Six summers may have passed since Tyrone have been the last men standing in Ulster but Mickey Harte’s gospel stayed the same.
Yes, the Ballygawley man was overjoyed by the scenes of Tyrone euphoria all around him but just as in the darkest days of defeat, he stayed true to what he believes. The game is the game and it is about more than the score on the board when the referee calls for the ball.
This was an unrelenting, tribal battle and Harte has been around long enough to recognise that.
“These things happen,” he said when he heard a question through the tumult of voices about character and all that.
“We would still have been a team of character even if we had lost that game and I don’t want to hang just everything on the outcome of the result.
“Donegal had a wonderful performance there today and they showed a lot of character so just because we got the rub of the green at the end does not make us vastly superior to everyone else.
“I think that was two teams who were very well organised, who had respect for each other, on occasions too much respect and we battled out a really interesting and intriguing match.
"Sometimes games do not have to be 2-22 to 2-16 to be entertaining; I think that was highly entertaining, it was intriguing, I think it teaches us a lot about the fluidity of our game and where it can go." With silverware With a rush we suddenly remember what Tyrone bring to championship summers when they emerge from Ulster with silverware, on a mission. Heady talk and big days ahead. Mickey Harte smiled.
“People will talk as they will. Pundits can say all they want, we know that we are in the quarter-final; we are in the last eight of the All-Ireland series.
“It is a knock-out competition and if you don’t bring your best game you are history as quick as that. So we have to knuckle down, see who we have to play and decide how we can beat them and that will put us in a semi-final; there is no more than that that we can loo. Whoever we get in the quarter-final, we want to be in the semi-final and that is as far as want to see at the minute.”
Rory Gallagher leaned against the wall near the Donegal dressing room. For two consecutive years, he has seen his team pipped in Ulster finals. It could be argued that he has enjoyed no luck since taking over the daunting task of succeeding Jim McGuinness. They came close here.
“We have battled hard throughout a very tough bruising championship campaign and we played really well through periods of it but ultimately today we came up short and that is very difficult.
“The attack played well in the first half but there was a wee bit of a breeze and we would have liked to have been four or five up. But you always want more. The bottom line is that Tyrone put on the pressure a wee bit more in the second half and they showed a lot of quality to hit the scores they did.”
When pressed, he acknowledged the huge hit which effectively ended Frank McGlynn’s involvement as well as a crucial Donegal attack.
“It is hard to know. I thought Frank maybe should have got a free but we will have to look at the footage. At the end of the day you can argue about a free either way.”
So once again Donegal have to take the tough route to the All-Ireland series. It suddenly looks like a long road for a team with big mileage. Gallagher nodded.
“How the lads lasted the 2,000 days or so since we started out on this, you know. Today would never change that but I thought they did their county proud, they did themselves proud. Unfortunately we were not good enough.
“ You have to suck it up and get on. It will be a tough day or two but our boys will suck it up and they will be back.”
