National Football League: Division One A: On one of those days rendered impossible by the elements, Tyrone handled conditions more capably than Dublin and after just two matches are clear at the top of Allianz NFL Division One A table.
A gale blew down Healy Park in Omagh and there might as well have been a curtain across the field for all the end-to-end action it allowed. Tyrone made more of the wind advantage and also coped better in the teeth of the gusts.
With so many players bunched around the middle of the field, the match was scrappy and confined to skirmishes. Dublin won the toss and maybe surprisingly opted to face the wind.
This turned out to be part of a cunning plan to withdraw Robbie Boyle and play Senan Connell as an extra defender with Conal Keaney starting.
"We had decided if we won the toss to play against the wind and use Senan Connell playing deep," said Dublin manager Paul Caffrey afterwards. "That worked well and Senan got on a lot of ball."
At the break, Boyle came on for Keaney to function, with some success, as a target man. The match turned on a goal scored by Owen Mulligan just before the break. He was allowed run unhindered for 40 metres and appeared to have taken the ball too close to Stephen Cluxton before finishing well in the tight circumstances.
"It was a different challenge and I thought we coped quite well," said Caffrey. "We would have been very happy going in at 0-7 to 0-2, but the goal put a huge question mark over our second-half challenge. And, to be honest, we never looked like getting the goal back."
Dublin had scored only two points against the wind, including an epic 17th-minute score, which saw the ball handed on in relays like the Olympic torch with Tomás Quinn eventually fisting a point from close range. At 0-2 to 0-4, things looked good for the visitors.
Tyrone squandered a lot of chances through poor shooting and were strangely reluctant to let the ball fly with the wind.
Mulligan's goal just about made the half-time lead commensurate with the team's attacking possession. "I've never seen elements so consistently strong throughout the match," said Tyrone manager Mickey Harte. "It never died, it never settled.
"We had to make use of it in the first half and I suppose people would say we didn't make proper use of it. The idea was that if we could pick off a few scores in the second half it would keep the gap there. Our three points against the breeze were very important."
The home team played well after the break. Their ability to move the ball short and retain possession came into its own. Brian Dooher was in his element tussling for ball and setting up precise, short-ball movement.
"He's a serious player for us," said Harte, "and when the going gets tough he gets going. He was the man to count on today."
Dooher was stretchered off at the end, but his manager said that the injury was a cut on his calf muscle and hadn't been as serious as it had looked.
Dublin's initial impact after the break through long ball whistled in on top of Boyle was offset by Tyrone getting a couple of scores back. Peter Donnelly also switched back to make the high ball less of a formality for Boyle and the move was effective.
Quinn's excellent place-kicking, already one of the main plus points of Dublin's campaign kept the match there for the visitors, but the yellow carding of Ciarán Whelan for toppling Seán Cavanagh off the ball going into the final quarter was the final straw, as even from centrefield he had been the team's most forceful attacker.
Finally, there were allegations at half-time that a local match steward had been hit by a Dublin team official during a fracas on the sideline. Caffrey said later that he hadn't seen anything.
"I didn't see it. It happened behind my back. A lot of Tyrone people got very excited up here. I think it's very important that everyone understands that managers and selectors are the important ones as well as the players. Managers and selectors have to be let do their job on the sideline."
Did he feel the match stewards had been obstructive? "I've absolutely no comment to make. We came here to play football and were beaten by a better team."
TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Lawn, E Bradley; B Robinson, G Devlin, C Gormley; B Meehan, P Donnelly; B Dooher (0-1), O Mulligan (1-3, two from frees), S Cavanagh; R Mellon (0-2), S O'Neill (0-1, a free), M Coleman (0-2). Subs: C McCullagh (0-1) for Lawn (39 mins), J McMahon for Robinson (56 mins). B Donnelly for Coleman (yellow card, 65 mins).
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P Griffin, P Christie, S O'Shaugnessy; P Casey, B Cullen, P Andrews; C Whelan (0-3), S Ryan; C Keaney, J Sherlock, D Henry; D O'Callaghan (0-1), S Connell, T Quinn (0-4, three frees). Subs: C Goggins for O'Shaughnessy (29 mins). R Boyle (0-1) for Henry (half-time), R Cosgrove for Keaney (52 mins), D Homan for Ryan (52 mins), J Magee for Whelan (yellow card, 54 mins), L Ó hÉineacháin for Sherlock (69 mins).
Yellow cards - Tyrone: Coleman (65 mins) replaced by B Donnelly. Dublin: Whelan (53 mins) replaced by J Magee.
Referee: G Kinneavey (Roscommon).
