Harte set on getting job at hand done

ULSTER SFC FINAL:WHEN YOUR team are odds of 14 to 1 on and no one in their right mind gives the opposition any hope it's usual for the man in charge to scream "crazy"! Not Mickey Harte. The Tyrone manager fully accepts the All-Ireland champions are overwhelming favourites going into Sunday's Ulster football final against Antrim and, if they play to their potential, fully expects them to win.

He could talk of apprehension, play down their chances, build up Antrim as the hot, new force in Ulster football, but Harte is too honest, too composed, to play that game. Besides, he knows he’d be fooling no one.

“That’s what is out there in the public domain,” says Harte, “that Tyrone should win this game. But we believe we should win it too. So we’re not hiding that. We believe we should win the game and if we play to the best of our ability I believe we will the game. But that’s the variable. We still have to go out and do that.”

There are countless reasons why Tyrone should win, and precious few why Antrim should. It’s a first ever Ulster football final between the sides, but while the All-Ireland champions are seeking their fourth title of the decade, Antrim are seeking their first since 1951. Truth is, no Ulster final has looked more predictable since Antrim last contested it, in 1970, when they lost out to Derry.

Harte has also been in this position before. Tyrone were equally well fancied to beat Antrim in their last championship meeting, the Ulster semi-final in 2003, and they did – by eight points, on route to the first All-Ireland. The trick is ensuring his team can handle being such strong favourites, and Harte feels they can.

“In some ways it is more difficult than a game where the odds are against you, but the majority of our players have been in this situation many times before, either at minor – 1997, 1998 – or at under-21 level – 2000, 2001 – when they were big favourites. And the same at senior level. So it may be new opponents for them on Sunday, but it’s not new territory.

“I think everyone on this team knows how to cope with it, and more often than not have dealt with it, and coped with it well. But of course you just never know. Complacency is something you can talk about, but you can only do your best not to be complacent.”

Not that Harte is in any way underestimating Antrim. They have been knocking on the door of a breakthrough in Ulster for a few years now. It’s just no one truly expected this to be that year, particularly with Donegal and then Cavan standing in their way.

“To be honest, when the draw was made, no, we wouldn’t have expected Antrim to come through,” adds Harte, “definitely not. But at the same time, I have actually been saying for some time that Antrim have some very good footballers, and have shown it at club level as well.

“They probably lacked that bit of belief, and cohesion. Sometimes it seemed there was some angst between the city and country clubs, and that maybe negated against their best performance. I think that’s been overcome now, that Liam Bradley has been able to mould the team together, city and country folk.

“And they’re here on merit, beating Donegal, when they were underdogs. Some people thought that was a flash in the pan, but they backed it up with an even stronger performance against Cavan.

“If they move again to another level then certainly they would have their own cause for optimism. So we won’t be underrating them. No doubt about that. We give every team total respect. If we didn’t do that we wouldn’t be in the place we are now.”

One of the main reasons why Tyrone are such strong favourites is that they’re operating practically at full strength. They were always in the driving seat in their eight-point win over Derry in the Ulster semi-final, and although they have a couple of enduring injury concerns, it’s all good compared to the deeper injury problems of other years.

“Enda McGinley would still be a cause concern. The hamstring injury was still giving him trouble over the weekend. We’ll just have to see how it comes on this week. Joe McMahon didn’t take part in a number of sessions since the Derry game (where he sustained a rib injury) but played a full part at the weekend.

“And it’s the same story really with Brian Dooher, in that it’s something we just have to monitor the whole time. He was actually going very well again, then got injured in a club match, last Sunday week. He hurt his back.

“That’s the concern for him at the moment, and it depends again on how much we think we can get out on him on Sunday, but hopefully it will be most of the game.”

Talking of odds, while Tyrone remain favourites to win the All-Ireland, Dublin’s odds narrowed after their win over Kildare. Harte, naturally, was watching closely, particularly as the championship could ultimately finish with the Ulster and Leinster champions

“Well we wouldn’t be looking that far down the line anyway,” says Harte. “Whoever happens to come through Sunday has a lot of football to play before that.

“But you would have to be impressed with Dublin, definitely. It was a very intense game. They opened very strongly again, but were hauled back quite quickly, so Kildare definitely asked more of them as a team. And ultimately they delivered on that.”