. Every one of yesterday and


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today’s newspapers made some reference to the Sligo game. At lastnight’s meeting we showed some of the cuttings from the morningpapers. They were saying that there was going to be at least one shockfrom the four games this weekend and that of the four favourites,Tyrone had the most temperamental fuse. In every paper the ghost ofSligo was being shoved into our face, as if to make sure it would workagain. Today we gave the proper response to that. We were positivelyruthless.

Fermanagh were taken aback by our enthusiasm and work rate. Itold the players before the game, ‘No underdog has a monopoly onhard work. No underdog has the right to want this more than we do. Weare entitled to work as hard as them. We are capable of working as hardas them. We must work as hard as them. In fact, we must work harder.’I pointed to the wall where we had a newspaper clipping ofFermanagh’s win over Meath. A reporter had asked Dominic Corriganwhat had been the secret and Dominic had said, ‘We just tore into themin the second half.’ Alongside that quote was a photo of Dom. I said toour players, ‘They tore into a team as good as Meath. Are you going tolet them tear into us today or are we going to tear into them?’We tore into them.

We had anticipated that Fermanagh would throw people back infront of Peter and Owen, so the game plan was similar to the one wehad for the second Derry game; play down the flanks, carry the ball outof defence and don’t kick it in where they have spare men; insteadmake them choose between coming out of their den or suffer theconsequences of shooting from the outside or from the wings. We didthat fairly effectively without involving Peter a huge amount; insteadSean Cavanagh scored 1-2 from the middle of the field. They wereminding the cat while the mouse bit them.

At half-time we were 1-11 to 0-2 ahead but it still wasn’t over; nogame is at half-time. Whenever there’s a considerable gap between twoteams, I either tell my team one of two things, ‘Don’t give up’ or ‘Don’tlet up’. Today it was don’t let up. We reminded the players that toomany Tyrone teams had lost big leads before in Croke Park. The Sword came up again; I know Tyrone supporters who were embarrassed

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for Sligo when we were nine-two up last year. If we showed even a signof being overhauled, then this same old story of us not being ruthlesswould keep cropping up. The second half was about how ruthless couldwe be. And we were. We won the second half ten points to three. Wealso won the midfield battle which was nice. At half-time Francie andPaddy’s stats had showed that Paul Brewster had won more kickoutsthan any other midfielder in the first half.

I caught a glimpse of Martin in the dressing room corridorafterwards and there was a look of complete devastation on his face. Ithink he could have lived with them losing; in fact, deep down I don’tthink he or Fermanagh expected to win. But he would have expected toget within three or four points, to compete like all Martin McElkennonteams do. Now there’s a chance that all their good work will beoverlooked. I feel sorry for his predicament but I don’t feel sorry forwhat we did today. Last year Tyrone won their first league, beat Derryin the qualifiers, yet our year was remembered for one game – Sligo.Better that their year be reduced to one game than ours. We’re not inthe business of being sympathetic, we’re in the business of beingruthless. There was no other way today. Nor will there be the next. Killor be killed. That’s the law of Croke Park. That’s the lesson of Sligo.

Tyrone: J Devine; D Carlin, C McAnallen, R McMenamin; C Gormley (0-1), CGourley (0-1), P Jordan; K Hughes (0-2), S Cavanagh (1-2); B Dooher (0-1), BMcGuigan (0-1), G Cavlan (0-3); E McGinley (0-2), P Canavan (0-4, two frees), OMulligan (0-4).Subs: B Robinson for Carlin (51 mins), M McGee for McMenamin (51 mins), PLoughran for Cavanagh (58 mins), S O’Neill for McGuigan (58 mins), D McCrossanfor Jordan (65 mins).


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We didn't win the All Ireland last year. It doesn’t matter whether we lostby one point or fifty, we lost. That's not acceptable to Kerry supporters.People will say that we're great losers and all that… Deep down, Kerrypeople don't like to lose. Being a Kerry manager is probably thehardest job in the world because Kerry people, I'd say, are the roughesttype of f***n animals you could ever deal with… It’s a big year forKerry … and Páidí Ó Sé.

Páidí Ó Sé, January 2003

Paralyse their resistance with your persistence.

Legendary American football colleges coach Woody Hayes

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Tuesday 5 August

There’s Michael Russell.Conor Gormley’s song, ‘Lisdoonvarna’, Christy Moore

Tonight in Omagh we started our preparation for possibly thebiggest challenge and game of our lives. Yesterday Kerry ran up 1-21against Roscommon in Croke Park. They’re the team that standbetween us and an All-Ireland final. We left with ten minutes to goyesterday to beat the traffic. We missed Roscommon scoring two goalsbut we had seen enough. The game by then was over. When it had beenon, Kerry were awesome.

It was good to have all the fellas there tonight. Our GAC hadinitially pencilled in club championship games for this weekend but Ispoke with our liaison man, Frank Campbell, about it and we’ve comeup with a reasonable compromise. We couldn’t let the players awaywith the clubs for the week, risk some of them coming back withinjuries, and having them back only two weeks before the biggestmatch of our lives; it would destroy our preparation. The agreement isthat the three outstanding matches in the junior and intermediatechampionship go ahead, that the other players have the choice to playa round of the league with their clubs on Friday night, and that thesenior championship quarter-finals will be run off the weekend afterthe Kerry match. That’s fine by me. Those junior and intermediatechampionship games only involve three of our players; it’s better to bewithout only a few players than have most of the panel missing trainingfor the rest of the week. We’ve done fairly well with the clubprogramme so far, running off thirteen rounds of the league and beingas far as the quarter-final stages of the senior championship. But clubplayers have been sitting out for three or four weeks now; it’s importantthey get a game. It’s no victory if we win something at the expense ofour club structures and disgruntle our club players.

After next weekend then we’ll be into the last two weeks. There’llbe a major battle for places on the team and greater media attentionthan we’ve ever been used to before. Already Paddy Heaney has started


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the ball rolling by pointing out Tyrone have never beaten Leinster orMunster opposition on their way to an All-Ireland final. I hadn’t lookedat it that way. It shows you the kind of obstacle we’re up against.

But then, as my friend Zalucki says, if you dream lofty dreams, youhave to be prepared for many obstacles. Even ones as big as Kerry.

Tuesday 12 August

Fore!Mickey Harte on a golf course

Tonight Tyrone trained in Omagh. It was a session with a difference.I wasn’t there. It’s the first session I’ve missed all year. It’s also the firstholiday Marian, myself and the kids have had in nearly four years. Wetook off to Westport for a day or two last year but even then we endedup driving all the way down to Toomevara in Tipperary for a challengegame with the under-21s. I owe it to Marian just to relax for a few days,to leave the shop to her father Pat and to leave tonight’s session toPaddy and Fr Gerard before we get back in time for Thursday’s sessionin Edendork.

We’re having a great time here in the Citywest. It’s become like asecond home this year because John Glynn and his staff make you,well, feel at home. Tomorrow I’m going for a round of golf with FrankByrne and Brendan McDonagh, two of the hotel’s taxi men, over in theCarton House course my brother-in-law runs in Maynooth. Mattie hasvolunteered to be my caddy. My nephew Conor has said he’ll provideus with a buggy, so Mattie is excited about driving around in it. He’shaving a ball actually. He’s become great buddies with the kitman ofthe Irish rugby team who are also staying here. Paddy Reilly, or ‘Rala’as Mattie calls him, has really taken him under his wing. He’s got thewhole team to sign Mattie’s Irish jersey and he’s even allowing him goround and leave a sheet of the next day’s itinerary in the players’rooms.

Today the four of us drove down to Glendalough. We had theweather to go with it and had a lovely time. We’re just back now from

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a barbeque over in my sister Mary’s house. Mary and Lee, the man whoruns the golf courses, were thirty-five years married last week so it wasreally an anniversary party and one we really enjoyed.

Most of our holidays tend to be in Ireland. As a kid, the furthest weever went was to Carrickmore, about fourteen miles down the road. I’ma bit of a home bird. The first time I was on a plane was on ourhoneymoon. We chose Malta because it was an English-speakingcountry and I was so conservative when it came to my food. My tastebecame bolder and we ventured further abroad through the years. Wewent camping a few times in the south of France with my brotherBarney and Joan, and I’ll never forget being in Italy, seeing the localsout on the street, blowing their car horns and jumping into fountainswhen they won the World Cup. But since then most of our holidayshave been at home, either in Cork, Kerry, Mayo or more often than notto Donegal where my sister has a house. You can’t really book aholiday abroad. How can we leave when there could be importantmatches in July or August?

The first time I was out of Ireland will always stay with me though.Literally. It was this month, back in 1974. A fella called Paul Montaguewho would have been friendly with brother Martin and myself, had acar. One Tuesday he called over to the house and we drove off down toMonaghan like we’d often do. We had a bite to eat there and then Paulsays, “We’ll go on down to Dublin.” So we drive down to Dublin.When we get there Paul sees the sign for Dun Laoghaire. ‘DunLaoghaire!” he says. “We must go there!” So we get on the ferry at DunLaoghaire and end up in Wales. We drive for another bit there, stop offin a B&B at about half-nine that night and I call my mother.

“Mummy,’ I say, ‘I’m not going to be home tonight.’‘Why’s that?’

‘Because we’re in Wales.’‘Right, okay; I can see why you won’t be home.’The next day we drive to London where Paul’s sister is working. We

stay in her flat, take in the sights of London, drive up to the Lakedistrict, then up to Scotland, and then head back over to Ireland on theSaturday. We arrive back in the same clothes we left in.

I’ve never shaven off that beard since.


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Friday 15 August

They’re reading names out over the radioAll the folks the rest of us won’t get to knowSean and Julia, Gareth, Ann and BredaTheir lives are bigger than any big idea

‘Peace on Earth’, U2

Tomorrow myself, Mattie and Michaela will be heading back up tothe Citywest with the Tyrone team. Today of all days I’m thankful andgrateful that we can all do that. Today is the fifth anniversary of theOmagh bomb.

I think everyone in the country remembers where they were thatday. Everyone in Tyrone always will. I was in Benburb with the minorsahead of the All-Ireland semi-final. In the morning we had a few gameswith the ropes Jimmy McCann and his outdoor pursuits friend MartyMcAleer lent me, before we went over to St Ciaran’s school and hit afew golf shots. Then word came through that there had been a bomb inOmagh. It set the fear of God into me. Marian always went to Omaghon a Saturday afternoon. School was starting up soon and Michaela,Michael and Mattie would have needed new uniforms. I tried to phonethe house but all the lines were down. I went back into the school. Theradio was saying there were seven dead, eight dead, then nine; thenumber was rising all the time. We gathered the players around, toldthem the day’s activity was done, that there had been a bomb in Omaghand that they were to go home. I jumped into the car and drove as fastas I could for Glencull but nowhere near as fast as my head was racing.About fifty metres from our front entrance, I finally was able tobreathe. Mattie was out playing on the road and I knew then theyhadn’t gone.

I spent the rest of that day watching the TV, trying to take in whatthey were saying on the news. It turned out that SD Kells, the placewhere Marian would have been shopping for the uniforms, was in thecentre of the bomb. Some people weren’t so lucky. There were peoplefrom Loughmacrory killed in the bomb, people from Mickey McGee

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and Ciaran Meenagh country. Neighbours of Stephen O’Neill’s werekilled. Marian’s father was very friendly with Avril Monaghan’s father,the pregnant woman who was killed. Aidan Skelton, the former countygoalkeeper, lost his sister-in-law. It was a horrible, horrible time.

We had to go on. Again the circle met and talked about it, and fromthat came strength. The following week we beat Leitrim. The followingmonth we beat Laois in the All Ireland. We had wanted to win anyway,for ourselves and the spirit of Paul McGirr, but Omagh was there in thebackground, knowing what the win would do for the people of thecounty.

Now we’re trying to win something else for them. To give a lot ofpeople a reason to go back into Omagh. God knows it’s time it hadsomething to celebrate.

Sunday 17 August

Sinne fianna fáil, atá faoi gheall ag ÉireannThe Irish and Tyrone team’s national anthem

This time next week we’ll know. We’ll know whether we’re in anAll-Ireland final or not. Right now we don’t but we know what we haveto do. This weekend in the Citywest we went through in detail the gameplan we feel will beat Kerry.

A lot of pundits have been saying since the quarter-finals that weshould pump high ball into our full-forward line, that the Roscommongame showed that Seamus Moynihan and Michael McCarthy arevulnerable under the high ball. We’re not going that way. I don’tbelieve in just kicking in high aimless ball, especially to Peter. I don’tbelieve that the Kerry full-back line are weak under the dropping ball;if the ball breaks and a Kerry man doesn’t get it, that’s more the faultof the Kerry half-back line than their inside line. When Kerry concededthose scores against Roscommon, they were irrelevant. I’m not lookingat the 3-10 Roscommon scored; I’m looking at the 1-21 Kerry scored.Our emphasis has been on their play, where those scores came from,who was instrumental and how we can negate it.


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Peter Quinlivan has tagged those scores and there’s a very distinctpattern to them. It’s a very effective but very one-dimensional methodof play they have into their full forward line. They don’t look to hitMike Frank Russell and Colm Cooper in the corners. Instead they waitfor them to make the run from the corner into the D and then look tohit them with the diagonal ball. Kerry are better at it than anyone in thegame, it’s served them well, it’s probably the way football should beplayed but we’re cutting it out. Gavin Devlin’s suspension is up andhe’s going to stay in that D. It doesn’t matter so much where Dara ÓCinnéide goes, Gavin’s priority is to protect that area. I’ve watchedKerry’s semi-final from last year against Cork. Cork’s centre backRonan McCarthy did quite well on Eoin Brosnan, in fact I think he heldBrosnan scoreless. But by marking Brosnan he was leaving the D wideopen behind him and Cooper and Russell absolutely ripped Cork topieces. Gavin is going to hover around that D. He’s going to try and bein the passing lane as they call it in basketball; in other words that linebetween the passer and the intended receiver.

If Cooper and Russell do get the ball, we have to put pressure onthem. They cannot be allowed to have a good look at the posts becauseif they do it’s already a point. We’ve identified a few key men andthey’re two of them. The others are Ó Cinnéide, Moynihan andDarragh Ó Sé. We want to stop them finding Ó Sé with their kickouts.Kevin Hughes is to move in the opposite direction of Gerald Cavlan. IfÓ Sé doesn’t go with Kevin, the ball is to go to Kevin. If Ó Sé goeswith him, that’s fine; it takes him out of the centre and allows JohnDevine look for Gerald. It’s a way of keeping Ó Sé out of the game andbringing Gerald into it. Gerald has been going very well since theUlster final replay and we have to tap into that confidence. WhenDeclan O’Keeffe is taking a kickout, we want fellas coming across ÓSé’s line. If we allow him a free run-up he’ll just do what he did to usin Killarney.

Another term up on last night’s flipchart was ‘Press-publicperception’. Last night we tried to steel the boys against buying into thenotion that this will be the 2-17 to 1-16 game people are looking for, ora repeat of that 0-23 to 0-21 minor semi-final we had against Kerry in

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‘97. We’ll be looking to run up a big score but we can’t allow Kerrythat amount of chances. Our play and defending has to be much moreintense than, say, Roscommon’s two weeks ago. Our work rate is goingto be every bit as important as our flair in this one. If it isn’t then Kerryare on their way to their thirty-third All Ireland and we’ll still bewaiting for our first.

We finished the meeting in great spirits. Again we gathered in thecircle. It’s interesting, when we left the players on the eve of thechampionship to pick a symbol to represent what we were about, theycame up with three intertwining circles. To us that reads 03, 30. 03stands for the year, 30 stands for a term Paddy often calls out intraining. Concentrating for a whole game is a big ask, so he asks themto concentrate for thirty seconds at a time. We now have that symbol,with a big red Tyrone T in the backdrop, on our gearbags and sweatshirts; Paddy got the Curran brothers over in Team Talk to design it.We’re very happy with it. It says a lot about what we’re about, what thecircle means to us.

So the circle gathered at the end of last night’s meeting. And then itbegan to sing its new song. Ireland’s song, a soldier’s song, Amhrán nabhFiann. Adrian Logan gave me the idea a few weeks ago. He talkedabout his late brother Austin, how much he loved to go to games withhim and how they’d blast out the anthem before the ball was thrown in.‘Isn’t it a pity,’ he said, ‘that more players don’t do the same?’ So it gotme thinking. Wouldn’t it have some impact if we, the bucks from thenorth, started singing the national anthem in Irish at full blast against ateam from the south, with a few fluent Irish speakers on board, barelymuttering it out? Michaela is an Irish student in college, so she printedout the song for the boys. In black writing were the words in Irish andin red was the song in phonetics. The boys weren’t long learningbecause they’d have known a lot of the lines anyway. They love it. Lastnight they gave a great rendition of it. We’ll give another when we’refinishing up on Tuesday and Thursday night.

The question is whether we’ll be singing when we’re again leavingDublin.

This time next week we’ll know.


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In the 1986 final against Tyrone I remember Charlie Nelligan kickingout a ball which was fielded by Plunkett Donaghy. I was hanging offhim and fighting him for the ball until he dropped it. I had one look up,spotted Mikey inside on his own and he buried it. A lot of people saidit was a foul on Plunkett but to this day I don’t think it was. It lookedawful but then we always fought for everything. Whether it was a backcoming out with the ball or a forward trying to score, he had to beharassed and put under pressure.

Ger Power to Brian Carthy, ‘Football Captains:The All-Ireland winners’

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Sunday 24 August

On my command, unleash hell.Maximus Aurelius, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator

Okay, remember just where we’re at. Until we win games like this,nobody will give us respect. They think we’re too porous at the back.They think we’re too porous in general. Deep down they still thinkwe’re not competitors, that we haven’t got a tough centre. They thinkwe’re all about talent and nothing about heart or drive or work. We’vegot to change the script. We have to show that we have all thosequalities. Today. We need this, not just for this team, we need it for ourfuture teams. If we don’t stand up today, then it’s always going to behung over the heads of every team and every generation of ours tocome. It’s time to show loud and clear that we can deal with anythingand everything that comes our way and still get enough scores to winthe game.

Remember, unless and until thirteen, fourteen and fifteen are ourbest defenders, we don’t have the kind of gritty team that we need tohave. And that is every time. Not just once, not just twice but every timethere’s a ball in that sector of the field. If we haven’t got it, we’reclawing for it. We’re in there fighting, challenging, standing up,making life difficult. Don’t let them out. On no account. And that’s notby fouling, that’s not by doing anything stupid; that’s by being presentto the man on the ball and whoever he gives it to. You can work acrossthe entire line. You can work between the endline and the fifty-yardline, not a problem. You own your work rate. No one else.

This is about personal challenges. There are fifteen of them who aregoing to start this match against fifteen of ours. There’s a challengethere right away. Standing there, the man beside you; are you betterthan him? More importantly, are you going to play better than him?Are you going to have a bigger impact on this game than he is? Whocan answer that question? You. And you only. You’re the one who isgoing to have to make that decision. Is it going to be you or is it going


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to be him? What if they do well and negate some people who have beenour key players to date? What are you going to do? Are you going tobe a key player? Is there going to be a key player who’ll emerge todaywho hasn’t been noticed and noted as that to date? That’s what it’sgoing to take. It’s going to take the people who have been key playersto do their damnest to retain that form. But there must be others whoare keeping this day, this game, to make it their game. They will be thepeople who will make the impact. Who came of age? Who wasn’t seenbefore, who wasn’t thought about it in the previews to the game butsuddenly came up and did the business? That’s what big games like thisare won and lost on. The secret ingredient, the one that people didn’tknow about, the things that they didn’t expect from some particularplayer. Going over the edge, playing more than his own part, that’swhat it’s all about.

Remember there’s no set script for this game. You are thescriptwriters. You individually will make an impact on how the scriptof this game goes. And it doesn’t have to go the way it starts. If it startsagainst you, then you can change it. If it starts with you, then you canadd to it. There’ll be ups and downs in this game; you won’t commandtotal control for the entire game. It’s when you’re not in control is whenyou’ll win the game. When you’re in control, that’s fine. When you’renot in control, that’s when winners stand up and are counted. Winnerswin when the going gets tough. They don’t win when it’s nice and rosy.So be a winner. Be a winner when you have to carve out your piece ofthis game. When you have to work hard, play unfashionable football,make blocks, do everything you need to do to put us where we want tobe at the end. Regardless of how it looks, who likes it, who doesn’t; getyourself enough scores to be ahead at the end of this game becauseyou’ve worked hard enough to provide the scoring opportunities forthose who are in a position to take them.

I want to see your example. It’s great to talk positively andsupportively. But I want to see what you do more than what you say.When the talking is done the action begins. I want to see what you do.I’ll be able to tell more by how you react to your first mistake. How youreact to the first ball you don’t get, not how you react to the one you do

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get. It will ultimately tell us more about what you’ve got in you today.I’m very, very interested in how you fight for the first ball. How youfight doubly-hard if you don’t get it. How you make it so difficult for theman who did get it to get rid off it, and how you’ll come back again forthe next one and have learned from it and shown the man that’smarking you that he is in for one hell of a fight. A hell of a fight morethan he ever imagined he was ever in for. Make sure they see that.

This is a game in which you retaliate first. You get in there, youmake the impact. We’re not waiting on this game to start and watchwhat happens and play catch up. Why give ourselves that bother? Whygive them that comfort zone, to begin to think they can do somethingagainst us? Hit them from the start with all that we have. Knock themback on their arse. Make them think, ‘What is going on here? This isnot the way it is supposed to be.’ You have got to give them somethingthat they’re not expecting. That is going to be a crucial, crucial aspectof this game. We have got to get in there from the very start. We mustshow them that we are prepared for this. That our hunger is greater.That our memories of last year are stronger than their memories ofpast few years. We have to show them that right from the off. And notjust for the first ball, the second ball, the third ball, the fourth; everyplayer who goes for every ball has got to display a courage andtenacity that is going to epitomise the way we approach and play thisgame. There is no other way.

It’s in our hands to deliver the best of ourselves. It doesn’t reallymatter what they do, it’s what we do that counts. Remember, we’retalking about a collective hunger here. There’s no good in one, two,even six, nine men being hungry for this. We need every man who’s onthe field at any given time totally hungry for this. Remember thecommitment statement. Commitment is doing what you said you woulddo long after the mood you said it in has left you. We’ve got thecommitment now. We feel like we want to do the best we can. When youwalk out this door, when you hit the pitch, when you meet your firstobstacle, when you make your first mistake – have you still got thecommitment? Have you still got the commitment to do what you saidyou’d do long after the mood that’s in this room now leaves you? When


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you haven’t the support of everybody standing right beside you in thiscircle because the support is scattered all over the field? Have you thengot the energy, the commitment, the drive to do what you said you’ddo?

Well, have you?

Tyrone 0-13 Kerry 0-6

Tyrone: J Devine; C Gourley, C McAnallen, R McMenamin (0-1); C Gormley, GDevlin, P Jordan; S Cavanagh (0-1), K Hughes; B Dooher (0-1), B McGuigan (0-2),G Cavlan; E McGinley (0-1), P Canavan (0-1, free), O Mulligan (0-3, all frees). Subs: S O’Neill (0-3, one free) for Canavan (injured, 14 mins), C Holmes forMcGinley (64 mins).

Monday 25 August

I don’t want to be a great captain. I want to be captain of a great team.Peter Canavan, January 2003

There’s been a lot to take in today. Yesterday we qualified for theAll-Ireland football final. We nearly blew Kerry off the field in the firsthalf. At half-time we were nine-two up. Gerald Cavlan won almostevery one of Declan O’Keeffe’s kickouts; Declan kept looking forDarragh Ó Sé and kept finding Gerald. It gave us the chance to run atthem which we always wanted to do, and we ended up either going onand scoring from play or forcing them to drag us down and concede thefree. Brian McGuigan was in a blaze and kicked one great point on therun over on the right wing. At the other end of the field, we weredefending the D. Gavin Devlin was immense.

There was one massive downside to that first half. After the gamewas about twelve minutes old Peter went down clutching his ankle. Allthat went through my mind was “Not him.” I had actually said to FrGerard last week, “We’ve been very lucky this year; Peter’s been injuryfree.” Now here he was, back in an All-Ireland semi-final for the firsttime in seven years, only to get injured again. We were lucky we hadsuch a good man to go in for him. Stephen would be in the team in most

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cases. I prefer Stephen playing on the wing but he’s very capable ofplaying full forward. It made sense to make a direct swap. SeamusMoynihan would have been getting his head around marking Peter forweeks; now here he was, marking a player with a greater physicalpresence.

Peter’s injury wasn’t just a chance for Stephen; it was a chance forthe whole team to prove their mettle. It was better that Peter had to gooff during the game rather than, say, last Thursday; there was no timeto think of the consequences. A few minutes after Peter went off, therewas this passage of play where we just swarmed Kerry for about fortyseconds, though at the time it seemed like four minutes. I think it wasDara Ó Cinnéide we cornered first. Then Eamon Fitzmaurice wasswamped, then it was Eoin Brosnan and then it was Darragh Ó Sé. Infairness to the Kerry boys, they kept coming back and they must havethought they were away with it a few times. The crunch came whenDarragh Ó Sé got on the ball. He did well to shoulder a few of ourfellas but in the end he just threw his foot at it, as if to say, “I can’t hackany more of this” and it ended up straight to Brian Dooher. Brian tookit inside his man, was fouled and then a few seconds later he was onthe ball again to play it onto Stevie. Stevie played it to Enda McGinleywho then fed Sean Cavanagh for a point. That put us four-nil up but ithad much greater significance than that. It was one of those seminalmoments, one of those battles which you knew whoever won would bestanding tall. It was a statement. It was telling Kerry we wanted thisand we were going to do it with or without Peter.

At half-time we spoke about a number of things. We talked about’86, when Tyrone had been seven points up and Kerry had come backto win by eight. We said we couldn’t let that happen again, that we hadto make a new mark. We decided the best way to defend our lead wasto attack it. And we decided we’d do it for Peter. Before we went out,the floor was given to Peter. “It’s not often I’ve asked anyone foranything,” he said, “but do this for me. I want back in an All-Irelandfinal.”

When we went back out Kerry weren’t there. One or two minuteslater they still weren’t there. Maybe it was something to do with


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Armagh keeping them waiting last year; I don’t know. So I said,“Right, we’re not going to be left standing here” and called the boys in.When we were all in the huddle, Gavin Devlin suddenly started intoAmhrán na bhFiann. Then everyone joined in. By the time we weremidway through it, Kerry were back on the field. Some of their playersmust have been wondering, “What’s all this about?” We were quitehappy to give them that message.

I wasn’t that happy with certain aspects of our second-halfperformance. Darragh Ó Sé won too many of John Devine’s kickoutsfor my liking. But that’s understandable; John is still only nineteen andto be fair to him, it wasn’t all down to him and I probably didn’t giveenough time on the training ground to our kickout. Some of ourtackling also became a bit ragged, a bit overzealous and we gave awaysome stupid frees out the field. With ten minutes to go Kerry had itdown to four. But we stuck in there, started to attack the lead again andtowards the end we made some fantastic tackles to set up points forStephen O’Neill and Brian Dooher.

When the whistle went, there was naturally a sense of exhilaration.We knew this was a massive obstacle to overcome. In the changingroom afterwards I saw Kenny Curran. “Hey, Kenny,” I said, “do youremember what I said to you in Bundoran?” But that sense of jubilationdidn’t last long. Peter’s injury for one put a cloud over it. After thematch Brian Carthy came over and gave Peter a number for Alan Kelly,the masseur of the stars. It was good to see he was been looked afterright away, that our preparations had already begun, but you kneweveryone was wondering if he’d be back for the final. There was alsoan appreciation that no medals were handed out yesterday, that otherTyrone teams had won semi-finals too. When the players werelimbering down in the warm-up room, Paddy gave them a picture ofour ultimate goal. “The next time we’ll be doing this, boys, SamMaguire is going to be in the middle there.”

Now we’ve got to plan to make sure that happens.

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Sunday 31 August

Don’t mind criticism. If it’s untrue, disregard it. If it’s unfair, don’t let itirritate you. If it’s ignorant, smile. If it’s justified, learn from it.

Quotation from Mickey Harte’s Word magazine calendar

It’s strange. I’m back from Dublin having seen the Armagh-Donegalmatch with Fr Gerard and Paddy, I’ve watched it again on TV and thepundits thought it was a wonderful game. Pat Spillane thought ourswas terrible; in fact he called it ‘puke football’. I thought today’s gamewas interesting, it was like a game of chess, and I had no problem withit. But I didn’t think it was as good a game as the boys are making itout. It was 1-4 to 0-4 at half-time. The fact it was close maybe kepttheir attention more than ours did, which was virtually over at half-time.

Last week’s game has come in for a lot of criticism. There was a lotof stuff said and written during the week and there was more of it todayin the Sunday papers. It’s as if we’ve been totally negative and brutalin our task. I really think on reflection that was not the case. People aregoing on as if it’s the end of Gaelic football as we know it. I’mdisappointed at the Kerry chairman Sean Walsh suggesting that wemight have to introduce the mark and change the rules. The simplething is for Kerry to change their mindset and innovate like they havedone so often in the past. The solution isn’t to discard Mike FrankRussell and Colm Cooper either, as some people are suggesting.Quality players can be accommodated in any system and those twoboys are quality. People are saying they’re too small, as if we’re giants.Ryan McMenamin is smaller than Colm Cooper.

There was quite a lot of fouling last week. And I wasn’t happy withsome of it. I would demand of the players not to foul. There’s not goingto be a foul-free game anywhere but the principle I always tell theplayers, any man who fouls is a lazy player and I don’t like lazyplayers. But some of our tackling was brilliant. People are going onabout the number of fouls we committed; they should look at thenumber of turnovers we forced. The goal was that each player would


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force at least one, bringing us up to fifteen. We forced over thirty-five.In my ten years coaching Tyrone underage teams, we only had two mensent off. We’ve played twenty games this year, won two trophies, in anAll-Ireland final and we’ve had no one sent off. You can say we mighthave been lucky here and there but there must be some discipline in ateam that plays that number of games and has no one put off. In themodern game? Where two bookings and you’re gone?

People are going on about our ‘blanket defence’, that there’ll haveto be rules brought into beat it. Derry played the blanket defenceagainst us and the second day we broke it down. I’ve always advocatedthat our half forwards defend. How come no one complained duringthe league? Why shouldn’t our half forwards defend? The first rule onour team is that when your man has the ball, you must be present to thatman. If our half forwards do that, then often it will take them back intotheir own half of the field. In the last ten years or so there’s been theemergence of the overlapping wing back; Martin Shovlin in Donegal,the Derry half-back line of McGurk, Downey and Coleman; the likesof Curran, Moynihan, Rainbow, de Paor and Meehan. People havelooked at that and said, ‘That’s the way to go, that’s great.’ It seemsnow there’s a proviso to that: ‘Only if they’re allowed to go up alone.’I don’t go along with that. The cost should be that the half forwardtracks that half back all the way. And when that tracking is done, he’sready to be a forward again, instead of saying, ‘Wasn’t I good to dothat? I’ll stay here.’

There’s a lack of balance here. The good part of our game againstKerry should be the lasting impressing of last Sunday. There wereaspects of that game that were less worthy of viewing, but that shouldnot tarnish the good elements of the game. Our play in the first twentyminutes was a sight to behold. Kerry would have played like Tyronehad they been allowed to. We didn’t allow them. Yes, some of our playbecame ragged for about fifteen minutes in the second half but don’tdamn the game, the season, our team on the basis of those fifteenminutes.

Let’s look at the totality of the football that Tyrone have played thisyear, let’s look at the big picture. We played nine games in the league

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and we weren’t negative in any of them. We scored 1-17 against Corkto make the semi-finals, we scored four goals in that semi-final, wescored seventeen points from play in the final; what was negative aboutthat? We’ve played seven championship games so far and only twicehave we failed to score at least seventeen points. I saw a line in one ofthe papers yesterday saying our backs and midfield have scored 1-28between them in the championship. What’s negative about that?There’s a lack of perspective here.

Anyway, we’re putting that behind us. We’re only looking forward.The players went back to their clubs this week. It gave the clubs thechance to have their day and Paddy, Fr Gerard and myself a breakbefore we start again on Tuesday. The whole county is buzzing withanticipation, boys are writing and bringing out songs but we have todivorce ourselves from it. We have to get ready for the final push. Tobecome the champions we have to beat the champions. We’ve alwaysfelt we’d meet Armagh again after that league game in Omagh. Wethought it would be an Ulster final, possibly a league final; it’s workedout now that it’s an All-Ireland final. Their shooting was a bit waywardtoday but they always seemed in control after Raymond Sweeney wassent off. They have the right stuff, no question about it and we’ll haveto beat them for people to say the same about us.

I know I keep saying it but it’s so true. We have to go to anotherlevel.


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8

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Life is a game of inches. So is football. The inches we need areeverywhere around us… On this team, we fight for that inch. On thisteam, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us to pieces for thatinch. We CLAW with our fingernails for that inch. Cause we know,when we add up all those inches, that's going to make the f***ndifference between WINNING and LOSING. Between LIVING andDYING… Now, whataya gonna do?

The Armagh team motto, as said by Al Pacino’s Tony D’Amato inOliver Stone’s ‘Any Given Sunday’

So if I have a great opportunity, what will be inherent in the greatopportunity? A little obstacle or a lot? If I’m going to dream loftydreams what must I be prepared to include? There are going to bemany things I’m going to have to overcome! Why? THERE’S NEVERBEEN A VICTORY WITHOUT A BATTLE!

George Zalucki

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Thursday 4 September

You’re not going to get big places and do big things without workingon you. YOU’RE the one that needs to be worked on. The objective isyou! The better you get, the better IT gets! Has anybody figured thatout today?

George Zalucki

The way I look at it, we’re now in the realms of the extrapercentages. Where can we get those extra percentages? Where can Iget them? There’s no point me being the same person I was before thesemi-final; that’s not good enough. We have to improve if we’re to beatArmagh. I have to improve. Me, Mickey Harte, has to go to a newlevel. If we’re to beat a team that fights for every inch, I have to fightfor every millimetre. Today I think I came across one. His name is BartMcEnroe.

It was through talking with Peter Canavan last week that I heardabout Bart. Peter had been speaking to Terence Donnelly fromDonnelly Motors, and Terence had mentioned I could contact, if Iwanted, this motivational speaker he sometimes brought in to talk tohis salesmen. I was interested straight away so I met Terence and I metBart in Kelly’s. He’s a Meath man, living in Cavan, and he’s veryanimated, very in-your-face. He wants to know ‘what are you f***nthinking?’, what makes you tick, what doesn’t, what you think makesothers tick, what doesn’t. He talks and he writes and then he might askagain, ‘Well, what are you f***n thinking?’ You’ll find that you’reeither scared of him or that you like him. I like him, a lot. Hechallenges me. He puts me on the spot.

He uses some great terms. One of them is ‘Feedback is the breakfastof champions.’ Another is, ‘What is the picture in the other man’shead?’ He’s big into the power of questions. How do you really knowwhat someone else is thinking? How do you really know what a playerfeels about a particular game or his own role in the team? The only wayyou’ll be sure is to ask him. Bart has asked me to examine the balanceI have between ‘telling and asking’. I mightn’t be asking enough


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questions. I probably have had too many notions of my own, especiallywhen analysing match tape. I should allow the players more latitudewhen we’re going through videos; they’ll observe things that maybe Ihaven’t seen. I’ll gain more insights if I ask more questions.

I’m going to meet Bart another few times in the coming weeks. AndI think I’m going to sit down and have a few one-to-one sessions witha few players. Bart has introduced me to the notion of ‘ownablebehaviour’. What evidence do I have that a player is playing well orplaying poorly? The best thing is to ask him, ‘How would you tell methat you’re playing well?’ It might be that five passes were played intoyou, you won four of them, offloaded three and scored yourself withthe other. It makes you accountable, otherwise you can fool yourselfand indulge in ‘cooking the books’ as Bart puts it.

I’m a better coach today than I was yesterday.

Sunday 7 September

When there’s no one complaining, there’ll be days like thisWhen everything falls into place, like the flick of a switchWell my mama told me that there’d be days like this

Sean Cavanagh’s song, ‘Days Like This’, Van Morrison

The county is on an even bigger high after today. We’ve anotherteam in an All-Ireland final now. I was in Sligo to watch the under-21sbeat Mayo, 1-9 to 0-9. You could see the Tyrone style in their play.They played with a passion and a work rate that was pleasant to see.The three senior players acquitted themselves well. Sean Cavanaghscored the goal, John Devine didn’t concede any and Dermot Carlin dida pretty good job, even though he was well tested at times by ConorMortimer. Dermot probably won’t start in our All Ireland but he’s hada very good debut year and I expect him to start in at least one AllIreland before his career is through.

I was happy for Peter Doherty too. He’s a good coach and we get onwell. I released Sean, Dermot and John from our training this week.People might have said that was a risk but Peter and his under-21s

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needed them. The boys could have injured themselves training with usjust as easily.

Tuesday 9 September

Mama take this badge from meI can't use it anymoreIt's getting dark, too dark to seeFeels like I'm knockin' on heaven's door

Owen Mulligan’s song, ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’,covered by Avril Lavigne

I called into my uncle Mickey Harte today on the way back fromBelfast where Brian Dooher collected the Ulster Writers’ Player of theMonth award. My sister-in-law phoned last night to say Mickey isn’tgreat. He’s eighty-seven now, the youngest and last in my father’sfamily. And right enough, when Michaela and myself called into thehome in Dunamore, just outside Cookstown, Mickey did look veryfrail, lying on his bed. He was still very expressive though and let usknow how proud he was of us. He used his hands a lot, giving thethumbs up, saying, ‘Good stuff.’ He pointed Michaela to his wardrobe,where he had kept the pictures we’ve taken off him with the cups.There was the one with the Ulster club championship, and the one ofhim with Gavin Devlin and Brian McGuigan when we won the under-21 All Ireland in 2001. He had a great affinity with that title. It wasplayed in Markievicz Park, where Mickey and his Pomeroy accordionband performed at the opening of that pitch. And, as he’s often pointedout to us, in Croke Park too, before Tyrone and Iggy Jones played intheir All-Ireland semi-final in 1956. He loves his music and he loveshis football, so my uncle Mickey does.

He’s a lovely, wee old-fashioned, religious man. He’d have grownup on the farm with my father and then worked in the linen factory. Henever married but he always had family. Mattie and Michaela adorehim. He was asking where Mattie was today because he normally callsover with us but Mattie was in school. It’s a pity because I don’t know


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if Mattie will get to see Mickey again. Mickey asked my cousin, AnneCassidy, last week when the final was. She said four weeks and Mickeysaid, ‘Too long.’ I hope not because it would be a shame after all thecups he’s seen, that he could miss the biggest one of them all.

We’re just after training in Omagh tonight. I had to lay down the lawthere. The county is buzzing, there’s no harm in that, but as I’ve said tothe players, while it’s a celebration for them, it can’t be for us. We haveto divorce ourselves from the hype. As we were sitting down to eattonight, there were forty-two items scattered all over the table, waitingto be signed; there was hardly any room for the plates. After the meal,I got the boys together and said, ‘Right, this has gone beyond being aworkable scenario. It’s taking up too much of our time, it’s too muchof a distraction. We’re calling a halt to it. From here on in, anyone whowants something signed has to give me a letter in writing stating thecause. That way we can prioritise. The ones that are for a good cause,that really need to be done, will still be done.’

One good cause is called David Gillespie. He was our special guesttonight. The other week, the UTV newsreader Mike Nesbitt told AdrianLogan about this young teenage boy from Strabane who was after abone marrow transplant. He was a big Tyrone fan and Mike waswondering if it was possible he could meet the team. Tonight Davidand his family came over after we had finished looking at some videofootage. I had told the players about David, that his family and friendsfeared he mightn’t make it to the final at all. The players were great.They made David feel very welcome, presenting him with a jerseysigned by the whole panel and they spoke and got photos taken withhim and his family.

You could tell David and his family enjoyed it, and I think theplayers did too. It’s a reminder to them of what real life is about, ofwhat a privileged position we’re in. How many people can really makesomeone else’s day? How many people can make David and his familyfeel special and give them a lift when times are so difficult for them?It’s made the players appreciate what this is all about, what they’replaying for. If we win this All Ireland, it will be won by the people forthe people.

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Wednesday 10 September

An old man said to me, ‘Won’t see another one’Gerald Cavlan’s song, ‘Fairytale of New York’, The Pogues

Mickey was right. The final was too long away. Shortly before ourpress night in Carrickmore finished up tonight, my nephew Ciarancame in to tell me that Mickey had passed away. It was another realitycheck. You’re in the middle of this whole media scene, talking all nightabout football, football and football and then, bang, you hear this. Thefirst thing I thought was, ‘Thank God I saw him yesterday.’ The timebefore that had been a month ago. I’d have felt awful if I hadn’t seenhim between then and now. I don’t feel so bad now, though I feel badenough.

I didn’t let on tonight. Although I had already spoken to the nationalmedia, I had promised the local reporters a few exclusive lines and Ifelt I should honour that as they had waited around after all the signingsoutside. So I put on the brave face, said, ‘That’s the way it is’ and didn’tmention a word to anyone about Mickey. Life has to go on, I have togo on. Mickey would have understood that.

I had enjoyed the night up to then. I loved seeing the players beingcomfortable with the media, in fact, I like seeing them at ease withpeople in general. They have to think when they’re talking to the press.They have to be careful in their language so as to not needlessly offendany opponent. It means they’re thinking. I like the thinking player. Ifour players can think on their feet with the press, they can think on theirfeet in a game. The way I see it, if they’re to develop as players theyalso have to develop as people.

Philip Jordan jumps out right away. When Philip was playing minorand under-21 for us, you wouldn’t hear a word from him. In fact he wasso modest by nature, he didn’t even put himself forward for the 2000under-21 trials though he most certainly would have made it. Now he’scomfortable speaking to anyone. Tonight I saw him there, surroundedby reporters, talking and smiling away. I found that very satisfying,seeing that once shy boy letting the national media know just how


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articulate and thoughtful a young man he now is. Philip has probablybeen our most consistent player this year, he must be a shoo-in for anAll Star, and one of the reasons why is because he’s a player whothinks.

The press seemed delighted with tonight. I know they were a bitanxious coming up; supposedly the Cork and Kilkenny hurlers weren’tas accessible as the press boys were hoping they’d be. I’m sure thosemanagement teams have their good reasons but in general I find thenational press quite responsible and very fair to me. I appreciate theyhave a job to do and towards the end of the night, John Campbell fromthe Belfast Telegraph, thanked me on behalf of his colleagues formaking that job easier for them.

What the local boys wouldn’t have known a bit later on is howtough a job it was for me. The last member of my father’s family isdead, even if his wish to see Tyrone win the one missing cup lives on.


Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you mayknow where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.

Sun Tzu, ‘The Art of War’

I’m back after a very interesting function in the Armagh City Hotelthis evening. It was the Irish News Ulster All-Star awards at whichseven of our players were honoured. A lot of commentators are talkingabout how similar Armagh and ourselves are in our approach; well, thisevening showed how different we are too.

We were delighted to be invited to the awards, so delighted that wemoved training to tomorrow night. These awards were picked by thereaders so we felt the honourable thing to do was to embrace the factthat Cormac, Ryan, Philip, Sean, Brian Dooher, Peter and Owen wererecognised for their level of performance. We told them, ‘Well done.Enjoy the night. You deserve it.’ Armagh apparently only let theorganisers know at three o’clock that they would be there. As it turnedout, they were but they gave the undeniable impression that they’d

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rather they weren’t. I could see it for myself, the contrast between the two camps. I was

at a table between both of them, sitting alongside Willie John Dolanand Thomas Hawkins, the paper’s sports editor, while DominicCorrigan was at the far side. While on my left our players wereengaging with each other and their partners in a nice, comfortable way,on my right were the Armagh boys, a picture of austerity itself. Whileour boys mingled with fellas from other counties, the Armagh boyskept to themselves and their table which was located tight against thefar wall. As soon as they collected their awards and the presentationswere over, they rose from their chairs and went home. A few of ourboys said it to me, ‘We’re much happier to be here.’ On one side youhad Peter Canavan talking away with Paddy O’Rourke and the otherschatting away and laughing with Eamon Coleman, and on the far sideof the room you had Kieran McGeeney with his game-face on. DittoPaul McGrane, Aidan O’Rourke and Stevie McDonnell; even Joe wasuncharacteristically sombre.

Now I might be wrong. Maybe they were the same at these awardslast year. And maybe they’ll win this All Ireland too; we’ll see. It istheir prerogative to be as they may; I am not preparing Armagh for thisfinal. I must remind myself that I only have observation to make myjudgement. Joe and the Armagh players have the inside line on theirapproach, and to date, that’s been pretty effective. But I know whichteam’s demeanour I preferred tonight. They look like a team that havebecome over-consumed by this match. Tonight they might have beentelling us, ‘No life outside the All-Ireland quest matters.’

Instead they were telling me, ‘There’s a lot of the Errigal and Nemosabout this.’


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Saturday 13 September

‘Fear not, fear not, sweetheart,’ he cried, ‘Fear not the foe for me.No chain shall fall, whate’er betide,On the arm that would be free.’

‘The Mountains of Pomeroy’, a favourite of thePomeroy accordion band

We said our final farewell to Mickey this morning. We buried himin Pomeroy, where his old accordion band is still going strong. Theyplayed in the church, and then in the graveyard they performed a lovelyrendition of their signature song, ‘The Mountains of Pomeroy’. Mickeywould have liked that. I think he’s happy now. He’s after living a good,long life. He’s content that he has met his maker.

It’s something I didn’t think of saying at the time, but on the day hedied, I was in Dungannon that morning to help promote a drugs andalcohol awareness programme by the Breakthrough project. It’s aclever campaign they’re running, using an Armagh jersey, a Tyronejersey and then an O’Neill’s football with the slogan, ‘Get the point’.‘Know alcohol, know your limits, know the score.’ I would have talkedabout role models, about the number of the Tyrone players that don’ttake a drink, of how a player like Stephen O’Neill is a pioneer. I neverthought of mentioning the man I had seen for the last time the previousnight. Mickey Harte didn’t drink and yet he was alive at eighty-seven.That would have helped the kids get the point.

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Sunday 14 September

Just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are noconstant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to hisopponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

We decided to get out of the county today. It was a chance to escapefrom the hype, to hear our two CDs together on the bus and to coolycalculate how we’re going to win this All Ireland.

After some breakfast in Kelly’s Inn, we were in Donegal for half-eleven, where we trained on the Naomh Bríd club pitch just outside thetown. By half-one we were in the Abbey Hotel for lunch before thecircle gathered and asked itself some serious questions. If we wereArmagh, how would we go about beating Tyrone? And knowing that,how should we go about beating Armagh? The Tyrone Challenge andthe Armagh Challenge. Discuss.

At the end, the first two sheets of Paddy’s flipchart read like this:

THE TYRONE CHALLENGE- Stop Tyrone’s running game (Body check, no quick frees)- Put in high ball- Get hard hits in on Sean Cavanagh- Feed Andrew McCann the ball in attacking positions- Get it into Stevie McDonnell- Blanket defence to keep shape- Cut supply to Canavan and Mulligan- No one-on-one situations; double tackle- Keeper to be hit- Stop clean possession from kickouts- Win throw-in at start of game- Draw frees for Oisin- Vary attacks (Clarke inside)- Dictate pace of the game


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THE ARMAGH CHALLENGE- Defend long ball to their front men- McGeeney’s influence – swarm!- Kickouts to half backs and half forwards- Hearty’s signals- Extra defender at back, crowded middle- Use the flanks- Run at them- Challenge the last 15 minutes

I suppose some of the above points need no explanation. Some do. We’ve watched how Armagh have beaten other teams and there are

certain trends. Most of them were evident in their win over Dublin. Weare not going to fall into some of the traps Dublin did. The first is PaulHearty’s kickout. Hearty found an Armagh man with nineteen of histwenty-four kickouts against Dublin. That’s just not going to beallowed on Sunday week. To be honest, I’m amazed Dublin andDonegal didn’t cop onto his signals; Benny Tierney was using the sameones when Armagh beat both of them last year. Whoever is in goal forArmagh, he taps his left foot on the ground in his run-up before kickingthe ball up that side, and then he taps his right foot on the ground if he’sgoing up the other; it’s been sitting around for a while. Our players areto watch out for Hearty’s foot taps and make sure that if they try to hit,say, Andrew McCann on the wing over Brian Dooher like they didagainst Laois and Ross Munnelly, Brian won’t be isolated.

The other thing they did against Dublin was they stared them down.Armagh know we’re very good starters, so how might they thwart that?Perhaps where one man rushes in and pushes someone, then someoneelse does, the referee has to start talking to people and the play isslowed down. They did that against Dublin. When Dublin were fourpoints and a man up, Armagh looked them in the eye and the Dubsblinked. I’m not talking about the half-time incident either, whenTommy Lyons got his men to wait until Armagh were gone before histeam went down the tunnel. I did the same against Derry in Casementand there wasn’t a word about it, so I felt Tommy was unjustly

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criticised there. But I’m thinking of what happened at the start of thesecond half that day. Armagh decided to dictate the pace of the game.Marsden rushed in, grabbed hold of Magee, squared up to him andtauntingly smiled. We are not going to be bossed around. Our boys areto stamp their authority and project a body language that says, ‘We’renot moving.’ If our boys are pushed, they’re to push back. They’re notto start a fight but they’re not to walk away from one either. If Armaghproduce steel, then we’re going to meet steel with steel; their choice.

We’re to be sensible though, disciplined. John Devine in particular.We’ve noticed that Armagh hit the goalkeeper a lot. Even when agoalie has passed the ball away, they’ll run into him and give him alittle hit. Tony McEntee knocked Tony Blake on his arse in the semi-final. Steven McDonnell fouled Blake coming out with the ball at leasttwice. Cluxton made the mistake of reacting when Stevie ran acrosshim. John is to keep his concentration and cool and know that evenwhen he’s passed the ball out, his job is still not done.

We’re also to be very aware of the make-up of their half-back line.If Tony McEntee goes back again and plays as a second centre back,we can’t just launch the ball in and hope we can find Owen and Peterinside. McGeeney and McCann have to be pressurised on the ball.They both like to get on the ball a lot and dictate the play, McCannmore so by carrying the ball, McGeeney by looking for the longdiagonal ball. We’re to put pressure on the ball, hunt them in packs butwe have to be careful not to foul either because no footballer is a betterre-starter in his own half of the field than McGeeney.

We also spoke today about the last fifteen minutes. Everyone istalking about how Armagh’s superior strength tells in the last fifteenminutes. The consensus among the pundits is that if you’re not six orseven points up on them by then, you’ll lose. We spoke today about theneed to steel ourselves against that kind of talk seeping through. We’reto challenge the last fifteen minutes. We’re to win the last fifteenminutes. If we’re ahead going into those fifteen minutes, it’s nil-allagain. We’re to attack our lead. Challenge those fifteen minutes.

The boys made some other general points. They want six or eightnew footballs for these last two weeks. It’s something I hadn’t thought


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of but it’s one of these important wee things that make all thedifference. They’re going to be playing with a new ball in the final,after all. A new ball has a different feeling, a different weight to oneyou’ve been using all year, so we’re looking to have those new ballsready for Tuesday night.

The last point made before we watched the hurling final was toguard against this notion that our name is on the cup. Paddy wrote onthe flipchart, ‘This is our year – rubbish.’ The only way it’ll be our yearis if we make it our year. It’s not going to be some gift from God.

The hurling final reinforced that. The better script would have beena Cork win after they had been on strike last December. InsteadKilkenny won in the end. We watched it on the big television in thecorner, initially through Cork eyes. We found out from Croke Park thatwe’ll be first out on Sunday week and that Cork would be first outtoday, at six minutes past three. Today we tried to get the players tovisualise that they were Cork coming out of that tunnel, just so they’llhave an idea of the timescale from that moment to the throw-in. Forthose twenty-four minutes today, they weren’t to be talking about whowas going to win or where Donal Óg Cusack was going to land hispuckouts; they were to watch the whole ceremony that goes with theday, like standing for and meeting the president.

Once the ball was thrown in, they were able to enjoy it. In fact,within seconds the banter and the shouting had already started. CollieHolmes organised this raffle, where everyone threw in two pound andthen picked a number out of a hat. You either had a Kilkenny or a Corkticket, numbered from five to fifteen, and whoever’s number coincidedwith that of the player who scored the first point of the game then wonthe sixty-pound prize. Eight seconds in, the ball broke to Tommy Walshand he put it straight over. Tommy was wearing number twelve forKilkenny. Cormac McGinley’s ticket. Cormac has been desperatelyunfortunate with injury this year but his luck was a bit better today.

Everyone was in good spirits on the bus back. Enda McGinley’s‘Sweet Home Alabama’ is a firm favourite anyway. So is ConorGormley’s ‘Lisdoonvarna’. Even Paddy’s ‘Superstar’ is catching on.Believe me, now that’s a sign of team spirit.

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Tuesday 16 September

It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you’ve beenplaying all your life.

Baseball legend Mickey Mantle

We had a good workout in Omagh tonight. We’ve been putting a lotof emphasis in recent weeks on handling the ball in close quarters andon your first touch being spot on. I always do with any team but it willbe particularly crucial against Armagh. If you’re struggling to get theball under control, they’re going to be on top of you straight away. Agood first touch sets you on the right path. We want players who canuse both hands, who are comfortable on the ball from all the ballworkwe do in training, players who can kick the ball long, well andaccurately. But all that starts with your first touch. You must get thatright. Tonight the boys got it right.

We studied Armagh on video again. Video is crucial. We’ve giveneach player a video compiled from Armagh’s last four games. It’stightly edited; there’s no fellas getting physio attention or anything likethat; just action footage. It’s just another resource, a tool that mighthelp some fellas get their head around playing against a certain type ofplayer. There’s no demand on them to watch it. If someone wants towatch it five times, great; if someone doesn’t want to watch it, fineagain; we’ve been showing plenty of footage anyway.

Today we showed some more. I was particularly mindful of whatBart was talking about last week, to give the players a greater say in thevideo feedback. We had some good contributions from the circle butthe one that the boys will be talking about was the one when themeeting was virtually wrapped up. Earlier on we had been goingthrough some of the Armagh-Donegal match in which I laid particularemphasis on Steven McDonnell’s work-rate and movement in the buildup to Paul McGrane’s fisted point. McDonnell had won a ball fiftymetres from his own goal before playing a nice low foot pass intoDiarmaid Marsden. Marsden in turn took on his man before playing ahigh ball across the face of the goal, where, lo and behold, McDonnell


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had floated over from the far side to play the ball into McGrane, whoduly took his point. As we were leaving, Peter came over. ‘Em, Mickey,that was Aidan O’Rourke who played that ball into McGrane.’

‘No, it was McDonnell.’‘I’m telling you, it was O’Rourke.’‘Peter, I think you’re mistaken there. It was Steven McDonnell!’‘Bet you twenty quid it was O’Rourke! Hey boys! Come back here!Wasn’t that O’Rourke that time who gave it into McGrane?’The next thing all the boys are back and the tape is played back. And

while Marty Morrissey’s commentary supports my claim, the cameraitself doesn’t. Peter has his hand out, the lads are laughing and I’mbeaming red.

Peter Canavan. A sharp, sharp boy.


So place your hands, on my hope,Run your fingers through my soul,And the way that we feel right now,Oh Lord it may go.

Mark Harte’s song, ‘Put Your Hands On Me’, Reef

A very bad day at the office. Ciaran Gourley could miss the final.We were working tonight on releasing the ball from the ground sofellas could appreciate they can still find people in that situation.Ciaran got the ball in this drill, went to ground, but as he landed he puthis whole weight on his arm and jolted his shoulder. We could tell rightaway that it was quite painful, and he went into Siobhan and Sharonstraight away. The initial prognosis is not good. Ciaran has displacedhis AC joint and he could be out for four to six weeks. Four to sixweeks right now is four to six years and Ciaran knows it; the poor fellawas crying. You can tell one or two of the boys from ’95 areparticularly anxious about it. Some boys say that final was lost theweek before when Adrian Cush went down injured in training; that thisis déjà vu. I hope to God it’s not. Tonight Enda McGinley and some of

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the boys have taken Ciaran up to the Royal in Belfast and we’ll bemaking sure he gets the oxygen treatment to help speed up therecovery.

Ciaran would be a massive loss. He’s done a marvellous job sincehe came on in place of Declan McCrossan against Down. He’s the besttackler on the panel. He’s not fast but he’s almost impossible to get by.He’ll just stand off you, shadow you to where he wants, and eitherforce you into making a mistake or strip you off the ball.

If Ciaran is out, it messes up some of the match-ups I had in mind.There’s one that is staying in stone though. I’ve let Cormac McAnallenknow he’s taking up Steven McDonnell. Niall McCready lost out toSteven in the physical and aerial stakes in the semi-final. Armagh willbe looking to hit Steven with similar ball, so the best way to counterthat is by having a big, mobile man like Cormac on him. I’ve said toCormac, ‘If they play two-men up, it’ll be you on McDonnell, notRyan. Ryan is going to play a sweeping role in front of you. If Clarkeor McEntee move onto the square and McDonnell floats, you stay thereand Ryan takes up McDonnell. Now, don’t say this to anyone, becauseyou know the way these things could get back to Armagh, and we don’twant to give them an edge – Conor Gormley and Ciaran Gourley areswapping positions. Conor is moving to the corner to mark Marsden.He’s played well on him these past few years and I think he’ll play wellon him again. Ciaran is taking up Oisin instead.’

Now Ciaran mightn’t. I have to get my head around maybe someoneelse taking up McConville. Peter’s ankle is still acting up as well. He’smore likely to play than Ciaran but that’s not saying a lot. Again, a badday at the office.


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Friday, 19 September

Almost heaven, this SeptemberMickey Harte’s men, we will all rememberWhere we’re going, everybody knows,We’re going to bring Sam Maguire back home to TyroneTake me home, back to Tyrone.

‘Na Na Nah, Tyrone’, The Boogie Men

The enormity of what we’re involved in only really hit home today.The phone has been ringing non-stop for the past three weeks withpeople I hardly know looking for a ticket, despite us taking an ad in thelocal papers requesting that the management and players shouldn’t behassled on that issue. Today showed just what frenzy the county is in.Schools throughout the county held a Tyrone Day, including our own.When Paddy and myself walked in to the sports hall today and sawover eight-hundred kids all wearing the county colours applauding usand singing songs and the whole place covered with balloons, flags andbunting; well we were overwhelmed. Paddy, who of course is a pastpupil as well as a teacher who works a few shifts here, turned to me andsaid, ‘This is wild, isn’t it? This must be what’s going on out there thewhole time.’

The Boogie Men were there. They’ve become cult figures here inTyrone. Q-101, the local radio station, are running a Tyronavision poll,there’s that many songs out about the team and the All Ireland. At thelast count, there were seventeen contenders. Owen Mulligan’s sister,Marie-Claire, and his cousin, James McGarrity, are in a band, Joker’sWild, who have a very good one called ‘Harte’s Army’. Mattie reckonsthe Boogie Men will push them close for number one though. They’vedone a version of ‘Country Roads’, changing the words to, ‘Come onTyrone, na na nah.’ When they started up today, it was like that scenein O Brother Where Art Thou? when George Clooney and The SoggyBottom Boys burst into the crowd’s favourite. These weren’t just someboys from Cookstown and Kildress playing a bit of music; these werethe Boogie Men!

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Paddy and myself were also given the stage. I referred to some ofour colleagues on the teaching staff. There weren’t just Tyrone coloursadorned today. Anthony Gallagher, who won an Ulster medal withDonegal in 1974, was still able to parade the same green and yellowblazer he did that year. And there was Gerry Cunningham, all kitted outin his Armagh gear, as a few of the kids were as well. Gerry is a goodfriend of mine. His wife Breda and Marian share the same birthday, soevery year the four of us go out for a meal to celebrate. I told the kidsthat Gerry, and Eileen who works in the canteen, are your averageArmagh supporters. There’s been all kind of talk of needing tosegregate the two sets of fans, about how they won’t get on nextSunday week. This gave me a chance to say that it won’t be like that,that this is a healthy rivalry, that they should respect the Armagh jersey,that when I think of Armagh supporters, I’m thinking of the GerryCunninghams of the world.

I’m just back from Edendork. The club there invited me down to doa one-to-one interview with Francie Mooney, a reporter based in thecounty, and then to pull out the winning ticket in the club draw. WhenI did, there was fierce excitement. First prize was a house worth one-hundred thousand pounds. The winners turned out to be five youngfellas on the local team who had chipped in twenty quid each on thenight for their ticket. I got a lot of amusement seeing the stir that wentwith that.

Generally we’re doing a fine job of divorcing ourselves from thehype. That stand we made about the jerseys ten days ago is working;there were only three or four items to be signed on the table last night.Getting the official collaborative press night out of the way a weekearlier than the norm was a good idea. So is heading down to Dublintomorrow for our last weekend camp. We need a few days away fromthe maddening crowd.


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Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you’re never cominground,Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of mytears,Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of the yearshave gone by’

Fr Gerard McAleer’s song, ‘A Total Eclipse of the Heart’, Bonnie Tyler

Some of us have been here before. Tonight we decided to tap intothat. While we all only have our own memories of ’86 but no direct linkwith it, ’95 is different. This weekend eight years ago, Peter Canavan,Chris Lawn, Gerald Cavlan and Paddy Tally experienced what it waslike to walk into a losing dressing room on All-Ireland final day. FrGerard, Paddy and myself felt that it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the restof us to know what that day is actually like, how it really feels to endup on the wrong side of it, why we should have yet another reason towin.

All four contributions were excellent. Gerald spoke about how hewas just out of minor that year and while he was a little disappointedto be only able to sit in the dugout and watch the Dubs win, he wasn’tthat concerned. He thought he’d be back the following year, starting,winning. ‘If you don’t do the business next week, boys,’ he said, ‘youmight be waiting another eight years for your chance.’ Chris, who wasfull back that day, echoed similar sentiments. He had his two under-21medals like a lot of boys in the room tonight, and never thought he’dhave to wait so long for another chance to win a senior one.

Paddy was only on the fringes of the panel in ’95. In fact, he neverstarted a senior match for Tyrone. Those few months training wereworth it for tonight alone. He really captured that dressing room for us.He recalled no one being able to get up and have their shower, ofeveryone just staying in their seats in this dark, cold, pokey dressingroom in Croke Park. ‘Those old dressing rooms were dark and pokey

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anyway,’ he said, ‘but losing just made them seem even darker andcolder.’ The following day, himself and the rest of the Tyrone teamcould only sit and watch John O’Leary, Paul Curran, Jason Sherlockand Brian Stynes walking into the Burlington banquet with the SamMaguire cup. It was a sickening sensation. ‘The difference that onepoint makes, boys; you don’t want to end up on the wrong side of it.You don’t want to visit that dark, cold place.’

Paddy had one other memory of that day. It was of Peter Canavanstanding up and having his say. Tonight Peter re-iterated some of thosewords. They were even more pertinent now. ‘Don’t anyone walk out ofthis room believing this was a good year for Tyrone football. It was nota good year for Tyrone football. We still don’t have our All Ireland.That’s the measure of a good year in Tyrone football.’ Peter reallyhammered that point home tonight. And rightly so. Because, as Zaluckisays, the mind provides all kinds of trapdoors. If we’re trailing by fouror five points in the last ten minutes, we can’t have anyone thinkingsub-consciously, ‘It’s still been a good year.’ Winning a league,winning Ulster and reaching an All-Ireland final is not a good year ifwe lose that All-Ireland final. To say otherwise is not the truth.

Peter also spoke about how quickly an All-Ireland final goes by. Youhave a lot of things to do but a very short time to do it. You do the rightthing. Every time. Otherwise you could be in that dark, cold place. Ithink it’s helped the boys focus even clearer on next Sunday.

We’re not staying in the Citywest tonight. That’s because we’re notgoing to be there next weekend either. We knew in advance of oursemi-final that if Armagh won theirs, they’d be staying there for thefinal. They were regular visitors there last year as well, so they havesquatter’s rights to an extent. I know two or three teams all stayed inthe Citywest the weekend of the All-Ireland quarter-finals but this isdifferent. There’s no point in both teams tripping over one another andtheir respective supporters.

We don’t mind giving them that inch though; in fact, I think it mightwork for us. The Citywest is a fantastic spot, it has been great to us andfor us this year, but it’s nearly become the new Burlington, a placewhere everybody is seen and almost has to be seen. I have memories of


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’95 myself. I stayed there the night before the final and the place wasjust a hive of activity. It was a great place for a supporter to be but nota particularly great spot for a team. Armagh might find that now for thefinal. Supporters will have made the Citywest their priority booking.They’ll want to be close to the scene, be part of the scene. The playerswon’t be on their own. I think they might find it all a bit too public.

We’re staying out in the more remote Killiney Castle, this and nextweekend. We didn’t even tell the players where we’d be staying today.A few supporters are bound to be there next weekend but you’re alwaysgoing to have a few. On the Sunday night we can mix with as manysupporters as we like. We’re staying in the Burlington that night andhopefully we’ll be bringing in a cup with us. Paddy, Peter, Chris andGer let it be known tonight that they can’t countenance being thereempty-handed again.

Sunday 21 September

And they gave us Mickey Harte and the Tyrone team,We have Canavan, Devine, Mulligan and Gorm-ley,And all our county’s greats, will pass through Croke Park’s gatesTo lift the Sam Maguire on All-Ireland day

‘Harte’s Army’, Joker’s Wild

When we got back from Dublin, I headed over to Marian’s sisterCatherine’s place in Aughnacloy. She was running a Tyrone partywhere everyone was wearing their colours and playing all the tapes. Inall there must have been about forty people there, between family andfriends, everyone in the best of form, their only care being whetherPeter and Ciaran are going to be playing this time next week. I wish Icould have stayed longer but I had to go over to present some trophiesat the Omagh golf club. The club captain, my cousin Gerry Harte, hadkindly facilitated a competition to raise funds for the All-Irelandcampaign. The chief organiser was a former Tyrone player, EugeneBradley, and I felt it was only right that I be present to acknowledge theeffort they’ve put into this. Seeing Eugene and his fellow volunteers

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was another reminder of who we’re playing for next week.So was an article I read in one of the papers this morning. It was

about Frank McGuigan, the most complete footballer I or probablyanyone has seen. It’s easy to get nostalgic about our game, to look backand say a time or a team or a player was fantastic when a properanalysis would show they were not. McGuigan was even better thanthe legend.

The repertoire of skills he had was just incredible. He could win ballin the middle of the field with anyone. You wouldn’t think he had tojump for it, his timing was so perfect; he just had this capacity to floatand hang in the air. Whenever you were a forward and Frank was atmidfield, you knew there would be a continuous supply of ball cominginto you. I’m convinced that it was McGuigan who introduced thedummy solo to our game. They should really call it the McGuigandummy. Plenty of players have perfected the dummy solo since; no onehad even tried it before. He was a great full forward too, with his abilityto win ball – often by sticking his arse out to hold off his marker – andthen turn and shoot, left or right. He could pick men out with a footpass, he could fist a ball thirty yards and he was deceptively quick fora big man. You’d say to yourself, ‘McGuigan’s not going that fast’; tryrunning alongside him. Everything about him was just different. Inever won an Ulster title, let alone an All Ireland in my ten years as aplayer with Tyrone, but there’s one boast I have that a lot of All-Irelandwinners don’t. I played with Frank McGuigan.

We all knew Frank drank too much. Even when we were bothminors in ’72, we could all see he was getting drink too easily. But itwas extremely tough for him. It was being poured into him and Frankwas too nice and bashful to say no. Frank McGuigan was aphenomenon at seventeen years of age. Every one wanted a part ofhim. You’re talking about a talent like George Best’s, Maradona’s,Pele’s; genuinely. It’s great to read that he’s off the drink this past fiveyears, that he’s in control of his life, that he’s able to cherish and relishthese times with Brian and Frank junior.

I wouldn’t be a Tyrone man if I didn’t think what would it have beenlike had he given it up earlier. What if he hadn’t gone to the States for


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those six years? Ireland, let alone Tyrone, didn’t get the chance toreally see the quality he had. It is frightening to think of the impact hewould have had, had he been in Tyrone his whole career.

At least we can be grateful that he did come back in ’84 and put onthat eleven-point exhibition against Armagh. That display inspiredPeter Canavan to be the footballer he is today. Peter would haveinspired most of our panel. The article was right. Every Tyronefootballer, not just Brian, is, in a way, a son of Frank McGuigan. Thisis all about him too.

Tuesday 23 September

Wake up Maggie, I think I’ve got something to say to youIt’s late September and I really should be back at schoolI know I keep you amused, but I feel I’m being usedOh Maggie, I couldn’t have tried any more.

Stephen O’Neill’s song, ‘Maggie May’, Rod Stewart

Tonight we announced the team we would like to start the 2003 All-Ireland senior football final. There’s a considerable difference betweenthat and the one that probably will start that final. Ciaran Gourley isvery doubtful. Marie McElhinney, our chiropractor friend in Derry, isstill hopeful that he might be okay for a one-off effort but he stillwasn’t able to train with us tonight. We’re naming him in the teamthough. He deserves at least that, and every chance to start. We’ll testthat shoulder out on Saturday evening. If it doesn’t pass it, ColinHolmes is in. I’ve told Colin that. He’s ready to slot in at right halfback. In fact, there’s a slight chance he could be coming in for GavinDevlin who didn’t train tonight because of some flu symptoms, thoughDr Seamus says Gavin should be fine. Collie has been desperatelyunlucky with injury himself; if it wasn’t for that knock he took in thelead up to the Ulster final, he’d have probably been starting any way.His attitude has been superb since then and I know he won’t let usdown if we need him.

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If Ciaran’s shoulder breaks down, well, he won’t have been the firstTyrone player to leave that training pitch distressed. Last Saturdayevening, after we had left our gear at the Killiney Castle, we had aworkout on the local pitch where there was a clash of heads betweenBrian Dooher and Paul Horisk. Brian got a nasty cut at the back of hishead but, worse, Paul broke his nose. That’s another option gone. Idon’t know what it is but the Errigal boys seemed jinxed with injurythis year. Mark and John Devine both got those knocks in the Antrimgame that affected them for some time. Cormac McGinley has beenplagued with injuries as far back as the McKenna Cup; Peter Loughranhas also been out for a while after landing awkwardly on his ankle intraining. And then there’s the other Peter with an ankle problem. Wenamed him, naturally, but it’s fifty-fifty whether he’ll actually line out.He’s receiving intensive treatment for it up in Dublin with the greatAK, but right now we don’t know if there’s five, thirty-five or sixty-five minutes in it.

Naming Peter means we didn’t name Stephen O’Neill. It wasn’teasy. When Michaela made out that wish list this time six years ago andreferred to winning all those honours with ‘the special minor team of‘97’, Stevie would have been to the forefront of her mind. Stephen hasa special place in my life and in my family’s. Only for his words thenight after we lost that year’s All-Ireland final, I wouldn’t be here. Onlyfor the way he slotted in to Peter’s spot against Kerry, we probablywouldn’t be here either.

He knows there’s still a big role for him. Stephen was fantastictonight. He could easily have sulked these past ten weeks. Michaelapointed that out to me the other day, about how Stevie’s song goes. It’slate September, he’s going back to college and he could easily feel he’sbeing used. But he doesn’t. Tonight I had to say to him, ‘Stephen,you’re not on the team we’ll be looking to start. You’re one of the bestsix forwards in this or any county but I’m not starting you. The way thething has been going, it’s what’s best for the team.’ And Stephen said,‘Mickey, no problem; whatever’s good for the team is good for me. I’mready to do whatever the team wants.’ With Peter fifty-fifty at best,mind, that means, like Collie, he has to be ready to maybe start.


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I was in Belfast this morning for one final press conference. It wasmore a photo call than anything; every thing has been said at this stage.Joe was back to his normal, affable self and we had a bit of fun, posingfor photos with Sam Maguire, Joe holding onto it, me trying to pull itoff him. I know Joe is the standard I’ve had to meet. No defendingchampion since Cork in 1990 has even reached consecutive All-Irelandfinals, let alone won that final. Armagh are a special team to be hereand we know that. We feel we have enough talent to beat them. We areconvinced of that. What they have in their favour is the breakthroughfactor. They have done it. Their performance against Kerry last yearwas better than ours last month because they did it when it was all onthe line, when it was all in sight, when Kerry were in full flight. We aremore than likely going to need Stephen O’Neill at some stage to beatthem.

Wednesday 24 September

You took my dreams from me, when I first found youI kept them with me babe, I put them with my ownCan't make it all alone, I've built my dreams around you’

Gerald Cavlan’s song, ‘Fairytale of New York’,The Pogues

This morning I met up with Bart, in the Four Seasons Hotel inMonaghan, for the third time. I wanted to run a few things past himbefore I called over to some of the players for those one-to-onesessions we had talked about. One of the things he asked me in ourmeeting last week was how were Tyrone hoping to win this game?Where were the scores going to come from? Quantify them. As wetalked about it, the importance of Gerald Cavlan really rang through. IfOwen and Peter or Stephen are clamped down, we’re going to needscores from outside the Armagh blockade. Who’s our best long-rangeshooter? Gerald Cavlan.

This afternoon I called over to Gerald in his pub in Dungannon. Itwas so constructive, I almost wish I had done it earlier in the year.

Our chat would have been governed by Bart’s concept of ‘ownable

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behaviour’. I first asked Ger what he felt were the key elements in hisgame, the signs that he was playing a good game. He spoke about hisfirst touch being good, about having no fear, about pulling off the oddrisky play, giving a forty-yard foot pass, tracking back, shooting forscores. When we moved on to the signs that he wasn’t going so well,he spoke about being afraid to take risks.

The next bit was particularly revealing to me. Bart had talked aboutgetting feedback on feedback. How does my feedback sound to aplayer? What does he hear from me? Is there any room forimprovement in what I say to that player? Today I found there is. Iasked, ‘Ger, what do you think I’m normally saying when I’m talkingto you?’ Ger’s initial and primary response was, ‘Poor tackler.’ Thatwas a real eye-opener. I think Gerald Cavlan is a wonderful footballer.He’s a sublime passer of the ball, he’s a good fielder of the ball, whenhe’s kicking for a point, it’s like the perfect golf swing. But he onlyhears me telling him that he has to work harder at the bread-and-buttertasks. It’s made me realise Ger hasn’t been quite sure how much I valuehim. I need to praise Ger more when he does tackle well, when he’sshooting and fielding well. It’s better late than never to learn this. Idon’t have to wait until next year to make sure that Gerald gets morepositive vibes from me; I can do that over the next few days. It’s veryimportant I do because Gerald Cavlan is very important to us.

I called into Gerald on the way back from Cookstown where I hadalready met Owen Mulligan and Brian McGuigan. I wanted to meetthem because I feel the two of them are going to get a lot of closeattention from Armagh. They’re both great friends so there was noproblem in Brian calling over to Owen’s house after I’d finishedspeaking with Owen. Owen’s mother Heather is a lovely, bubblywoman and made us feel very welcome, giving us a lovely cup of teaand some toast. She’s very proud of Owen and rightly so. I’m proud ofOwen.

I remember the first time he came to trials. It was in Moortown, forthe minor team of ’97. You could see he was a talent alright, and youcould hear the boys all calling him ‘Mugsy’. But we didn’t pick him;he was still under-sixteen at the time and we felt he was a tad too raw.


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Later that summer though, after we had won the Ulster final, I caughthim playing for the Cookstown senior team against Errigal. He hadbecome a bit stronger in those few months and though he wouldn’t playin Croke Park that year, the experience of being on the panel certainlystood to him when he exploded onto it the following year. He had arough year last year and in 2001, being in and out of the team, but Ialways knew Owen Mulligan would work hard and play well enoughto be in my team.

Owen is actually a very shy lad. People won’t believe that. They seethe bleached hair, the swagger, the tattoo, and I suppose the photo ofhim there with the model Jordan the other day would have furtheraffirmed those views of him as some rebel. But he’s not. I find him verygenuine and easy to get on with.

When I asked Owen how he knew he was playing well, he said,‘Well, when I’m getting on the ball; when I’m setting up scores, takingscores, winning frees, dummying men, tackling hard for the team.’ Hesays he knows his awareness has to improve, that he has to look upmore when he’s on the ball. He’s a fantastic foot-passer of the ball; hegave a ball into Sean Cavanagh in the Ulster final with the outside ofhis boot, Maurice Fitzgerald would hardly have been able to do it.When he sees it, he’ll deliver it; it’s seeing it is what he has to work on.His first option has been to immediately look to take on his man, throwa dummy and break the tackle. On Sunday now he wants to be moreaware of where his team-mates are and to keep moving and not to getengaged with his marker, who’ll most likely be Francie Bellew.

Brian McGuigan is a critical man for us on Sunday. He’s been a keyfigure from the time the momentum all started in ’97. When people talkabout Brian, they keep bringing his father into it; Brian McGuigan is aclass footballer in his own right. You can see why the comparisonkeeps cropping up though. Brian has the same vision, the same footballbrain, the same ability to foot pass a ball. Sean Canavan loved BrianMcGuigan’s game. When Brian McGuigan hits you a pass, he hits youon the breastbone. ‘On the breastbone!’

Playing well for Brian, in his words, is ‘Setting up scores. Gettingthe odd score. Being a link man for the half backs and midfield. Trying

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to put in tackles. Talking to the rest of the forward line. Being alert tothe breaking ball from midfield. Getting vital ball, especially whentired.’ I was interested to hear him say ‘trying to put in tackles’. He’sobviously not happy with his tackling. It’s something he wants to bebetter at on Sunday. He also has to be patient. When we spoke aboutwhat were the symptoms and causes of a bad Brian McGuiganperformance, he said that he didn’t feel right if he hadn’t score a pointor two after a while. We want him to keep leading the line, even whenhe’s struggling a bit himself.

The man who could be marking him often does that, though we’renot sure whether Kieran McGeeney will end up being the one on Brian.They played Andrew McCann on Michael Hegarty in the semi-final, sothey’ll probably opt for his mobility again on Sunday. As Brian andmyself discussed today though, whoever is on him has to follow Brian.He acts, they have to react. If he goes four metres one way, they haveto go four metres that way. He’s the one in control.

I’m happy with how the sessions went. It’s let the players thinkabout their game, about how they can be even better and how I’mtrying to get better myself. Because everyone can get better. Even theman I’m going to do this with on Friday, one Peter Canavan.


And don’t you be afraidThink of all the friends you’ve madeLike any other night you’ve got your names in lightsYou’re a superstar

Paddy Tally’s much-maligned but totally appropriate song, ‘Superstar’, Love Inc

The boys all took work off today to spend it together. We had somebreakfast in Kelly’s before heading over for nine holes of golf inFintona. The captain there, Mark Gillespie, played a bit of rugby withme that time with Omagh Academicals as well as some football withBallygawley, so he and his club kindly offered their services free of


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charge to us. Brian Robinson is probably the best golfer of the lot of us.His attitude has been even better than his golf. He’s a good footballer,a proud footballer who won an All-Star nomination last year, but he’saccepted that it has been very hard to break into this team the way fellasare playing. Again, that’s important.

After the golf, we went back to Kelly’s for some lunch, watchedsome more video and went through our game plan again. ConorGormley is taking up Marsden. Marsden is a key man for Armagh. He’smaybe not as flamboyant a footballer as he was four or five years agobut he’s a more consistent one. Armagh were in trouble just before half-time against Kerry last year and against Donegal last month. Each timeDiarmaid Marsden scored the last point of the half to give them a liftheading in at the break. Nice, unsung, crucial points. In fact he was myMan of the Match in last year’s final. It’s Conor’s job now to make surehe isn’t in this year’s. I’m very confident he will.

I might be Conor Gormley’s biggest fan now but there are people inCarrickmore who will line up to remind me there was a time I wasn’t.Conor tried out for the 1998 minors and much to the chagrin of hisclub, I didn’t pick him. I just felt there wasn’t enough outstandingabout him for him to make it ahead of the others. I actually gotsomeone to deliberately go and see Conor play for the club for a secondopinion and it concurred with mine; there wasn’t enough zip to Conor’sgame.

He was a player I kept an eye out for over the next few years and in2001 he made our under-21 panel. Again though, his speed of thoughtseemed too slow. In one Hastings Cup game that year he wasrepeatedly getting caught in possession. I remember distinctly sayingto him that day, ‘Conor, you’ll get away with that at club football butnot at inter-county. You’ve got to release the ball quicker and thinkfaster.’ Before long, he did. People say he was on the senior teambefore he was on the under-21s; I didn’t pick him because he was onthe seniors but because he had improved his football. Before anotherHastings Cup match that spring, Fr Gerard and myself decided Conorand Gavin Devlin would switch positions, that maybe Gavin didn’thave the pace for the corner but that Conor, with his tenacity and man-

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marking capacity, had. Neither of them has looked back since. I was atevery league and championship game Tyrone played last year and Iknow Conor Gormley was the best corner back in Ireland that year. Theone game he struggled a bit in was Sligo and even then I wouldn’t havetaken him off at half-time. It cost him an All-Star nomination but Ithink he should still have got one. That year he shut down some greatplayers, including Marsden. Conor is a very quiet, unassuming fella buthe can get riled up too. When Ciaran Meenagh was harshly put offagainst Monaghan in that Ulster under-21 championship in 2001,Conor was lifting the table up and hitting it off the ground, causingsome of the oranges to fall to the ground. The challenge that is Marsdenwill appeal to his more assertive side.

After that team meeting in Kelly’s, we were in Dunmoyle forquarter-past-four to work particularly on our outside shooting. It was tosteel and prepare our forwards for the cordon Armagh are going tothrow in front of our full-forward line. One of the drills was to throwthe ball out to a forward and for him to shoot with a defender closingdown on top of him. One of the targets was for the team to shoot fiveconsecutive points from outside that thirty-five metre zone. BrianDooher was shooting particularly well. And so was Gerald Cavlan. Ididn’t want to make it too obvious to Ger that I was out to praise him,but when we were just after reaching four at one point, I said, ‘Right,Ger, the right man in the right place.’ He put it over too. Bart tells mehe thinks Cavlan’s shooting is critical on Sunday. I’m inclined tobelieve him.

Before we finished up today, we had a little gift for the players – apersonal copy of the two CDs we’ve been playing on the bus allsummer. On the front cover, there’s our symbol, surrounded by a fewheadshots of some of the players and myself. On the back, there’s thename of the song, the artist who sang it and the signature of the playerwho chose it. It’s just another little millimetre, another little sign howspecial this game is, how special every member of that panel and circleis.


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Friday 26 September

There’s a hurt there that might never go away. The only way to get ridof that hurt is to come back and win an All Ireland.

Peter Canavan, December 1995

The Irish News brought out an All-Ireland supplement today. Itwasn’t just any supplement; it was forty pages. It’s another indicationthat this isn’t just an All-Ireland final; it’s an all-Ulster All-Irelandfinal. The players would have co-operated with the News for it butthey’re not to have digested it. If there’s something in it that we can usefor motivation, fine; Paddy, Fr Gerard and I’ll read and find it, but theplayers have enough to be thinking about.

Peter, inevitably, was on the cover of it. He’s the talk of the wholecounty and I’d imagine, most of Ireland as well. Will he start? Or willthey leave him for the last twenty minutes? Well, that’s one of thethings we felt we had to talk about today.

I called over to him at his mother’s house in Greenhill, where wewent into the front room and talked for a few hours. Before we wentinto what would be the best way to use him on Sunday, we did the sameexercise I had with Owen, Gerald and Brian on Wednesday. It wasinteresting to hear him say that the first sign that he’s on his game is ifhe’s winning the ball close to goal. It’s something I’ve always preachedto Peter. For a number of years there, particularly in 2001, I felt Peterfound himself too far away from goals. When he talked about whatpositive feedback I had given him through the year, his immediateresponse again was ‘Be close to goal.’

Sunday might be different. When he’s on, we’ll be looking for himto do all the other things that contribute to a good Peter Canavanperformance – ‘scoring from play, scoring from frees, setting up scores,creating space, being vocal, chasing and tackling’ – but he mightn’t beso close to goal. If he stays in around the goal, he’s inviting hardship.He’ll be looking to drift at times to create space inside for Owen,because Owen will give Francie Bellew trouble.

We then spoke about whether or not to start him. At no stage over

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the past five weeks has he said, ‘I won’t make this.’ There have beentimes when he has been upbeat after a good session with AK in Dublinbut there have been others when his body language has portrayeddoubt. He hasn’t been able to join in much of the activity in recentweeks; when he did come back two weeks ago and did the warm-up inOmagh, he found he had overcompensated for his injury and had onlyaggravated it further. He’s worked like a demon to keep the rest of hissystem right; he’s been in the pool, in the gym, cycling, lifting weightsconstantly. But at this point, we don’t know whether it’ll stand up. Allwe know is that there’s hardly seventy minutes in it and yet that hemust play at some stage. We now have a strategy that we feel will bestmaximise Peter Canavan on Sunday.

Today the two of us looked at the pros and cons of him being on inthe first twenty-five minutes and on in the last twenty-five.

If he’s on for the first twenty-five minutes it will help the team andthe supporters psychologically. His free-taking could be critical to helpsettle the team down. Peter’s presence will attract attention and createspace for others. And another thing is, the start of the game mightactually be quite open, with people so nervous and prone to mistakes.Peter would be a good man to be around to maybe capitalise on someof them.

The disadvantages of him starting are also numerous. He mightn’tbe able to capitalise on those mistakes because his running might berestricted. He mightn’t even last five minutes. That would probablydishearten our boys and boost Armagh. It would mean using up asubstitution very early on.

It could be a very similar story if he comes on with twenty-fiveminutes to go. Again, he might break down after five minutes. Hemight have difficulty getting up to the speed of the game. The gamemight be a lost cause then. Even if it isn’t, judging the right time tocome right back in will be difficult. But if he comes on, it will give ourplayers a boost, it might unsettle Armagh’s defence, he’ll probablyhave a freshness when others are getting tired, and free kicks areprobably going to be vital at the end.


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After mentioning all these factors, we came to one conclusion. I saidto him, ‘Peter, I believe you must be on this team at the start of thismatch. Peter Canavan must lead Tyrone out for this All-Ireland final. Ican just hear a sharp intake of breath if this team lines out and PeterCanavan is not on; there’ll be a commotion for the next ten minutesthat could deflate the boys and our support for a crucial part of thegame.’ Peter agreed. He’s starting.

We’ve decided that the best thing to do is to take him off after thosefirst twenty-five minutes or so are up, get the ankle wrapped andboosted up again, and bring him on sometime in the last fifteen totwenty minutes. It’s not a common substitution strategy but it’scommon enough in basketball. We brought him back in againstCrossmaglen for Errigal last November and it worked. The fact wehave five substitutions helps; there’s still scope there for three otherchanges. But it would be crushing if we have to use one of them upafter five minutes. That ankle has to stand up for those first twentyminutes at least.

We’re doing everything we can to make sure it does. A Tyronewoman called Anita drove up from her home in Newry during the weekto leave two rosary beads at the shop. She had written a letter to mesaying she wanted me to give them to my mother and Peter’s. Mymother unfortunately is dead so I’m just back from Marian’s parents’,where I presented my mother’s to Nan. The last thing I’ll do before weleave Dublin tomorrow is go back over to Greenhill and give the otherto Sarah Canavan. I’m touched by the beads and I like the beads. I wasat last year’s All-Ireland final and beside me was this Armagh woman,frantically praying that her side would win. And you know what, theydid. This year Anita’s beads might just be the millimetre that counts.

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9

TOTAL FAITH

As I lie here in bed with lots on my mindWish I could tell someone what’s going on in mine.Not being able to talk is hard you knowI can’t explain to people that I want to goSo why doesn’t someone ask me IF I WANT TO GOI am here, I am a person, I am someone too, you know.

Dreams do come true sometimes you seeShare A Dream Foundation made it happen for me.They got me tickets for the match in Dublin you knowAnd away on Saturday we all did go.

The next thing I saw was a big yellow busTyrone team on board, no noise, no fussOne by one they got off and all smiled at meToday I’m important, I am someone you see

Into the changing rooms Mickey brought meThe players looked massive; Joe Brolly wouldn’t agree

One by one they come over, shake my hand, pat my head‘Good to see my wee man’ is what they all saidOne of the players said, ‘Martin, are we going to win today?’‘Of course we are!’ is what I wanted to say.

‘Thoughts’, Una – and Martin – McAleer

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Everything you are today, is what you want to beSo don't be someone else when you can be the best so easilyIf you try, and believe, my baby you'll succeedAnd your eyes will make you seeYou're a superstar

Paddy Tally’s song, ‘Superstar’, Love Inc

The alarm goes off. It’s eight-thirty. I know what I have to do. Theshop doesn’t care if there’s an All-Ireland final on; it has to be open atnine and I’m the one that has to open it. I get there at ten to. Marian’sfather, Pat, comes in and I leave it in his care. I dash back to the house,have some fruit and a cup of boiled water, just as my father Peterreligiously drank. I then call over to Sarah Canavan’s. Most of herfamily are there. It’s good to see them, especially Pascal; for a secondyou think how great it would be if he were on the bus. But that’s nothow it is. Pascal is having to bid us farewell, and as he does, Sarahthanks me for Anita’s rosary beads.

I pop back to the house for the final time. There’s not a lot left to bepacked; Marian did most of it last night. She’s been a rock of strengthfor me this past, well, twenty-five years. But she’s been particularlygreat this week. She’s very loyal, very supportive and very rational. Afew days ago, she had to sit Michaela down. Michaela hyperventilatedwhen she heard Art had stepped down, so you can imagine how excitedshe’s been this past few weeks, her wish-list only one game away frombeing realised. Marian said to her, “Michaela, are you ready to acceptthat this might not happen?” The kids sometimes slag Marian, sayingshe’s the pessimist of the family, but deep down they know she’s arealist. In the past Michaela has said, “Ah, mammy, you don’t believe”but this time she didn’t. She said, “Well, if that’s God’s plan, I’ll haveto accept it. We’ll have to win it some other time.” I feel it was goodMarian said that, yet at the same time, I’m convinced Michaela doesn’tbelieve it will be any other way.


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Just as I’m heading out the door, the phone rings. It’s Adrian Logan.“Mickey, it’s quarter-past-twelve. I’m at the Ballygawley roundaboutbut there’s no one else here. Did I get the time mixed up?’ I tell himhe’s fine. I’m late for very few things related to football but I’m alwayslate for the team bus. It’s a tradition now; the time I show up early, theboys will take it as a bad omen. I kiss Marian goodbye, tell her I’ll talkto her later on, and head over to the roundabout. When we get there, it’sa completely different scene to the one Adrian described only tenminutes ago. The bus is there; everyone’s there; the road is basicallyblocked. I pull the car up. Jim Curran, Francie Goulding and MickeyMoynagh grab our bags and throw them into the coach and then Imanoeuvre my way through the crowds to park the car over in thedriveway of my old school friend, Ian Ball. I go back towards the bus,eventually give Adrian and one or two other reporters the briefinterviews they’ve waited so patiently for, and then we’re on the bus.Thank God for that.

I’m only on a minute or two when there’s a problem. Mickey andFrancie tell me Brian McGuigan’s tummy bug is quite serious. I say tomyself, ‘Christ, no. Gavin Devlin and Dermot Carlin are just overtheirs, and now Brian has it.’ Seamus, the doctor, confirms it’s prettybad. Over the last twenty-four hours Brian has had all the symptoms,like getting sick and going to the bathroom regularly. Seamus willensure he’s overloaded with carbohydrates and energy drinks overthese two days, and that when we get to Dublin, he’ll head straight tobed. Seamus is confident he’ll be able to start but his endurance andresilience levels are bound to be affected. It looks like we’ll nowdefinitely have to use the seven-man rotation that Tony Donnellytalked to me about the other night. The plan was that Peter and Endamight be the players we’d sub out and in; now it looks like it will bePeter and Brian.

Otherwise the mood on the bus is fine. Every one is in their normalseats. I’m at the front with Michaela. Mattie is sitting with DeclanMcCrossan. Stephen O’Neill, John Devine and Cormac are theirnormal pleasant, quiet selves. At the back then there’s the regular cardschool. Owen Mulligan’s there, so is Peter Loughran, Kevin Hughes,

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Ryan McMenamin, Paul Horisk, Mark Harte, Frank McGuigan,Mickey Coleman, and in the middle of them all, one Peter Canavan. It’sgood to let them at it for a while but only for a while; money’sinvolved. In Castleblaney, when the bus stops, it stops, like it alwaysdoes. There’s another game they’ve to get their minds around.

While the boys head in to eat in the Glencarn, there’s someone Ihave to meet. Anita, the woman from Newry, has a special Padre Piorelic for me. She says it’s more precious to her than Sam Maguire butif it helps us get Sam, then that’s the best of both worlds. I tell her Iappreciate it and promise I’ll take very good care of it until we meetagain on Wednesday.

The boys like gestures like that. I know a lot of them maybe aren’tas religious as I am, that they’re of a different generation that isn’t aschurch-going as mine. But the medals, relics and beads aren’t imposedupon them. I think it all goes back once again to Paul McGirr, when asupporter sent some holy medals to our captain Declan McCrossanbefore our next game against Monaghan. A lot of those boys are in ourbus today. They’re not embarrassed by the medals; they appreciate thatthey come in good faith, that they’re a symbol of someone’s thoughtsand prayers. And Paul’s.

Everyone’s back on the bus, so we put on a video. Mattie’s the manwho selects the films for the trips to Dublin. Over the summer we’vewatched Speed, A Few Good Men and Ocean’s Eleven; today it’s TheShawshank Redemption. Just as we’re coming into Dublin, we put onanother video. It’s the twenty-four minutes between the Cork hurlersrunning onto the field and when the ball was thrown in for the hurlingfinal, just to remind and prepare the players of the timeframe ahead ofthem tomorrow.

We pull into the Killiney Castle at quarter-past five. After a fewminutes Brian McGuigan heads to bed and we head to the Cuala GAApitch. Ciaran Gourley’s shoulder is top of the agenda. We’ve given it aslong as we can wait; we have to know now. Paddy calls down CormacMcAnallen and Conor Gormley. They both take turns in hitting Ciaran,shoulder to shoulder. Ciaran’s shoulder stands up to it. I’m surprised.Marie McElhinney was right; Ciaran’s starting. That means Collie


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Holmes is not. I call Collie aside and tell him Ciaran’s passed his test.‘But remember, Collie,’ I say, ‘it could go with the first tackle. I wantyou to be as ready as if you were starting.’

We head back to the hotel, shower, and start eating at eight. Thephone rings. It’s the Midnight Callers. They’re just outside Newry, onthe way down. They tell me to keep a look out for their banner, downby Hill 16. I say I will, they wish me luck, I tell them thanks. We finisheating and head into a room for a team meeting. We go through thegame plan again. Use the flanks. Run at them. Use our pace; it’squicker than theirs. Pressure McGeeney. Force him onto his right foot.Gerald, you can punish that cordon. We own our work rate. Look outfor their goalie’s foot taps. Look out for their hits on ours. Stand tall.And believe. Believe. I go into the centre of the circle. I get out Anita’srelic, Padre Pio’s relic. I tell the players about this precious piece ofcloth. I tell the players something that Pio used say. It’s how it is for us.‘No ifs, no buts, no maybes – total faith.’ Peter refers to one of thesongs, Mugsy’s, the very last one handed into Michaela. We’reknocking on heaven’s door. We’ve to keep knocking. It’s like Paddy’sthirty seconds; we’ll do it in stages. Knock for fifteen minutes andthere’ll be a chink of light. Keep knocking, keep knocking and at theend, it’ll open, and inside will be heaven.

We finish up with a small bit of video. Paddy, along with a localman, Terry Dunlop, put it together. It’s very good. It has clips from ourgame against Kerry; McGuigan kicking that point underneath theCusack Stand; Ger Cavlan winning a kickout over Darragh Ó Sé; thatfamous swarm incident; all to the M People track, ‘Search for the HeroInside Yourself’. It’s something positive to leave the meeting on. Then,just to be sure, we start into Amhrán na bhFiann, all in a circle, allbrothers in arms. It feels right. Michaela has come in by now. She hassome medals blessed for us by a local priest, Fr Quigley, for theplayers, interweaved with red and white thread. Again they’re given inthe right spirit; again they’re taken in the right spirit.

I head down to the foyer with Frank Campbell and big FrancieGoulding, just to unwind. Thankfully there aren’t many Tyronesupporters around but naturally there are a few. It’s a lovely surprise to

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see Patricia Slevin, an old teaching colleague, there. It’s a particularlydelightful surprise for her and her family; they had booked a weekendaway for her father’s birthday a few months ago. They didn’t knowTyrone would be in that All-Ireland final; now here’s the Tyrone teamstaying in the same hotel as them.

Mattie, my room-mate, can’t believe his luck either. He’s shiveringwith the excitement, trying to take stock that we’re here; that Michaelais next door, her wish list only one game away from coming true. It’svery special to me that they’re here. It’s important that they are here. IfSeamus is our medical doctor, then Mattie and Michaela are our vibedoctors. Their videos, their CDs, their national anthem lyrics, theirsmiles. Mattie knows these boys so well now. Michaela grew up withhalf of them. I think it’s a wonderful relationship she has with them.People down the country who have been following the senior team thissummer might jump to the wrong conclusions about Michaela. Theydon’t know that she’s known these boys so well since she was fourteen.Most of the boys were eighteen then, for God’s sake! They wouldn’thave fancied Mickey Harte’s little daughter. It’s only in the last year ortwo some of them might have realised, ‘God, Michaela Harte is reallygood looking!’ But it hasn’t changed anything. She’s still theirconfidant, their friend, their greatest believer, their vibe doctor.

Mattie shouldn’t be the only Tyrone man in this hotel going to sleepin a good mood. Last Tuesday we gave every player a sheet of paperand asked him to return it to us on Thursday with a positive statementabout every other member of the panel. Paddy and his sisters spentmost of yesterday sifting through those letters, while my schoolprincipal John Clayton enlisted two assistants, Tina McGeary and AnnMcVeigh. Tonight, while we were having our team meeting, Francieand Mickey slipped a personal letter through the hotel door for everyone of our players. On it were thirty anonymous compliments fromevery other member of the panel. At the end of each was a statementwe have used all year. ‘Talent does what it can. Genius does what itmust.’

That should let them know what we think of each and every one ofthem. ‘You’re a superstar.’


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Sunday 28 September

See, some place, folks, there’s a Red Sea place we need to take a stand.We need to take a stand with ourselves and recognise that we need tohang in. We need to DO what it is we said we were going to do.

George Zalucki

I wake up at eight o’clock in the morning and the thought strikes methat the next time I go to bed, we’ll know how the biggest day of ourlives went. I’m nice and relaxed though; I slept well, and feel wellrested. I head down for breakfast. Ciaran Maynes, a camera man fromhome, wonders if he can shoot some footage for the BBC. I have noproblem with it, as long as it’s not in our faces. We then go into one ofthe rooms at ten for mass. Fr Gerard has a few nice words. Pio isn’talways quoted in every mass but he is in this one.

A bit later we go back into the same room. The garments andtabernacle are gone. We bring the players in, in different groups at first;the backs and John Devine; our midfielders; then our forwards; remindthem of their roles. Then everyone is brought into the room. Again wego through the key points of our game plan. I particularly emphasiseone of them – ‘Challenge the last fifteen minutes.’ It’s critical that I do.All the commentators have been referring to Armagh’s superiorphysical strength, that it and all the hits they put in will tell in the lastfifteen minutes. It’s common currency but I don’t want our players tohave bought into it.

It’s a myth that Armagh are so much stronger than us. I calculated itout on the bus down yesterday. There was a newspaper floating aroundwhich had the height and weight of every player, so I got a pen, did myaddition, then my division and at the end of it all, there wasn’t muchdifference between us. That difference is what I’m telling the playersnow. I hold up my thumb and nearest finger, so they can all see thismyth for what it is. ‘That’s three-quarters of an inch. That’s thedifference per man between Armagh and Tyrone. Is that space betweenmy fingers going to stop us winning our first All Ireland? If it is, shouldyou be here? Would you be here?’ Then, as a piece of paper measuring

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three-quarters of an inch is being passed around, I produce some coffeegranules which I’ve borrowed from the kitchen staff here. ‘The averageArmagh player weighs seven ounces heavier than the average Tyroneplayer. These coffee granules weigh seven ounces. Can you cope withthat difference? Is that a physical presence you can’t deal with? Is thatpacket of coffee going to knock you around Croke Park today?’ Thenthose granules are passed around. I can tell from the players’ eyes thatthe message has registered. There is no mental trapdoor left. They willchallenge the last fifteen minutes. No ifs, no buts, no maybes – totalfaith.

We go and bring our bags out to the bus, then head back in for ourpre-match meal. It’s quarter-to-one; Paddy says that the optimum timeto eat is between two to three hours before a match. It’s pasta,carbohydrates; just what the system needs now. We finish up and walkout to the bus. The garda escort is there. Suddenly we’re on our way toCroke Park. The music’s playing but the mood is now pensive. Nervesare kicking in. It’s no harm to remind them again how good they are.We put on the ‘Search for the Hero Inside Yourself’ footage again, andanother clip with U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ as the backing track. We’regetting close to Croke Park now. The supporters are hitting and wavingat the bus, the players are looking out, realising it’s close, very, veryclose. Cue for Mickey Coleman, our resident singer, the life and soulof the circle. Word has already got back to me about what Mickeythought of his letter last night. He was rooming with Sean Cavanagh,who himself was very touched by his own letter. When Sean asked anobviously emotional Mickey what was in his letter, Mickey stutteredout, ‘Well, basically … well, basically… well basically everybody toldme that they love me!!’ That’s because everybody does love MickeyColeman. The next thing Mickey’s at the top of the bus with themicrophone in hand, leading us through Amhrán na bhFiann. We finishit. We’re still another two hundred metres from the final gates. ‘Sure,we’ll do it again!’ declares Mickey, and we’re singing and laughingagain.

The gate opens and a Croke Park official gets in to instruct wherethe bus can pull up in this tunnel under the stand. As we’re slowing


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down, I tell the players that there’s someone special they’ll be meetingwhen we get into the dressing room. The bus stops, we get out andthere to meet me is that special person. ‘Hello, Martin!’ I say. ‘Great tomeet you at last! How are you?’ Martin nods furiously and smiles. I tellhis parents, Seamus and Una, that I’ll be back to bring them into thedressing room once we drop off our gear. Two minutes later, I’m backout. Sean Kelly and Micheál Ó Muiricheartaigh are there. ‘You know,’Micheál says to Martin, ‘you’re the very first person Mickey went to!’Sean Kelly shakes his hand and says, ‘Martin McAleer, Mickey hastold me all about you.’ I have. I mentioned Martin to Sean at the IrishNews Awards in Armagh. Martin is a ten-year-old with special needswhom the Share a Dream Foundation and Club Dreamland Omaghwould have liked to come out with the Tyrone team on All-Ireland finalday. Sean explained to me that mascots were against the regulations ofthe GAA but that he’d be more than happy to meet Martin and hisfamily before the match. Here he is now, true to his word. A minute orso later, a few doors are held open for Martin’s wheelchair and Martinand his mother and father are in our dressing room. The boys are great,just as they were with David Gillespie in Omagh. ‘Hi, Martin!’ ‘Well,Martin, who’s going to win?!’ He’s asked who his favourite player isand three hands go up. Five fingers the first time, five the next, onlyfour the time after. Number fourteen – Peter Canavan. Well, he’s notthe first to think that way. It’s a nice moment, for all of us; this is thekind of child we’re playing for. The GAA is about the people and forthe people. Now, how can we make Martin’s dream day come true?

Paddy takes the boys into the warm-up room. We talk about what wesaid the last time we were in there, after the Kerry game; Sam Maguirewill be in the middle here, boys, in just two hours’ time. We go back in.Brian McGuigan is taking his fluids. Peter’s having his ankle strapped.Ciaran’s having his shoulder wrapped. It’s quarter to three. The rest ofthe circle leave. It’s just the thirty-one players, Fr Gerard, Paddy andmyself. It’s time to give out the jerseys, folded neatly with the numberout. ‘Number one, John Devine…’ Each player now has a jersey,including Ryan Mellon, even if his mysterious viral infection means hecan’t be included on the official list of thirty players. Each player now

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has his arms in his jersey. Now each player pulls it over his head,together with his thirty team-mates. We’re now into the last fiveminutes. I go around to every player, giving him the option of touchingAnita’s relic, that piece of stained cloth from a very special man calledPadre Pio. Everyone touches it. Then everyone is on their feet. Thecircle joins. I go into the centre of it. It’s time to go back to our mottoof the weekend. ‘No ifs, no buts, no maybes; total faith.’ The dooropens. Peter Canavan leads the players out, nice and calmly. Then thesound comes ‘Anois, a chairde’, then the light comes, and then the roarcomes. ‘An foireann Tír Eoghain!’

I walk down with Paddy and Fr Gerard to our end, the Hill 16 end.I take a quick look up and right away I can see the boys’ banner. ‘BringSam Home to Mickey’s Midnite Caller’. We’ll be trying our best, boys;thanks. Then a huge roar erupts. Armagh are out. Now they’re runningdown towards our end. John McCloskey runs by. What’s he doingdown here? He comes into Gavin Devlin’s turf. Gavin shoulders him.Good man, Horse! Let them know we’re not going to stand for thatchildish carry-on! Within seconds, the flashpoint is averted; Armaghhead off to where they should have gone in the first place and havetheir photo taken.

I go down closer towards our goal. Peter’s tying his laces. He lookscoolness personified as he’s doing so, but he’s not coolness personified.

‘The ankle – it’s not good.’‘Well it’ll be good enough.’ He knows it and I know it. This has

been the story of the past five weeks. In the next five minutes it mightfeel better again. It better be good enough. Genius does what it must.No ifs, no buts ….

We come in together again. The boys stretch, water is passedaround. They stand up. We have another huddle. Some people thinkhuddles mean nothing; they can mean nothing to you if you don’t wantthem to mean anything to you. They mean a lot to us. Our huddle is acircle, a sign of equality, of unity, of purpose. We do it because there’sa connection there. I go into the centre. At this stage you’re not goingto go into the niceties, the subtleties. It’s about mental strength, aboutgetting through these next ten minutes before the ball is thrown in,


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about the next forty-eight minutes until we’re together again in thedressing room. Again, it’s that motto, but this time with exclamationmarks. ‘No ifs! No buts! No maybes! Total faith!’ And then, well, thenyou have to leave them to it….

And then, at last; it’s finally on. After all the hype, after all theplanning, the talking stops and the action begins. Brian White throwsin the ball. We’ve targeted the throw-in as a ball that is to be won.Kevin Hughes touches it, can’t control it, it breaks to Armagh and theywin a free. That’s one inch to them. They work it over to PhilpLoughran out on the right wing. He shoots and he shoots wide. It lookslike they’re playing him wing forward and that Tony McEntee has goneto midfield. Good; I think that’s at least one inch back to us. If theywant to change what had worked for them, that suits us fine.

John now has his first kickout. We’ve worked hard on our kickoutsafter what happened in the second half against Kerry. He opts for theleft, a chipped one out to the left wing. It hops onto Gerald Cavlanperfectly. Good. He plays it onto Philip Jordan. Philip carries it andwins the free. Brian McGuigan takes it. Brian White spots a foul off theball. Another free in for us. Peter will take it. He didn’t kick a ball inthe warm-up; he hasn’t kicked a ball this past five weeks. You wouldn’tknow; we’re one up.

Hearty takes his first kickout. He’s tapping to the right. Fellas, to theright! Kevin Hughes spots it, he’s onto it, but he doesn’t hold it,McGrane touches it on and before we know it, John McEntee has putit over.

John’s second kick again is short, to the left and to a white shirt. Wework it up the field. Sean Cavanagh gets it out wide. McGrane is onhim. Sean does what we’ve been talking about – he attacks them alongthe flanks. McGrane fouls; they’re going to give Sean plenty ofattention alright. Peter comes out to take the free. He plays it down theline to Brian McGuigan. He gives it back to Peter. Peter’s swamped.The blockade is out. He gives it to the man outside him, forty yardsfrom goal. It’s the man we want. Gerald Cavlan. He shoots, like a golfswing. It looks good, it is good and for a second I smile and think ofBart.

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Gerald doesn’t rest on his laurels. Hearty kicks down the middle,Philip knocks it down and Gerald’s there to sweep it up. Good workrate. Down the field I can see some of our one-on-sessions haven’tbeen as successful. Owen is getting engaged with Francie, gettingdistracted by Francie. I can’t dwell on it. Too much else is going on.McDonnell’s played it into Oisin. Oisin’s giving it into Marsden.Marsden’s in our twenty-one. He’s on our fourteen. Conor is keepinglevel with him but Marsden pulls the trigger and… Cormac comes inand deflects it ever so slightly, and now Ryan has it in the corner.

We start another move. Sean Cavanagh drives forward. He falls butis still able to release the ball. It goes to Owen. He’s swamped, ends upon the ground but he too is able to pass the ball. Sean gets it, wins afree for Peter to convert and I’m thinking at least some good came outof that session Ciaran Gourley got injured in.

Hearty’s kickout goes down the right. Gerald reads it again andplays it straight down the line into space. Brian is onto it. McGeeneygoes out to him. I’m surprised it’s not McCann. That suits us fine. ‘Ifyou go four steps one way, he has to go four steps that way; you act, hehas to react.’ Brian leads McGeeney down the line with a solo, then,quickly, crosses over inside. It’s too quick for McGeeney. Five-one.

The kickout comes. We win it again; Brian Dooher is there. KevinHughes then plays it into Owen. Owen gets it but he looks to take onhis man right away. He’s swarmed and loses it. Awareness, Owen.Come on! Armagh go down the field, they play a high ball in thatCormac and Gavin look to have under control but they don’t.McDonnell pounces. Five-two. He hasn’t gone away, we know.

Peter has a free, about fifty metres out. He spots Mugsy; he findsMugsy. That’s good; we have to get Owen into this. Owen holds offFrancie well and passes into Enda. Good awareness. Enda feeds BrianMcGuigan who’s storming through the middle. Brian ends up on theground. White doesn’t give the penalty. Brian sees he can still get hispass off. He gives the same ball we worked on last Thursday week inOmagh, the same ball he gave Mark Harte for that crucial goal in theUlster minor final six years ago. Sean Cavanagh has it. It has to be agoal. It has to be! It’s not. Feck it, anyway. Now here come Armagh.


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Free in. Oisin puts it over. Five-three. We have to win this next kickout.We don’t. McGeeney’s onto it. Pressure him! Gerald does,

preventing him from picking anyone out. It’s a high ball in. ConorGormley takes it comfortably and sees off Marsden’s rugby tackle.Now we’re sweeping up the field. Philip has it. He’s on our forty-five.There’s oceans of space outside. Attack it! Use the flanks! Use ourpace! Keep carrying it! A free. Well done, Philip.

It’s a difficult one, this free. About thirty metres out from theendline, about seven metres out from the sideline. Peter comes out forit. He must feel it’s within his range, that the ankle is up to it. It is. Six-three. I look at my watch. Twenty-five minutes in, the time we talkedabout taking off Peter. I look at him and he seems fine. I look at BrianMcGuigan. He’s not so fine. I’ll take him off soon.

It’s a good thing I’ve waited a bit. He’s just won us a free that’llcancel out that last McDonnell point. Still, he needs the breather,mentally as much as physically. I tell him as he comes off for Stephen,‘Brian, don’t worry. You’re coming back in. Stay focused.’

Three minutes later and the whole team are running to the sideline.It’s half-time. Enda McGinley’s just had a shot that’s come off Hearty’sboot and gone over the bar, so we’re heading in with a bit ofmomentum. It’s eight-four. I’m thinking, ‘Things are going well; let’skeep them that way’ so I call the boys over to wait until Armagh havegone down the tunnel. I’m not caring whether Tommy Lyons did thesame against Armagh and his team lost; I just want our players backinto that dressing room without any hassle.

We get the boys in. Peter’s ankle needs more wrapping, anothershot. We tell the boys Brian’s coming back in for him but that Peter willbe back on. That softens the blow. ‘We now have thirty-five minutesleft,’ I tell them, ‘and we’re plus four. At the start of the game therewere seventy minutes to go and it was nil-all.’

Peter picks up on the same theme. ‘We’ve been knocking onheaven’s door for thirty-five minutes, boys, and she’s opening. Nowkeep knocking and inside will be heaven.’

‘We’ll not be fuckin’ knocking it,’ pipes up Brian Dooher. ‘Startkicking it, boys! We’ll fuckin’ go through her!’

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Well, that sums it up for all of us. Tyrone have been knocking onheaven’s door for long enough. It’s time to kick it down. No ifs aboutit, no buts, no maybes. Total faith.

We go back out and within five minutes we win a free about fiftymetres out from goal. Owen Mulligan plays a brilliant foot pass intoStevie. Stevie sets up Gerald Cavlan for a clear-cut goal. Gerald puts itwide. The crowd moans. I say to myself, ‘This is a test. People willbegin to think now that we’re going to blow it. Show them, boys, we’renot going to blow it.’

The game now begins to get very scrappy. There’s a lot of fouling,a lot of pushing but when Armagh glare, we glare back. Kevin Hughesis having an immense game in the middle of the field. Owen is stillstruggling from general play but he kicks two massive frees over thebar. Then there’s another flare-up. Brian White consults his umpire andsends Diarmaid Marsden off. I can’t tell whether it’s deserved or not;there’s too many bodies in the way. It doesn’t really change much. Westill have to work our socks off. We’re only three points up heading intothe last fifteen minutes. We must challenge those last fifteen minutes.

We begin to. Oisin scores a free but Stephen goes up the field andcancels it out. Still, we’re just about hanging in. We need a lift. Peter’sready to come back in. I’m trying to get him in but Paddy Russell saysno, he can’t. Then Owen has a glorious goal chance and he blasts itwide. Peter has to come in, this instant, to drown out those moans.Finally Russell lets him on, for Gerald Cavlan, while Collie Holmescomes on for Ciaran Gourley.

We’re defending well but we’re turning the ball over too much intheir half of the field. We’re kicking too many balls short into Hearty’sarms. We’re inviting them onto us. We’re inviting trouble …

Barry O’Hagan gets the ball deep in their half. He bombs it high upthe field. Cormac and Sean contest the same ball. Two men going forthe one ball; feckin’ juvenile stuff! McEntee has it. McDonnell’s freeinside him. McDonnell, the best goalscorer in Ireland, is free insidehim. F*** it, someone get to him! McDonnell gets it. There’s no onenear him. He’s inside the edge of the parallelogram. He’s pulling thetrigger. And then he’s… He’s… He’s blocked. He’s blocked! By Conor


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Gormley! McDonnell’s not his man! That’s not his job! He had nobusiness being near him! But he stepped outside the box and broughthis extra skills to the party to make it work!

There’s more work to be done. Armagh still win a free from thatpassage of play and Oisin puts it over. We’re only two points ahead.The seventy minutes are up but the board says there’s another threeminutes. I have to make another change. Conor’s on a yellow card.That might inhibit him putting in another tackle so we take him off.Chris Lawn comes in, someone to steady the ship. Within a fewseconds Ryan intercepts a high ball and the ball works its way out toChris. Chris finds Sean Cavanagh. Sean finds Brian Dooher. Brianpicks out Stephen O’Neill with a lovely foot pass. Stephen now hasplenty of room to attack. He eats it up. He gets within his range. Hekicks. He scores. He scores. The boy who persuaded me to stay on sixyears ago scores.

My mind now starts to think of that other special person from sixyears ago. There’s still a minute left in an All-Ireland final yet I’msaying to Paddy Tally, ‘Where’s Michaela?’ I glance back onto thefield. Philip Jordan sweeps up a long ball. The ball works itself to BrianMcGuigan. He’s fouled. Gavin Devlin is taking his time kicking it. I’mlooking around for Michaela. I promised her she’d be the first person Iturned to if ever we won a senior All Ireland. I can’t see her. Gavin cansee Collie Holmes across the field. He kicks it over to him. Collie findsKevin Hughes. Hub gives it to Enda McGinley. Enda takes on his man.He shoots… and he shoots wide. Right now it’s as good as a point.‘Michaela!’ Armagh take a quick kickout. Brian Dooher intercepts it.Brian Dooher has the ball…. Brian White blows the whistle. BrianWhite blows the whistle! It’s over. It’s over!

I turn to Paddy. We embrace. Brian Carthy comes to me, looking fora radio interview. I smile but tell him I have to talk to Michaela first.I’m going, ‘Michaela! Michaela!’ Marty Morrissey comes looking foran interview but I tell him the same as I told Brian; I have to see twospecial people first. Then I see the first of them. Mattie, the man withthe best smile on the planet. We embrace. Gavin Devlin comes along.What’s happened to Michaela? Then I see her. She’s outside the police

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cordon, trying desperately to get in. They won’t allow her. I run over.They let her in. Finally we’re together, the three of us. Michaela isannoyed. ‘I can’t believe they wouldn’t let me in!’

I tell her, ‘It’s not perfect but don’t let it annoy you. Hey, you wereright! Your plan was right!’

I could tell you I’m feeling elated now; that like Kieran McGeeneylast year, those first two minutes after the final whistle is the bestfeeling possible. I don’t; it’s not. What I’m feeling right now is relief.A pressure has been lifted off me and my family. The detractors cannotbe as vociferous as they were. That’s what I’m thinking. I’m notecstatic. I’m relieved. I’m controlled. Even when Peter lifts the cup.

Peter’s speech itself is very controlled. Very eloquent, very PeterCanavan. He’s right to take his time. He hits all the right spots. Hethanks Jim, Frank, Francie, Mickey, Seamus, Sharon, Siobhan andWillie John. He especially thanks Fr Gerard and Paddy. Heacknowledges former Tyrone players and Art and Eugene. He paystribute to the spirit of his father and of Paul McGirr. Then he looksdown, catches my eye and thanks me. No, thank you, Peter. You saidyou only wanted to be captain of a great team, that you didn’t want tobe a great captain; well, Peter, you’ve been that too.

We make our way back to the dressing room. Just before I go in, Icatch Marian. Words can’t describe a moment like that. The sense ofachievement, that sense of contentment, it’s now beginning to kick in.It’s the same for the others in the dressing room. Paddy and BrianDooher are sitting over on one of the benches. Paddy has always saidthat the best few minutes are those back in the dressing room with yourteam-mates, with your friends; that’s the most special time. Brianagrees. ‘This is it,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t give a fiddler’s if there was nobanquet.’

We eventually make it back onto the bus. Songs are being played,songs are being sung. We’re looking out and all we see outside arehappy faces, waving back at us. Then behind me I spot a sad face. It’sPeter. Two hours or so ago I met him on the steps of the Hogan Stand.We held each other’s arms, looked each other in the eye and I said, ‘Wedid it. This is the day.’ Now Peter’s sitting on his own and there are


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tears coming out of his eyes. It’s all hitting him. He picked that songbecause he was missing Sam. Now he has Sam but he’s missing Sean.Sean missed this. He did miss the best.

I feel I have to say something. I sit beside him, put my arm aroundhim and say, ‘I know how you feel. I’ve been there myself. Your dad isvery proud of you. He’s very happy for you. And what you’re doing isno harm.’ It’s all I can say, really. We’ll soon be in the Burlington. Hehas to think of getting himself together for that. I just felt I had to bethere for him. As a manager. As a Glencull man. As an Errigal man. Asa friend.

We come into the lobby of the Burlington with the cup and the placeis manic. The banquet is a bit calmer. I’m delighted when KevinHughes is named Man of the Match. Someone asked me shortly afterthe game who my Man of the Match was and I said it would be hard tolook beyond Kevin Hughes. He was rock solid, taking and giving hitsand always being an outlet to his team-mates. In my speech I make apoint of paying tribute to Conor Gormley. It’s incredible. TheArchbishop, in his speech before me, spoke about how he’d like tohave been at the Armagh function as well but that he didn’t have thepower of bi-location. I had never heard of that term up until this week,when Anita told me that Pio had that power. I tell the audience thatConor Gormley must have it too to have made that block. The medals,the relic; for Conor they worked. Total faith.

The banquet finishes up. We go outside. It’s mayhem. Everyonewants to see you. Michaela’s with two people who particularly want tosee me. ‘Recognise the voice, Mickey?’ ‘And this one?’ Ah, my twofriends, at last! Well, who they hell are ye? Turns out they’re a coupleof boys from Derrylaughan. Brendan Quinn is the name of one of them,Sean McGrath is the other. I know Brendan’s father! Kevin Quinnworked as a joiner with my brother Peter on building sites back in thesixties. He called me only the other week, wishing me the best. I tellthe boys to call me later in the week; it’s kind of hectic here at theminute. Cuthbert Donnelly, our energetic county board officer, wantsme and Sam on the dance floor in the disco for a minute. I duly godown but the young supporters down there keep me there for a while.

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It’s something to be in a place thronged with thousands of people, allof them smiling. It’s preparation for tomorrow, I suppose. I need a fewhours’ rest. I switch off the light and join Marian and for the first timein twenty-two hours, I close my eyes. Already I know that in that timeour lives have changed forever.

Tyrone 0-12 Armagh 0-9

Tyrone: J Devine; C Gormley, C McAnallen, R McMenamin; C Gourley, G Devlin,P Jordan; K Hughes, S Cavanagh; B Dooher, B McGuigan (0-1), G Cavlan (0-1); EMcGinley (0-1), P Canavan (0-5, all frees), O Mulligan (0-2, both frees).Subs: S O’Neill (0-2) for McGuigan (34 mins), McGuigan for Canavan (half-time),Canavan for Cavlan (64 mins), C Holmes for Gourley (64 mins), C Lawn forGormley (71 mins).


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10

AFTER THE GOLD RUSH

Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feetDid you finally get the chance to dance along the light of dayAnd head back to the Milky WayAnd tell me, did Venus blow your mindWas it everything you wanted to find

Kevin Hughes’ song, ‘Drops of Jupiter’, Train

I know that I’m never as good or as bad as any single performance.I’ve never believed my critics or my worshippers, and I’ve always beenable to leave the game at the arena.

Former NBA star Charles Barkley

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Saturday 15 November

Last night wasn’t just the anniversary of me being appointed Tyronemanager; last night the Ulster Writers’ Awards were held in Bundoran.It wasn’t just a year that was completed; it felt like a journey hadended. Last night when the cups were paraded in, there was no need tobe embarrassed. In front of me was Brian Dooher with the Anglo-Celttrophy, Cormac McAnallen with the national league and beside me,Peter Canavan holding the other ear of Sam Maguire. We put them upat the top table, I sat down beside Marian and Michaela, and Michaelasaid, “That’s some difference from last year.’

She’s so right. Last year after I brought up that cup, some of theother guests there that night would have voted me chancer of the year.At the end last night, I was awarded Ulster GAA Personality of theYear. Last night I didn’t have to dash back behind the till in our shopin Ballygawley; instead we were able to stay over and relax inBundoran, now that the shop has changed hands. Right now we’regetting ready to head to Ballymena where the Rasharkin club haveinvited me as a guest of honour to their fund-raising banquet. OnMonday Omagh District Council are holding a reception for the team.Everyone wants to see Sam.

It’s amazing what that cup has done for the people of Tyrone. Manyof them would have seen it before but it was always passing through;now it’s their own. For me, the highlight was bringing it into Omagh.To look down that street, and to see it packed with people as far as theeye could see, I’ll bring it to the grave. There were thousands, and Imean thousands, of people there that night that hadn’t been there sincethe bomb. Whenever there has been a big crowd in the town, it has beenfor an anniversary, a commemoration, not a celebration. The town hasa new life about it again and it’s good to have played some part in that.I’ve been to countless schools at this stage and yet I never tire of seeingthe faces of those kids light up. A month ago today I was in StColmcille’s primary school in Omagh. A P7 class sang us a song called,‘If Anyone Can, Canavan Can’. At the end of it this little boy came outwith a cutout face of Peter covering his own and lifted this cutout cup.


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Little things like the thought, the imagination, the warmth that wentinto that; it touches you.

Some other moments stand out. The Friday week after the final wasthe first time we didn’t have a place or function to attend, so I broughtthe cup to my uncle Mickey’s month’s mind. It felt right, being outthere in Pomeroy, as if Mickey was looking down and he got to see thecup after all. To top it off, there was a special person at that mass.Martin McAleer was there, and Seamus and Una; it turned out Martin’sgrandmother was a neighbour and friend of my uncle Mickey’s. Whatthat day, that cup, has done for the McAleers, well, Seamus and Unahave made it known to me.

Some of our special friends have not been as fortunate. That sameday Adrian Logan called to say David Gillespie, the lad who we met inOmagh only a month earlier, had just passed away. On the Saturday ourmini-bus pulled up outside the Gillespie house. We went in andmentioned it to his parents that we had the cup outside. They said theywould appreciate it if we could bring it in to where David was rested.It was chilling, seeing him there in his Celtic jersey, with photos of hisnight with us in Omagh beside his coffin, but his parents let it beknown afterwards they were the better for David having met the teamand the rest of his family having met Sam.

It was a similar story with my friend Jim Rafferty. I met his brotherOliver shortly before the All Ireland and he said that it was as if thematch was keeping Jim alive. The week after we won the game, Ibrought the cup over to Jim and his wife Bina. You could see the lifespring back into Jim for those few hours. He poured some water intoSam, said ‘I always wanted to drink out of this’ and spoke about howglad he was to be alive the day Tyrone won the All Ireland. Threeweeks later the cancer took Jim away from us. He was only fifty-five.

That’s the thing about this game we play. Yes, life goes on, butfootball helps life and lives go on. Those families have memories oftheir loved ones in those few weeks and months that will stay withthem forever.

There have been plenty of pleasant occasions, of course. A fewweeks ago, I was invited to the Derrylaughan club’s annual function to

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present medals to their intermediate team. One of the recipients wasnone other than the midnight caller himself, Brendan Quinn. Last nightin Bundoran was a lovely night. I’ve enjoyed it all, and yet…. Andyet… I can’t wait for next year already. The real thrill this year was inthe journey. The fun was in the preparation, the challenge. I want moreof the same. Winning isn’t a year; it’s a career. It’s not just a habit; it’sabout habits. It’s not a year in your life; it’s a way of life.

I go back to my old friend, Zalucki. ‘You have a responsibility. Ihave a responsibility to become all we can become in this journeycalled life or I see no valid intellectual reason for existence. You knowhow many people wake up in the morning and don't even know whythey're getting out of bed other than to be a robot? People get out of bedone or two ways. You need to decide which one is you. You are eitherinspired or not inspired; pick one. Because if you don't shake this worldwith your passion, this world will pass you by.’

I want to be inspired. I want to shake the world with passion. I wantto be committed. I need to be committed. To keep developing, to keepimproving. Big Joe’s words in our dressing room after the final areringing ever truer. ‘Enjoy the moment, boys, because from here on in,everyone wants your title.’ Armagh want it back. Derry know no otherside came closer to beating us this year and they will not tolerate losingto us for a third straight year. Kerry and Galway are too proud to justallow another year of Ulster dominance. Dublin will not accept anotheryear like the one just gone. Billy Morgan is back which means Cork areback. The list goes on. Other teams will now be trying to kick down thedoor and see what’s inside. We will have to kick and fight even harderor else this paradise will be lost.

We need to get more use out of that Nerve Express device Seamusbought from the States. I hope Tony Donnelly will be able to get moreinvolved. I will be talking again to Bart and to all the team aboutownable behaviour. Even though the philosophy behind most of themwill remain the same, Paddy has talked about having this ceremonialfire to get rid of so many of the motivational tools and techniques weused this year. He has new plans. I have new plans.

And you know what, Michaela has a new one too …


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POSTCARDS FROM HEAVEN

GENIUS DOES WHAT IT MUST

The critics thought Paddy Tally was too young at twenty-nine to train theteam. I didn’t see his age; I saw possibly the best trainer in Ireland.

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Mickey Book Last 14 Pages 18/11/03 11:34 am Page 1


GOLD

Anything I’ve ever asked of Cormac McAnallen, he has done. Even if thisyear it meant trying to stop Dan Gordon, Stephen Maguire, Declan

O’Sullivan, Steven McDonnell …

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JUST BECAUSE

Winning has helped Kevin Hughes and Brian McGuigan become such closefriends. Being such close friends has helped them become such winners.

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THINK OF ALL THE FRIENDS YOU’VE MADE

Paddy Tally always said the best bit about being a footballer was the firstfive minutes back in a winning dressing room.

Brian Dooher knows what he means.

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SHARING A DREAM

Una and Seamus McAleer says we helped their son Martin. I think Martin helped us.

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LOOKING DOWN ON US

My uncle Mickey Harte got to see every cup but Sam before he died inSeptember. It was nice we could bring Sam to his month’s mind in

Pomeroy.

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MIDNIGHT CALLERS

Back in January they were two anonymous critics of mine. Then theybecame two anonymous supporters of mine. And then, when heaven’s door

opened, we finally got to meet …

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Acknowledgements

I had two distinct impressions of Mickey Harte after meeting himlast November. The first was that he almost seemed too nice to win anAll Ireland but the more overriding one was that he was too intelligentand enthusiastic to not. The following day I contacted Kenny Curran,editor of the Tyrone GAA Team Talk magazine and the man who hadbrought me over to the Harte household in Glencull. Mickey Harteseemed like a man who was going to win an All Ireland some yearsoon. He seemed like the kind of honest man who would be preparedto talk about how we was going to win that All Ireland soon. I said toKenny would he encourage Mickey to keep a diary. So Kenny did andthen Mickey did.

A few times during the year I’d say to Mickey, ‘Are you keepingthose notes, just in case?’ and he’d say, ‘Aye, a wee bit here and there.’When Tyrone did win the All Ireland and I called up to him, I hardlythought a book would still be on. But Mickey was very forthcoming. Isaid, ‘Are you still interested in that book?’ He felt why not; it wouldbe a story the Tyrone people would like to be told. So we thought aboutit for a few days. I talked to some friends and colleagues and they saidgo for it. I did and I’m delighted I did. Mickey’s notes were much moredetailed and honest than I had even anticipated.

I would like to thank some people for their support and advice overthe last little while. Ann-Marie for being Ann-Marie. Tommy Conlon,Mark Jones, Christy O’Connor, Damian Lawlor, Mick Foley and JoeCoyle for telling me to go for it; my sports editor Philip Lanigan andcolleague Paul Howard; my brothers Damien and Simon. Thanks tooto Paddy Heaney of the Irish News for his assistance.

I would particularly like to thank my Sunday Tribune colleagueMalachy Clerkin, whose editing was critical and so appreciated.

There is a former journalistic colleague I would like to thank who Ididn’t get to mention in my last book. I didn’t know better at the time.I’ve recently been reading a book called ‘The Right Words at the RightTime’ and how they inspired a number of household names. The bestadvice I ever got was ‘Don’t tell me, show me.’ Don’t tell me


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something’s great; show me why it’s great. No doubt Paul Kimmagewill spot a few places here when Mickey and myself didn’t, but at leastyou helped somewhat in keeping them to a minimum, Paul.

I want to thank my parents Brendan and Rosaleen, not just for theirsupport this past six weeks but for meeting Kenny and Edele Curran onholiday nearly three years ago. I would like to thank Kenny for histime, friendship and advice over that time but particularly over thesepast few months. Ditto Chris Curran, for all those late hours we put intothis. And I would particularly like to thank the Harte family. Marian,Mattie and Michaela have given me wonderful insights into whatmakes Mickey Harte tick. So has Mickey Harte. I did not think I wouldmeet such an honest, forthcoming and candid co-author so soon afterco-operating with Justin McCarthy for ‘Hooked’, but, as we say inCork, I’ve been haunted. Thanks, Mickey, for your honesty, time,warmth, wisdom and Tyrone CDs.

Kieran ShannonNovember 2003



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We would like to thank the following sponsors for theirgenerous support.

Club Energise

Bank of Ireland

W. J. Dolan Construction

B. P. Collins Contracts Ltd.

Raymond Doody Truck Parts


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We would like to thank the following sponsors for theirgenerous support.

Sanbra Fyffe

Finlay Hydrascreens (Omagh) Ltd.

Carton Golf Club

Gaelic Gear

Strathroy Dairy



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ROOTSWhen I took on the position of Tyrone team manager, a few experiences had defined me.

One would have been my modest if honest eight-year county career with the county. Anotherwould have been my involvement with Errigal Ciaran, like when I was one of the coaches to

the under-16 team that won our first title. The other was to coach the team that PaulMcGirr’s spirit built, otherwise known as the All-Ireland minor finalists of 1997.

Unfortunately, Paul only appears in the above right photograph, the second boy on the left.

Mickey Book Colour Pages 18/11/03 2:13 am Page 1


APOCALYPSE NOWWhen Sligo beat Tyrone in Croke Park, they did more than knock our county out of the

2002 championship. Our confidence and self-belief was battered as lazy myths increased incurrency.

INTO THE HOT SEATA lot of people questioned my credentials when I was appointed county senior team

manager. Worse, some even questioned my motives.



A DAY FOR WICKED WEE MENOne of the keys to Errigal’s Ulster club success was the luxury of having two quality

free-takers. Mark Harte and Peter Canavan led both the Tyrone and Ulster club championship scoring ranks in 2002.

ONE CLUBWinning the Ulster club championship was a necessity if I was to prove myself as a senior

club manager. Thankfully I did as the players proved their steel.



WINNING HABITWe took the Dr McKenna Cup seriously. Owen Mulligan particularly did against Antrim,

scoring 2-3 in twenty minutes.

TURNED BACKOur players learned against Roscommon that they’d have to be much more determined at

breaking the tackle. In Hyde Park Frank McGuigan was hardly our only player who couldn’t break through.



‘DO I NOT LIKE THIS’I was under a lot of pressure as it was in this position. Losing my first league game only

gave the critics more ammunition.



SPRING HOPESThe day after we lost to Dublin, I told my son Michael to back Tyrone for the league and

All-Ireland double even though it was our second defeat in three games. I saw enough thatday in Parnell Park to convince me.

HARTE ACHESThe Nemo Rangers game taught Mattie that sometimes you can lose big games.

It taught me much more than that.



SCHOOL PARTNERS, COUNTY RIVALSMartin McElkennon and myself coached a lot together this year. Fermanagh and Tyrone’s

great runs meant we also coached a good deal against each other.

GLORY ON THE QUIET FIELDSThere were some great moments this year and the way the St Ciaran’s under-16s came backin the Ulster final was up there with the best. Anyone who has coached knows what I mean.



HIGHS AND LOWSRyan Mellon was literally flying in the early rounds of the league before a viral infection

restricted his participation. He remained a valued member of the circle.

THOU SHALT NOT PASSWe always thought our last round-robin league game against Cork was a big one, and so it

proved. We never looked back afterwards; they never won afterwards.



‘WHERE DID YOU LEARN TO DO THAT?’Peter Canavan taught Owen Mulligan more than just PE in school. Fermanagh learned that

the hard way in the league semi-final.



RICEY RULESRyan McMenamin went from being a good wing back to a very good corner back.

DEVINE INSPIRATIONPascal McConnell’s talent meant the fight for the goalkeeping spot was always tight but John

Devine’s display in the league final put him in poll position.



BEEN THERE, DONE THATOur sponsor, Willie John Dolan, was visibly elated when we won the league title.

Peter Canavan was visualising being back in September.



THE GREAT ESCAPEWe played one style of football to win the league. Derry countered it with a cordon so we

had to come up with a Plan B for Casement – and Croke Park.

VIDEO SCAPEGOATAt the time of our replay against Derry we thought Gavin Devlin was harshly treated by the

GAC. Later in the year we knew it.



CAN’T STOPChris Lawn hadn’t scored a point in thirteen years playing for Tyrone.

Against Derry in Casement he got red hot.

FIELD DAYIf we were to win the replay against Derry, we needed fellas to step up.

Sean Cavanagh did that and more in Casement.



SOMETHING INSIDE SO STRONGAfter the Antrim game, Colm O’Rourke said he could never picture Tyrone winning an All

Ireland with Brian Dooher. I could never picture us winning one without him.



GOING TO ANOTHER LEVELGerald Cavlan had some huge games for us this summer but few were as big as the one

against Antrim. After this we knew he was an option to thwart Darragh Ó Sé.



IN GOD WE TRUSTPeter Canavan made a lot of big plays for us this year. His penalty and then his equalising

point in the Ulster final were two of them.



SOLDIERS ARE WEThe Kerry game was about making statements. Singing the national anthem was the first one.

‘PROTECT THE D’People questioned the wisdom of bringing back a man who had been out suspended for three

months. We knew better. Gavin Devlin was critical to our strategy against Kerry.



TRUE GRITThe plan against Kerry was to put them on the back foot. Enda McGinley for one made sure

we did.

SWARM‘Hit them from the start with all that we have. Knock them back on their arse. Make them

think, “What is going on here? This is not the way it is supposed to be.”’



NOTHING PERSONAL, STRICTLY BUSINESSPáidí Ó Sé had a good idea when he shook my hand that he had coached his last game with

Kerry. But I told him as he did, ‘If I’m as half as successful as you, I’ll be very happy.’

‘THAT WAS FOR YOU!’At half-time against Kerry Peter Canavan told us, ‘I don’t ask for much but win this for me.’

Philip Jordan felt we all owed him at least that.



IN THE HUDDLEAt this stage, it’s all motivation, it’s all psychology. ‘Proper prior preparation prevents poor

performance. You’ve had proper prior preparation.’



‘NO IFS, PETER!’When we were out on the field, Peter said, ‘The ankle’s not good.’ I said, ‘It’ll be good

enough.’ He just had to start.



NO MIDFIELD?Heading into the All-Ireland final, our midfield had been beaten only twice in twenty

competitive games. Kevin Hughes and Sean Cavanagh made sure that we didn’t lose a third.

PADRE GORMLEY, CONOR PIOI had never heard of the term ‘bi-location’ until a Tyrone woman gave me a Padre Pio relic

the day before the All-Ireland final. I had never seen it either until Conor Gormley made thisplay against Steven McDonnell.



CONSISTENCY IN A WORLD GONE MADI can hardly think of a mistake Philip Jordan made all year.

THE ‘S’ FACTORWe won this year’s All Ireland because we had a Stephen O’Neill and others didn’t. Few

players are more talented than he is. None are as selfless.



‘MICHAELA!’Before I could talk to my friend Brian Carthy, I first had to talk to my most loyal supporter.

It was a pact we had made.

SHOW ME HEAVENWhen Peter was receiving the cup, Mattie was thinking, ‘I can’t believe it.’ Michaela was

thinking, ‘I always did.’



‘WE DID IT!’I’d known Peter Canavan since he was born. And he was born for this day. He said he only

wanted to be captain of a great team; well, if we were, it was because he was a great captain.



‘I COULDN’T CARE IF THERE WAS NO BANQUET’Brian Dooher told us at half-time to kick down heaven’s door. He did, we did, and he likes

the place.



THE CIRCLE OF TRUSTThe people that brought home Tyrone’s first All Ireland



ON TOP OF THE WORLDYou’re only as good as the people you have around you. I was fortunate Paddy Tally and

Fr Gerard were around me.

YOUNG GUNSWhen I said I wanted back to the boys, I was thinking about players like Kevin Hughes and

Owen Mulligan.



OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLEWinning the All Ireland was about more than bringing the cup back to Omagh. Bringing the

people back to Omagh was even more important.



WE ARE FAMILYMarian and myself celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary this summer. Yes, there is anothervery special woman in my life. Mark (left), Michael (second right) and Mattie (far right) can

vouch for that.



AND ALL BECAUSE THE LADY LOVES TYRONEMichaela wasn’t going to just wear any colour of dress to the All-Ireland banquet.



WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR?I made a promise to Kenny Curran and myself at the 2002 Ulster Writers’ Awards.

Exactly a year on, I had delivered.


Mickey Harte Kicking Down Heavens Door 2003

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