Beat Tyrone or join them

All-Ireland SFC Quarter-finals: Towards the end of the new Woody Allen movie, Anything Else, there's a line that reflects the current situation in the football championship. Something about being original in whatever you do, and if that's not good enough, then at least steal from the best.

As more teams try to stick to their original style of football - and fall short - the more they come to realise they may have to steal from the best. Or more specifically, steal from the purveyors of successful football - Tyrone and Armagh.

This afternoon in Croke Park Mayo face Tyrone and there are those who fear the worst. Mayo have sailed so joyously through Connacht, playing freewheeling and often dazzling football, and yet there's the strong possibility they will now be unceremoniously flattened by the All-Ireland champions.

If Mayo do fall to the champions' more physical and less attractive brand of football then chances are the rest of the country will take greater stock.

The sight of two teams hunting in packs, with their blanket defending, is now more than ever the vision of football in the future. At least that's how it seems. Last Sunday in Croke Park one of the finest football teams in the country were once again taken apart by that brand of football. Laois did have their injury problems and were partly downed by the unjust demands of three successive weekends of championship football, but even so, Tyrone were in a different class.

Laois selector Declan O'Loughlin has no problem admitting their game plan on Sunday simply wasn't adequate: "You would think the best thing to do is that once you get into possession then you send in a long ball, and that way you leave their defenders at sea. But that was our game plan last Sunday, and we just didn't appear able to carry it out.

"So it's just so hard to plot against that kind of defence when they are so hungry and playing at such a huge intensity. We had three tough games, I know, but the lads were absolutely wrecked after last Sunday."

It's the words "intensity" and "hunger" that keep cropping up when Tyrone and Armagh are assessed.

"To me their hunger, combined with their work-rate, was just phenomenal. And to do the type of tackling that they did, bringing three men on to a Laois forward, or any forward, takes a huge commitment. They have to leave their own area, so they have to pursue the tackle or else they've left men loose," says O'Loughlin.

"So you'd have expected to have a load of loose Laois men last Sunday. But the problem is getting the ball away. I remember at one point there were four men around Beano McDonald and he couldn't even pass the ball. He had to let it fall out of his hands and lose it."

This appears to suggest that teams like Laois have little option but to take on some of those same qualities.

"Well this is the kind of football that's being endorsed in the north. And Laois will have to take on some of those qualities. We feel there is a job to finish here, and I think our lads are still hungry, but we'll have to see how we can adapt.

"We do feel that we learnt a lot from this year, and that there are areas where we can improve. Mick O'Dwyer has always endorsed fluid football, which is lovely to watch and got us into another Leinster final. But is it good enough to go any further?"

There was some hope offered earlier in the season when Donegal managed to upset the All-Ireland champions in the Ulster semi-final, inflicting a five-point defeat that was ultimately built around a second-half performance dominated by an explosive midfield.

Donegal trainer Patsy McGonagle isolates two reasons why Tyrone were beaten: firstly, Donegal played their finest football of the year, and secondly, Tyrone seemed a little complacent and off-form.

"It's difficult for teams to control their success," he says. "You will always get the spin about everything being under control, but with the celebrations and various functions and that, it is difficult for players to maintain their focus, no matter how strong the management team.

"So I think there was some complacency against us, as subconscious as it was. The great tribute to Tyrone is the way they have reacted to the wake-up call they got against us. That's a real difficulty for a team that is used to winning."

At the start of the year Donegal had been heavily beaten by Tyrone in the McKenna Cup final, in front of 10,000 people in Ballybofey. They knew if they weren't up for Tyrone that June afternoon in Clones it could have been as ugly.

"We knew we had to bridge a gap. But then all the things that needed to work for us did work for us that day. We had some great individual performances, and the 14 men we had on the field for much of the game had a great mental attitude.

"As it turned out we weren't able to repeat it, and that was as good as we were going to be. But the truth is that on days like that you don't really know why it works so well. You can be very smart and say you knew the whole thing would happen but in fact you don't know. You just hope you know."

Still McGonagle reckons that performance should offer some hope to other teams. Tyrone's defence is not in fact overly physical in terms of player size. It's all about how they play. Donegal also had a rugby league coach working with them before their last championship outings, primarily to get players used to the high intensity of tackling. Unfortunately that only partly worked.

"Well if you look at Tyrone's defenders they're not nearly as physical as, say, Armagh are. But they are just so competitive, and always playing on the edge. As individuals first of all, but also the way they work with each other. That's an important reason why they are able to settle down as a unit, and they always seem to know what they want to do.

"And it's the way they surround other players. But a lot of that comes down to work-rate. You get on the ball, stop the opponent playing, don't give them space. If you emphasise that enough times in training it will eventually come through.

"But it is an all-round game plan that they have going at the moment. And a lot of it is based on confidence. Especially since they have got their focus and bond back again."

Where all this leaves Mayo is the final question: "Against Tyrone we were just so up for it," says McGonagle, "and determined to be what we were going to be. On that day we proved that it could be done.

"And I'm sure Mayo will take some confidence from that, and the bottom line is Tyrone are not unbeatable. But you have to believe it. And right now I believe it's down to Armagh and Tyrone. I don't think there is anyone else."