2018 All Ireland Senior Football Championship

[Gman]

And that was only the training with Tyrone

[gilgamboa]

@GeoffreyBoycott

On top of the concussions, Sean Cavanagh spoke as well about the biting, spitting, off the ball punching and sledging that were rife throughout his playing days.

As the old saying goes

Rugby is a thugs game played by gentlemen
Gaelic football is a gentlemans game played by thugs

[Little_Lord_Fauntleroy]

That’s not an old saying you dimwit

[glenshane]

@Tank

Never came across as a preening child on the field, never.

Eh?? You being sarcastic?

[GeoffreyBoycott]

The interview with Matt Cooper was a good listen as well. I’d imagine Cooper will play it back on his best of the week selection on Saturday morning. He chronicled a strange enough episode the night Tyrone lost to Mayo in the 2016 quarter final where he seemed to have some kind of mini breakdown.

[flattythehurdler]

I’ll try and find that, thanks.

[Juhniallio]

@gilgamboa

@GeoffreyBoycott

Sean Cavanagh on with Matt Cooper at the moment. He estimates that he got 4 to 6 concussions a year playing Gaelic football.

You would want to really hate your kids to allow them to play gaelic football

There’s no need to go down this road again @gilgamboa. Remember last time…

[Cicero_Dandi]

Outside of RTÉ which is perfectly understandable, who are you referring to that he doesn’t forgive?

He’s already said he has forgiven RTÉ and the individuals but won’t be dealing with them again on a point of principle.

I find it very, very odd the hatred people possess for Harte based on very little and considered all the tragedy he has gone through in his life.

It is very bizarre.

[caoimhaoin]

What has tragedy got to with it?

There is a real strain of “feel sorry for us” from a lot of nordies

[Cicero_Dandi]

Northernern people are far more stoic and able to look after themselves in comparison to the snowflakes down south.

I’ll just talk about things in contrast, the vitriol subjected to a man like Harte, particularly when he’s been through so much tragedy is pathetic. If he was from a different county he’d be lauded as a hero.

None of you curs and dogs can rationalise your hatred for him. It’s bizarre.

[GeoffreyBoycott]

After 16 years at the helm, any group of players would most likely benefit from a different voice in the dressing room. The soft run to the final has probably given him a few more years and papered over the cracks. The performance in the final was pathetic.

[Cicero_Dandi]

So 30 intercounty managers must be looking for the road ahead of the new season?

[Sidney]

@GeoffreyBoycott

After 16 years at the helm, any group of players would most likely benefit from a different voice in the dressing room.

Two Ulster titles and an All-Ireland final appearance in the last three years with what by general agreement is a much more limited team than the 2000s one.

It would strongly seem that whatever Harte is doing, Tyrone are benefitting from it.

[glenshane]

@caoimhaoin

There is a real strain of “feel sorry for us” from a lot of nordies

Eff off Kev!

[GeoffreyBoycott]

4 years is about the right period of time for a manager before it starts to goes stale. There will obviously be some exceptions to that general rule of thumb. The precedent of life after these long dynastic managers who are initially successful but stay on far too long is not good - Mick O’Dwyer in Kerry 1975-89, Sean Boylan in Meath 1983-2005, Peter McGrath in Down 1990-2002.

[Cicero_Dandi]

It hasn’t gone stake though, if what Harte is doing with Tyrone is not good enough then it’s not good enough for 30 other teams.

Down and Meath are classic examples of teams who struggled after the tenure of their most successful managers ended.

[GeoffreyBoycott]

Wouldn’t read too much into making the final this year. Tyrone were the beneficiaries of the weak side of the draw and Paddy McBrearty injury. They were pathetic in the final. Tyrone haven’t beaten any of the Big 3 of Dublin, Kerry or Mayo in Championship football since 2008. Harte is not able to win the big games anymore. He should step aside and give a younger man a chance. Someone like Fergal Logan who appears to be very highly rated.

[flattythehurdler]

And I’m sick of the sight of him, so it definitely needs shaking up.
He has a very a la carte approach to Christianity.

[Cicero_Dandi]

You hate him because he’s religious.

I think that makes you a bigot.

[Sidney]

@GeoffreyBoycott

Wouldn’t read too much into making the final this year. Tyrone were the beneficiaries of the weak side of the draw and Paddy McBrearty injury. They were pathetic in the final. Tyrone haven’t beaten any of the Big 3 of Dublin, Kerry or Mayo in Championship football since 2008. Harte is not able to win the big games anymore. He should step aside and give a younger man a chance. Someone like Fergal Logan who appears to be very highly rated.

The weak side of the draw being the one with Dublin in it in the Super 8s?

Or their qualifier draw in which they had to beat three traditional giants, Meath in Navan, Cavan and Cork?

The weak half of the semi-final draw being against a team who won their Super 8 group and comprehensively beat the other defeated semi-finalists?

Tyrone badly rattled Dublin in the first quarter of the final, doing exactly the same thing Mayo did in the first half last year. The game turned on a penalty. They were never in with a realistic shout of catching Dublin after half-time but they stuck at it diligently in the second half and were far from disgraced. 1-14 is the joint second highest losing score in an All-Ireland final, only surpassed by Mayo’s 1-16 last year.

16 wides to 6 tells its own story as to how and they where can and need to improve.

They have a real road map from which to continue building and if they can bring through another two or three new players next year, they should be able to do that.