Mickey Harte happy for side to stagger if they end up standing tall

It's too soon for the 2008 comparison in Tyrone. Knocked out of the Ulster quarter-finals by Down, that summer Mickey Harte's men went on this storied.(and heavily bearded) run through the qualifiers that ended in them capturing Sam Maguire for a third time in five years.

Louth, Westmeath and Mayo were beaten with varying degrees of competence, before Dublin were destroyed (yes, this used to happen) 3-14 to 1-8, with Seán Cavanagh causing untold damage at full forward. Joe McMahon got a goal too. Wexford were next, before victory over Kerry decided a decade-long rivalry.

Ageing limbs saw Tyrone dip as Kerry regenerated themselves the following year. But Tyrone have not gone too far away. They are the current under-21 All-Ireland champions. The best player from that side, Cathal McShane, only saw a few seconds against Meath on Saturday in Omagh. They also won a minor in 2010 and reached the final in 2013.

Out-shooting

After essentially out-shooting Meath, it's Tipperary in Semple Stadium next. McMahon and Cavanagh are still there. Sky Sports will join them.

"It is about building momentum," said Mickey Harte of the panel he has managed for 12 years. "There is no time to rest on your laurels. In knockout games you have to play on days when you're not very fluent. It is all about a result. That may sounded cliched, but in this particular situation it is all about the result."

This is by no means Tyrone of 2008 but there is a decent group at Harte’s disposal.

“People will always rate how you perform in the championship and the jury is still out on how we rate. We are still in this championship but I don’t think anyone will be shaking in their boots if they were watching our performance. So we have to do a lot more to be considered better than many people perceive us to be right now.”

Harte named both Darren McCurry and Tiernan McCann in his team to face Meath but held them on a leash until half-time. They landed a point apiece, but they were crucial scores in the 1-10 to 0-11 win.

“Sometimes that happens, you make changes and there’s evidence that it’s working pretty quickly. You do the same things on other days and they wouldn’t work at all. That’s the challenge of management. When it works, you’re brilliant, and when it doesn’t you’re a fool.

Win pulling up

“It’s a great lift for all the players, from Seán Cavanagh down to the youngest, probably Mark Bradley, because they all had something to prove to themselves and to this team. You don’t prove anything on days when you win pulling up. You only prove your worth on days like this when things are difficult, and that was certainly a difficult game.”

Harte is asked about rating the levels of improvement in percentages, an alien question to a manager of a county football team if ever there was one.

“No, because every day is a new day. If you look back over the years, even when you win things, you have days that are mediocre and not very good to look at, and there’s a very small margin between living through games like that and getting better. But the alternative is, you’re not there at all, so you don’t know how good you could have become.

“The years you do well, you know that you stagger your way through certain rounds and if you take advantage of staggering through enough rounds, then who knows when the switch will go on and we can play with that fluency for a longer period of time.

“It wouldn’t really be clever to be playing at the top of your game right now because everybody knows it’s very difficult to sustain that over a longer part of the season.

“If you hit peak form too early, then that can be a worrying thing as well, but I don’t think we have to worry about that particular problem.”

Peter Harte may not be Brian Dooher and McCurry or McCann might not be comparable to the McGuigan brothers. No, far too soon for that.