In the aftermath of Dublin’s emphatic defeat of Kerry in Sunday’s AFL Division One final, there has been a lot of speculation that the team in action over the weekend, who may give the champions their greatest test this summer, is Tyrone.
Having won the Division Two title by beating Cavan, Mickey Harte's team face into the Ulster championship in good shape to deliver a first provincial title in six years. Should they do so - and assuming Dublin fulfil their 1/10 odds of winning Leinster - they would be on the other side of the draw to the champions and wouldn't be able to meet them until an All-Ireland final.
On Sunday’s evidence Tyrone look to have the sustained pace and movement as well as the firm defensive foundations to be able to take on Dublin with some confidence.
Since Jim Gavin assumed the reins of management in 2013, Dublin have played Tyrone competitively on four occasions - winning two, including the league final three years ago , losing one and drawing one. The counties haven't played in the championship since the back-to-back meetings in 2010 and '11.
Harte’s three other championship encounters with Dublin have been unbeaten - drawing the 2005 All-Ireland quarter-final, winning the replay and also at the same stage of the All-Ireland series three years later.
The rebuilding of the team over the period since Tyrone's last All-Ireland win in 2008 has picked up pace in recent years with a couple of All-Ireland semi-final appearances and since last year the gradual introduction of footballers from the All-Ireland under-21 winning side of last year. Survivor Team captain Seán Cavanagh is the only playing survivor from the county's first senior All-Ireland title in 2003. He is asked about Harte's stated view that Tyrone are on the cusp of a breakthrough.
"We have a good squad. I have said that many times but it is difficult to know how close we are to Dublin to Kerry to Mayo even to Donegal. To progress through the Ulster championship is a serious target for us at this point. If we were to get through Derry and the winners of Cavan and Armagh and get to the Ulster final again that would be serious progress for us.
“I think we can’t look any further than that stage - I hate to be throwing out clichés but it’s 2010 since we won our province. That’s the mindset. It’s job done in that we are a division one team again and we won our pre-season tournaments but the real work starts now.
“It’s tougher to keep up with some of the younger lads on the Tyrone panel at the moment and we do have some really strong and powerful running. To be honest, I personally don’t where we are at this stage, I think we had more of an idea last year having played Dublin and we weren’t all that far away from them, got a draw, and played Kerry and got a draw so we’re thinking we’re reasonably well set-up to have a go at these guys if we meet them later in the championship.”
Cavanagh says that the evolution of the team has reached the point at which the players have reached the ideal stage of their careers.
“Last year to a certain extent we were almost finding our way. In 2014 championship I think through the Down replay and Monaghan and Armagh we maybe used 34 players in three games and maybe we weren’t sure of our best team.
"It took most of last year to find that and we were narrowly losing out in games and in championship we found a wee bit of momentum and more of a settled team and now a year one and they are year older and with a nice mid range of players in Mattie Donnelly and Peter Harte and Colm (Cavanagh, his brother) lads who are in their mid 20s and hitting the top of their game so we have a nice age profile and we have leaders all over which is always a good thing."
