Tyrone make Dublin look vulnerable
A game that smouldered, smoked and crackled, may not be recalled as a classic in years to come, but it offered enough to light the beginnings of a fire under the damp woodpile that had been the Super 8s.
Five of the 12 group games had come and gone by the time Tyrone and Dublin paired up and the home side’s refusal to go gently into the muggy summer’s night did at least allow us a glimpse of how enthralling this new landscape could conceivably be.
Check out the full-time highlights between Tyrone and Dublin here! pic.twitter.com/FgEtXDyM6z
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 21, 2018
The hosts had ticked the first box by keeping Dublin within sight in the opening stages. There was no repeat of their All-Ireland semi-final last year, when the favourites found the net three minutes in and took hostage of the drama that everyone had expected.
This was tight, tense and tactical. Tyrone pushed up on kickouts and tackled with intent, but they struggled for scores, going 11 and 12 minutes without a white flag and depending on the individual thrusts of defenders to keep them in it.
Trailing by six points past the midway point of the second half, Mickey Harte’s men rallied against the perceived inevitability of a heavy defeat to a Dublin side that has claimed ownership of the fourth quarter. It ended as we expected it would, with Dublin claiming their place in the All-Ireland semi-finals with a game to spare and Tyrone looking anxiously ahead to Donegal in Ballybofey, but here was a game we could finally get our teeth into.
The suspicion is that the Super 8s is a needlessly wide bridge between the provinces/qualifiers and the latter stages of the championships. One that allows too many vehicles with too little engine power to attempt the crossing.
But the very sight of the Dubs in Healy Park in late July was to be savoured.
When Jim Gavin and his lads crossed the border into Aughnacloy they would have seen adverts for country music festivals, a Union Jack fluttering over the Orange Hall and a Red Hand GAA flag adorning the premises two or three doors down.
They sure weren’t in Croke Park anymore.
Mickey Harte claimed innocence after the game, when asked about the touchlines being shunted inwards. For Sky and their equipment, he said. Not his call. Okay, Mickey. Either way, it was another change to the visitors’ usual summer scenery.
All the anecdotal evidence tells us that home advantage is worth, at the very least, a couple of points to the home side, but what we know for sure is that the game, as it unfolded here, would have played out very different at HQ.
As with Kildare’s defeat of Mayo in Newbridge, there was a clear sense of an underdog being pinned to the ropes, absorbing the worst of the punishment and then striking back with a resurgence that whipped up a storm in the stands and terraces.
“It could have been a much worse day in terms of the scoreboard,” said Harte afterwards. “We battled well for a long period of the game, then a goal was always going to be a major score in that kind of tight battle, and they got it.”
You feared for Tyrone when James McCarthy, legging it through the heart of a defence that had lost full-back Ronan McNamee to injury just before the break, claimed that three-pointer on the 40th minute when flicking a rebound from his own shot into the net.
GOAL! Great run by James McCarthy! pic.twitter.com/0m5MOnEGXJ
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 21, 2018
However, as was the case against Donegal the week before, the All-Ireland champions felt that possession should be the name of the game and, though they nearly succeeded in smothering it as a contest, Tyrone ultimately raged against the system. Spurred on by an injection of energy off the bench — Kieran McGeary, Harry Loughran and Mark Bradley contributed four points between them — the Ulster side re-engaged their earlier aggressive press and harrying and it paid off. Two points down with the same number of minutes to go in injury-time, the prospect of an unlikely and famous victory only truly faded when Ronan O’Neill sent a free blazing wide and Paul Flynn claimed the last score at the far end. No cigar, then, but it felt good to inhale the vapours all the same.
“We just went for it,” said Harte when asked how they had discommoded Dublin as they had. “There’s no point in trying to defend a five or six-point deficit. You had to go for it, and we decided to do that, and that maybe took them a wee bit by surprise.
“We picked off some nice scores during that time, but there was an energy about us maybe that was missing for periods of the second-half and that energy just seemed to come back to us. It was a case of finding our second wind in the second half.”
No argument there. Tyrone made Dublin look vulnerable and how many teams can say they’ve done that? No-one has limited them to such a low score since Mayo kept Jim Gavin’s side to 2-9 in the drawn 2016 All-Ireland final.
Then, as now, Dublin found a way. They always do.
P Harte (0-3, 2 frees); C McShane and K McGeary (both 0-2); C McAliskey (0-2, 1 free); M McKernan, T McCann, F Burns, M Bradley and H Loughran (all 0-1).
D Rock (0-6, 4 frees); J McCarthy (1-0); C Kilkenny (0-2); J McCaffrey, B Howard, P McMahon, J Small, P Flynn and K McManamon (all 0-1).
N Morgan; HP McGeary, R McNamee, M McKernan; T McCann, M Donnelly, F Burns; C Cavanagh, P Hampsey; N Sludden, P Harte, C Meyler; C McShane, R Donnelly, C McAliskey.
R Brennan for McNamee (35 + 3); M Bradley for McAliskey (53); K McGeary for Burns (53); D McClure for Cavanagh (60); H Loughran for Meyler (65); R O’Neill for Sludden (72).
S Cluxton; J Cooper, P McMahon, E Murchan; J Small, C O’Sullivan, J McCaffrey; B Fenton, J McCarthy; N Scully, C O’Callaghan, B Howard; D Rock, C Kilkenny, P Mannion.
C Costello for Mannion (46); K McManamon for Scully (51); M Fitzsimons for McMahon (57); P Flynn for Howard (60); D Daly for Small (65); MD Macauley for McCarthy (68).
D Coldrick (Meath).
