North’s First Minister hails victorious Tyrone at homecoming

The new All-Ireland champions Tyrone returned to Healy Park in Omagh on Sunday afternoon to celebrate their triumph in the most intriguing All-Ireland final of recent years. The Saturday evening GAA showpiece in Croke Park ended on a familiar note of Mayo despair as Tyrone seized both the day and a fourth Sam Maguire season to deepen the county's reputation as a thrilling force in Gaelic football.

Northern Ireland First Minister Paul Givan congratulated the team’s “passion and determination” and remarked on “a significant achievement after what has been a very difficult period for elite sports”.

It is Tyrone’s first senior All-Ireland victory since 2008 and brings to a close an extraordinary summer saga. Their continued participation in the competition seemed to be in jeopardy in mid-August after a Covid-19 outbreak forced them to withdraw from their scheduled semi-final against Kerry.

On the weekend that Mayo shocked Dublin – who had dominated the famous tournament for six consecutive years – nobody knew for sure whether Tyrone were in or out. The supreme upset they caused by emerging victorious when that game against Kerry was eventually played had an electrifying effect within the county.

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Tyrone remind us all how well versed they are on the big stage

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Tyrone’s success gives Feargal Logan relief from the pain of 1995

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Brilliant debut

Against Mayo, they completed a brilliant debut season for the new management team of Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher. They won on a 2-14 to 0-15 win and were comfortably the sharper and more composed team. Since their break-out year of 2003, the mid-Ulster county has developed a reputation for putting together lightning raids on All-Ireland final day.

“The question I would say is: why do you have to wait a year or two,” explained Dooher before the team departed Croke Park on Saturday evening.

“You only get one chance and you make the most of it whenever you can. Let’s face it, we had the rub of the green at times and we needed it. Particularly the semi-final, when we used up a right bit of luck. And today, too, we used up a right bit of it. But the way we look at it is: don’t wait until tomorrow. You know, do what you can today. And don’t put off anything that you can do today. And them boys did that. You never know. You might never be back again in an All-Ireland final. And you have to grasp that opportunity.”

The words will be painful for Mayo football followers to absorb but they illuminate Tyrone’s mindset and get to the nub of whatever malaise takes hold of Mayo teams on these occasions. Mayo are peerless at putting themselves in positions to land an All-Ireland title only to repeatedly suffer as the opposition teams illustrate how to win them. Saturday’s game was Mayo’s sixth All-Ireland defeat since 2011 (excluding the drawn game in 2016). But it felt like the most crushing blow of all and must leave Mayo manager James Horan and the Mayo public wondering what they can do to end up on the right side of these contests.

“We learn after every game,” Horan said with grim stoicism afterwards before praising his team. “I keep saying this. We try and take the stuff that we need to out of every game. It’s disappointing. They are serious characters though and amazing guys and they’ll keep going for sure.”

Evocative image

Not long after the final whistle on Saturday’s All-Ireland final, the photographer James Crombie shot an evocative image of Tyrone’s Peter Harte and Mayo’s Lee Keegan sitting on the field, spent and talking quietly. It caught the contrasting football fortunes of the two counties over the past two decades.

Harte is a nephew of Mickey Harte, the manager of Tyrone’s first three All-Ireland wins. He is also a son-in-law of Peter Canavan, the county’s most celebrated Gaelic football player. He is immersed in a culture of All-Ireland winning know-how.

Keegan, a promising juvenile rugby player drawn into Gaelic football as a teenager, has over the past decade consolidated his reputation as one of the great virtuoso defensive talents to ever play the sport. He gave another colossal performance on Saturday night but may well join the ranks of Mayo footballers who came and left without a Celtic Cross medal.

As Tyrone enjoy the new sensation, in Mayo they are settling down to another winter of wondering when the county team will stumble on the right formula of talent, luck and know-how to bring this unbearable wait to a close.