Justin McMahon’s focus switches to Kingdom as Tyrone march on

Tyrone, Ulster’s sole survivors in the football championship, yet again, have journeyed into Sunday week’s All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry the unusual way.

A Mickey Harte panel, quickened by the influx of under-21 All-Ireland champions, lost to Donegal on May 17th and so began the qualifier path: Limerick, Meath (a thriller in Omagh) and Tipperary (who capitulated in Thurles) got them back to August football in Croke Park.

“I think it was an advantage coming to Croke Park last week to play Sligo,” said Justin McMahon after the four-point scalping of Monaghan.

“It’s often said if you get a good run in the qualifiers there is a slant put on it that it can go well for you and you can build momentum, playing games, working on things. It’s got us to where we are now. We have to say we have been fortunate and we have the experience (of the qualifiers) from previous seasons. Maybe that shows. And credit to the younger boys the way they have come into the team.”

Spark memories

Last Saturday evening’s torrid and bloody-minded victory over the Ulster champions showcased the best and worst of Tyrone’s personality.

But they won to spark memories of their great qualifier run back in 2008. McMahon was the full back on that team and entered the fray last weekend after just eight minutes, when replacing his brother Joe.

“I suppose comparisons are going to be made with Tyrone in ’08 but, listen, different year, different team. We have come through the quarter-final, we targeted this Monaghan game because we knew it was going to be a big step up as Monaghan won Ulster. “There are a lot of areas that we need to work on as Kerry will just exploit that.”

The recent history between Tyrone and Kerry became the story of which county dominated Gaelic football in the first decade of the 21st century.

There is a strong argument to say Tyrone prevailed – beating Kerry in the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final and both 2005 and 2008 finals, when McMahon kept Kieran Donaghy scoreless.

But, as McMahon noted, it’s different now. Kerry are a reconstructed team that have already scaled the heights of September football while Tyrone are something else, yet winning as much as they ever have.

“Going by their last game [the seven-goal destruction of Kildare], I think they scored more goals than we have all year. Obviously it is going to take a serious effort to put it up against Kerry. They are absolute quality, always moving and come in with confidence from their Munster success and being All-Ireland champions. You got to give them that respect. We’ll see how that pans out.”