Managers sing when winning

Once the first round of the National Football League is out of the way, the inevitable question starts circulating among intercounty managers. Who, if anyone, is taking it seriously? Some will say it's possible to combine a strong league run with preparations for the championship. Others say that's the exception rather than the rule.

"Well, no manager takes the league seriously until he starts to win matches," says Art McRory, joint manager of the Tyrone team who on Sunday opened their campaign with a hard-earned and much-coveted win over Dublin.

"If they're not winning matches then you know they'll start saying that the league means nothing. I would certainly love to win a few more matches in the months ahead, but the most important thing is to give our younger players the experience they need.

"They won't get that sitting on the bench and they won't get it standing in the terrace. So all these games are very important for us."

What was particularly satisfying for McRory and joint manager Eugene McKenna was the impact of the county's rising under-21 players. Seven of the team that won the All-Ireland title over Limerick last May started on Sunday, when the mature and confident displays from Declan McCrossan, Cormac McAnallen and Eoin Mulligan were particularly apparent.

"I was especially pleased with the commitment that those players showed," adds McRory. "When we introduced a substitute we had eight of that under-21 team on the field. And we only had six players who started in the championship match with Armagh last June. But they all buckled down and did the business.

"To be honest, we had a wee bit of work done for this, certainly a lot more than we have done at this stage of the league in normal years. But when you're away to Dublin the first match and at home to Kerry the second, you have to at least be fit enough.

"But we were out of the championship after one game on the fourth of June, and you can't come into this competition totally cold for that length of time. So we've about a month's work done now. And I couldn't have hoped for a better start."

Tyrone experienced a similar start over the same opponents last year and yet by April had only recorded two wins from their seven games, finishing just one point away from relegation.

Already they seem intent on making greater commitment to this year's competition, clear evidence of which came on Sunday when, despite being down to 14 men for a little over half the game, they subjected Dublin to their first defeat at Parnell Park for 20 months.

"After we lost the man, our boys still decided they were going to battle it out. I didn't see what happened before the sending off, but Chris (Lawn) was obviously very stupid because, at that particular stage, the referee was going to nail the first man that moved.

"He's been around long enough to know that. But Dublin may have got a bit cocky with the extra man and a few points lead at half-time. Plus they had the breeze."

Adding some weight to McRory's theory is the view of Dublin manager Tom Carr. Quickly admitting after Sunday's game that it was "not a good performance", Carr went on to dismiss Dublin's league run this season as nothing more than a sizing-up exercise.

"Yeah, this is as lightly as we've taken the league since we've taken over. We're purposely using it now to find the two or three players that we feel we need. "That's the way we'll continue in this league, especially up to Christmas. Just giving different players the opportunity."

Of course, a couple of victories down the road and all that might change.