IF someone said to you that Tyrone kicked the ball twice as often against Kerry in this year’s semi-final as they did under Mickey Harte two years ago, you’d believe them, wouldn’t you?
Why not? It’s what we’ve been conditioned to read into Tyrone. Mickey, defensive, run the ball. Dooher and Logan, attack, kick the thing.
In fact, the exact opposite is true.
In that 2019 game, Tyrone played 29 kick passes into their forwards and scored 0-12 off them.
Two weeks ago, they kicked the ball into their attack just 14 times in normal time. They harvested just 0-2 off it.
Ah, you might say, but sure it was Kerry and it was Croke Park and it was all these things. So let’s go back to their first big Championship test under Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher against Donegal.
That day, Tyrone kicked the ball in attack just nine times. Four in the first half, five in the second. It led to just 0-3 of their 0-23.
And the idea of pressing higher up the pitch, going man-to-man?
Kerry were turned over 23 times in the 70 minutes of normal time. 21 of them were inside Tyrone’s 45-metre line.
Contrast that with Mayo, who stripped Dublin of the ball eight times inside the reigning champions’ half during their semi-final.
None of this is to criticise Tyrone, because how could you? They’ve just beaten Kerry and will be one half of the most 50-50 All-Ireland final for many years.
Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher have made changes – just maybe not the changes we’re being told they’ve made.
“Their style of play is not madly different,” concedes Kyle Coney, who played under Harte and was an early-season triallist under the new regime.
He recalls how Collie Holmes and Joe McMahon were all about one thing – getting the ball moving faster up the pitch.
But somewhere along the line… No, not somewhere. Killarney, that’s where.
Tyrone’s defence was torn to bits because their attacking game was torn to shreds in that League mauling.
Kerry turned them over, then turned them over again, then turned them over some more.
One of the big factors in all that has been the prolonged absence of Cathal McShane. That 2019 gameplan was built completely around him and his physical presence.
If he starts the final, we could see an awful lot more ball pumped in by Tyrone.
Against Donegal, the Red Hands’ big tactical victory was playing Conn Kilpatrick and Brian Kennedy at midfield and getting hands on Shaun Patton’s kickouts.
And yet against Kerry, they completely dropped off Shane Ryan and allowed Kerry to retain every single ball, standing back in their own half saying ‘come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough’.
Cutting off the space and the supply worked a treat. In the Munster final, Kerry had worked up 2-13 from kicking the ball, which Cork allowed them to do 28 times.
Tyrone reduced the quantity by less than a third but the quality was taken down enormously. Ten kick-passes in either half was Kerry’s lot, but their return was taken down to 0-8.
It was the same basic premise that Mickey Harte had been panned for, and yet it was different, more effective. So what has actually changed?
Two big things, believes Coney.
FIRST, the now-RTÉ radio pundit believes his former team-mates are being given more individual responsibility rather than relying on the collective.
“With being involved with Tyrone under Mickey and Gavin [Devlin], they probably had a more rigid defensive structure.
“You maybe had two in the first line, three in the second line, two in the next line, then Meyler and McGeary doing the work on the flanks – that was your blockade.
“I don’t think it’s as systematic this time, it definitely didn’t appear that way to me in the semi-final.
“Tyrone didn’t get many turnovers up the field but there was a lot of man-on-man pressure going on. Meyler went everywhere with Paudie Clifford, Hampsey was going to a degree with Sean O’Shea.
“They maybe weren’t getting the turnovers but they were applying the pressure out the field where it was easier for the turnover to come when it got into the 45’.
“Tyrone aimed to put the really good kick-passers under pressure out the field so the quality of that pass might not have been as good.
“When Gavin White or Dara Moynihan were opening up the legs, Tyrone were gobbling them up in that area. It was just the sheer ferociousness of tackling. The number of turnovers McGeary had alone was crazy.”
Secondly, it’s been getting the right players playing in the right positions. Darren McCurry’s elevated form has been one notable plus-point, but perhaps the most significant change has been in Peter Harte.
This has been his best season for Tyrone in a long time, perhaps ever.
“Peter Harte at wing half-back would have been a no-brainer for me for a few years now,” says Coney.
“I think his game, playing against him at club level and playing with him at Tyrone training and in games, he’s a more natural attacking half-back.
“Niall Sludden lines out at wing half-back but can play a lot of his football facing the goals. Michael O’Neill lines out at 11 but never plays there. He’s a very defensive-minded player and a good line-breaker.
“Conor McKenna’s a bit more of a mystery. I could tell you where he lines out but I couldn’t tell you where he plays. That’s a really good thing to have.
“He’s one of those players you nearly couldn’t name as an Allstar because you wouldn’t know where to put him, you know that kinda way? He’s a magic player.
“He had a quiet game in the semi-final by his own standards but produced two moments of magic that got Tyrone over the line,” says the Ardboe man.
Is it a genuine sense of freedom felt by the players or is it helpful that the world is being convinced that Tyrone are doing something they aren’t? Or is it a bit of both?
Oisin McConville points to the opening moments of the Ulster final, when Tyrone pumped two skyscrapers in towards Mattie Donnelly.
“That kept Monaghan honest for the rest of the day,” recalls the former Armagh forward.
“They’ve used that as ‘if you’re playing against us, you have to be prepared for the long ball’, whereas in actual fact that is probably no longer true.
“They have reverted a little bit to type. But rather than think we’ve believed the propaganda, I do believe the intent is different.”
McConville has had entertaining on-screen jousts with Mickey Harte this summer on BBC.
The former Tyrone boss spoke to The Irish News last week and his commentary was pointed.
“There is a narrative out there that there was a brand new gameplan but I’m seeing what was exactly happening before and even the personnel is the same.
“They know they’ve got to play a certain way that suits the players we have – and it actually suits the way modern football is played,” Harte said.
Remove last year’s bastardised winter Championship and take Tyrone’s five biggest games since 2016. The quarter-final against Mayo that year; the final against Dublin (2018); the Kerry semi-final (2019); and the Donegal and Kerry games from this year.
Across 350 minutes, they turned the opposition over inside their own half just seven times.
Mayo did it eight times to Dublin in 70 minutes a month ago.
There is comfort in that for Tyrone. There is also some admission that, hold on a minute, maybe Mickey Harte wasn’t all that far away with his idea at all.
“When we talk about Mickey Harte, I suppose familiarity might have bred contempt with us all, maybe even with Tyrone and their supporters,” says McConville.
“Just sometimes change is needed. Rather than look back and say ‘well, were we playing different under Mickey’, they just seem re-energised by the change.
“Somebody different taking training, some of the ideas are different, the ideas in the analysis room are different, the constraints maybe are different.
“Players find that sort of thing exciting. I had Joe Kernan manage me for most of my early club and county career. It wasn’t that anybody wanted to see Joe go, but it was exciting to see a new manager come in. In our case, we should have been careful what we wished for.
“We look at that Tyrone team and think not a lot has changed, but some of the mindset has shifted. Because of that, you find they’re getting energy from it.
“When you look at the kick-passing stats, let’s be honest, it’s quite alarming considering some of the conjecture that’s been out there.”
Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan’s Tyrone have been without question a better, more energised, refreshed, re-organised version of themselves.
But whether they win or lose the All-Ireland final, perhaps Mickey Harte is entitled to feel some vindication.
