Harte's heroes do it for God and county

They are leaning down from the stands calling his name. Mickey Harte mania. He is trying to give interviews but the calling of his name never stops. "Mickey. Hiya Mickey. Mickey Harte." Mickey is talking about Peter Canavan.

"He is the greatest asset we ever had," says Mickey of Canavan, "but he knows now people will work for him even when he is not there."

It is the perfect tribute to the man they call "God". He doesn't have to be omnipresent. People will work for him anyway.

Mickey moves on. Mortal matters. What had Tyrone decided before they came here?

They'd decided on a work ethic. "One thing that can be consistent is your work rate. Work hard and stay consistent, you'll get results. At half-time we said we have to work harder, we'll deal with whatever they can throw at us.

"Our lead got narrower and that's always a cause for concern - we had a good lead and saw it clawed back to four points. It asked questions of our players. Only asked them. We haven't answered them properly. We have no cup."

Some questions have been dealt with, though. Brian Dooher and Stephen O'Neill for instance.

"Brian Dooher, people don't appreciate how good a footballer he is. Brian is the one you wouldn't want to do without. He digs out balls he shouldn't be near. Stephen is a super scorer. Out with injury all year. He was so prepared for that game."

At half-time Canavan had spoken to the team. He had told them to do it for him. That was the Word of "God".

For now, though, what Word from God and God's dodgy ankle? "Far too early. I'm concerned he had to come off. We'll leave that in the hands of the medics and physios. To play without Peter in the final? That would be a shame. "At half-time, though, we all talked about a team effort, and everyone counting and having to count. This was maybe the time to stand up and say we'll do it for Peter. We haven't done that enough over the years for him. He's had to carry us. Seeing him on crutches made a lot of people think."

Eoin Mullgan stands in the corridor wearing Michael McCarthy's shirt. It's been quite a year for him. Yesterday, without his old teacher, he graduated. "Peter gave us a bit of a talk at half-time. Just told us to grow up. To do it for him. We raised the game when he went off. It was such a big loss. The defenders have to take a lot of credit there. We watched endless videos of the Kerry attack. We stepped up the work rate at training. When I was going to see Tyrone teams it was usually us who faded. Today it wasn't."

And what else went into the mix? "We were reminded in the changing rooms of the '86 final. We stuck to the game plan, kept our positions well. That's it."

Ryan McMenamin saw a different aspect of the action than Mulligan. Being a defender on a day like yesterday was like being involved in open skirmishes in broad daylight. Scary and dangerous.

"We have to be psychos for the ball," he says. "Tackles and blocks went in there today that shouldn't be in there. Fellas reached to places they didn't think they could. We were more psyched up coming out at half-time than we were before. We only got four in the second half but so did they and we have a few things to improve on. Our distribution wasn't the best going into the two full forwards. "

One wonders where the inspiration for such hard, physical football comes from.

Were Armagh an inspiration?.

"They . . . more or less . . . " He is struggling for the diplomatic words "Well they won it and they had bate us in a replay and we could have bate them and might have bate them so it's that. But it's more just in January having seen Armagh win it we came back as different players.

"We came back focused, doing things they wouldn't have done before, taking care of diet and lifestyle. Total focus. Mickey is like a man obsessed over it. Most of the players are too.

"There was a lot of people just putting their heads down on the bars when Armagh won. Fair play, they won it. We more or less try to match them. At the end of the day we can't get too carried away about them."

So he stands there. A man on the cusp of the All-Ireland final.

"It's going to be a hard five weeks. Three hard weeks of training in there. I'm just dreading it."

And at the end the possibility of losing to Armagh? "I don't know about losing to Armagh. It would be the same as losing to a parish rival. After that you can't show your face for weeks. At county level it will be a couple of months, I reckon."

Ger Cavlan has been here before. He capped his reputation as a rising star with a free-scoring performances in the 1995 final. Tyrone lost and his star has never quite been as dazzling since. It's been a long, long time since 1995. Had he ever despaired?

"You never think it will take so long. We're here again. This team will win an All-Ireland. If we win this year it'll be the start of something like Kerry have. You have to win your first one always."

He stands there for a minute thinking about it. It feels like a long climb but in dynastic terms Tyrone haven't even pitched up base camp.