Sixty-two minutes into Tyrone’s All-Ireland semi-final against Wexford, Colm McCullagh was boxed into a corner. David Murphy had cut off his path to goal while Philip Wallace had Tommy McGuigan covered. The option of a backward pass to Philip Jordan on the sideline would have been a low-percentage play. McCullagh bided his time, holding on to the ball for 14 seconds until Enda McGinley finally appeared on the blindside. After McGinley cut inside to draw the covering defender, Martin Penrose was perfectly placed to take the pass and register Tyrone’s 21st point.

In an era of hi-tech coaching across a broad spectrum of team sports, McCullagh’s option-taking under pressure could be likened to a perfect move from a play-book. Although Tyrone’s system and fluent method of attack cannot be

choreographed to a set number of moves, Mickey Harte has empowered his men to play football with their heads up. They repeatedly take the correct option and the confidence they now have in their system makes them so hard to play against because the scorer can appear from almost anywhere.

Harte has been one of the key architects of modern football and he has now almost redefined the game again. Before he took over as manager in 2003, his style had long been signposted through his Errigal Ciarán teams, who swarmed the opposition in the middle of the pitch.

Tyrone averaged 20 points a time in the five games that took them to the 2003 All-Ireland but then their focus switched. For the semi-final and final a more defensive style took blanket defending to a new level. Kerry came prepared for a shootout in that semi-final and were buried in a dogfight. In the 2005 All-Ireland final, Kerry were primed for another dogfight and were taken down in a shootout. While Kerry may have more firepower now than in 2005, they face another game of Russian roulette because Tyrone have developed their game again.

With the retirements of Peter Canavan and Stephen O’Neill, as well as the litany of injuries to Brian McGuigan and Owen Mulligan, Tyrone were almost forced to change their style. They didn’t have the same artillery any more so they knew they had to increase their

scoring spread through a more expansive attacking style. Fifteen players have scored in this championship while their defence and

midfield have scored 1-10 from play in the past two games.

“When we played them in 2005, the scoring threat was in their full-forward line,” says Dublin’s Collie Moran. “Now, they’ve changed their focus and they’re really hard to defend against because they work so well together.”

All of Tyrone’s players are comfortable on the ball and their style has been honed through conditioned games in training, with each squad member tuned into the system. When Sean Cavanagh was recently asked in a children’s magazine to name the most important football skill, he said: “Soloing and being able to hold on to the ball comfortably.” You rarely see Tyrone rarely engage in low-percentage shooting; they hold on to the ball for as long as possible until the right outlet is available. They probe the opposition defence by waiting for the space to open up and the runner then moves into that space to take the pass and keep the attack flowing towards a central scoring zone no more than 30 metres from goal. Against Wexford, 22 of their 23 points were scored from that zone while against Dublin 13 of their 16 scores from play were hit from the same area.

Their teamwork is almost telepathic. A defender will take a gamble by joining an attack because he knows that a half-forward is going to drop back and funnel into the

position he’s just vacated.

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