Tyrone will arrive to this weekend’s celebration of Gaelic football at Croke Park like a guest invited to the afters of a wedding. Nobody is thinking or talking about them much. They are part of the weekend, but in truth they’re a bit of an afterthought.
There has been plenty of catastrophising and hype around Kerry throughout the summer, plenty of scrutiny and expectation around Donegal, plenty of wonderment and freshness around Meath. But what of Tyrone?
They are very much the outlier of the quartet – Tyrone have certainly been turning heads by hoovering up silverware at minor and under-20 level, yet their senior footballers have progressed to these semi-finals very much under the radar.
And nobody has an accurate gauge on them.
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They went up to Ballybofey in the first round of the group stages and beat Donegal – a not insignificant accomplishment as it was the first defeat Jim McGuinness suffered in MacCumhaill Park as Donegal manager.
Buoyed by that victory and with top spot now in their control, Tyrone welcomed misfiring Mayo to Omagh the following week and proceeded to lose by seven points. Mayo had lost to Cavan the previous Sunday. It made no sense. Or it shouldn’t have.
But those two games are almost a microcosm of Tyrone in recent years. Consistently inconsistent. You are never sure which Tyrone are going to turn up.
I was in Croke Park a fortnight ago watching them play Dublin in the quarter-finals and although they won that match, I wasn’t overly impressed by Tyrone. The fact they won by seven points possibly says more about Dublin than anything else.
I felt Tyrone were quite flat, they didn’t really seem to have any massive urgency to get back behind the ball – there were occasions when they had maybe four or five up front and were only defending with nine or 10 players. If you do that against Kerry, you are going to be destroyed.
Their energy all over the pitch against Dublin would be a concern.
Still, despite a slow and ponderous first half, they actually led at the break against Dublin – thanks largely to some well-taken two-pointers. They went more man-to-man in the second half and played a lot better, they had more energy.
And this is where their best chance of causing an upset lies – because I think they will need to try something unexpected, such as starting Eoin McElholm.
The rising under-20 star came on during the second half against Dublin and you couldn’t help but notice his impact, his direct running, his fearlessness and how his presence seemed to energise the team. Starting McElholm on Saturday would give Kerry something different to think about.
Nobody doubts Tyrone believe they can win but to achieve that outcome they will need more energy around the pitch – McElholm has the potential to be that spark.
At the same time, another factor worth considering when looking at Tyrone’s display against Dublin is the fact a lot of their younger players don’t have vast experience of playing at Croke Park.
I remember looking at Ciarán Daly and saying they’ll have to take him off because he just couldn’t get himself in the game, he couldn’t get his legs moving.
But out he came after half-time and popped over two good points. He needed that time to find his confidence. So I think Tyrone will be a lot better from the experience of playing Dublin two weeks ago.
They also have some significant weapons – not least Niall Morgan, who is an exceptional goalkeeper. You can be absolutely certain he has spent much of the last two weeks picking apart Kerry’s press against Armagh.
If Kerry go with a similar press again, I reckon Morgan will be able to figure it out and he’ll be armed with a plan to counteract it on Saturday.
Primary possession is going to be so crucial this weekend, because the forecast is for two really hot days. You don’t want to spend the game chasing down the opposition because it takes up so much energy. Winning your own kickout will be crucial.
Morgan is one of the best in the business in terms of mixing it up, he is able to go long and short, find his man and provide his team with primary possession. It could give Tyrone an advantage in that department.
Don’t dismiss how much of a factor the heat could be on both days. When the mercury rises, down at pitch level Croke Park becomes a sauna. It is hard to describe how the intensity of the heat and the occasion just sucks the energy out of your legs and lungs. It’s a hot box.
The 2017 All-Ireland final against Mayo stands out as a really warm day when it was difficult to catch your breath, the heat just fatigues players and leads to mistakes.
You are as perfectly hydrated as you’ll ever be but everything just feels harder and more intense. And I think dealing with the heat will be amplified under the current rules.
The intention for both teams will be to press high to force mistakes but if it’s a scorching hot day the players just won’t be able to maintain that effort so the sides might pre-empt that situation and we could end up instead with a slow methodical encounter where both teams are allowed win their short kick-outs and build from there.
Malachy O’Rourke has done a fine job in his first year with Tyrone. Given the level of underage success, it appears Tyrone are on the verge of producing an incredibly strong senior team over the coming years.
It has already been a positive season and I don’t actually believe relegation to Division Two is a bad thing for them because it will allow O’Rourke to blood some new players while resting the more experienced guys early next year.
The fear I would have for them this weekend is that their quarter-final win was achieved against a Dublin team very much unsure of themselves. Dublin just weren’t on it this year while Kerry appear to have found form at just the right time.
Of course there are also questions over Kerry – can they reproduce that 15-minute spell from the Armagh win for a longer period this Saturday?
But Kerry’s scoring power just looks too great for Tyrone to shut them out. Dublin didn’t carry a two-point scoring threat two weeks ago and Tyrone were able to defend accordingly. They won’t have that luxury against Kerry.
They’ll probably have to go a bit more man-to-man in defence and I believe that will make Tyrone more vulnerable. Kerry have the forwards to capitalise on that vulnerability.
Tyrone will need so much to go right this weekend if they are to leave Croke Park clutching an invite to come back for the biggest day in Gaelic football’s calendar.
It just doesn’t feel like an upset is on the cards.
