‘Tyrone missed a chance to land the knockout blow on the Kingdom. I can’t see Dublin getting as close’
Throughout my senior career with Tyrone, I was fortunate enough to line out alongside many of the ‘history-makers’ who won our first Sam Maguire title in 2003.
Gavin Devlin wasn’t one of them. Our county careers never overlapped. He stepped away from the senior squad at the end of 2006 while I made my debut in 2007.
I would have spoken to Sean about him in the past and he recalled the qualities he brought to the team.
A lot of people actually probably couldn’t understand what value he actually brought to such a dynamic team and how he fitted it.
Back then, as he’d be the first to admit, he wasn’t great athletically.
However, I remember Sean talking about his football brain and his organisation on the pitch. He knew when to drop back, he knew when to stay up and he was loud and vocal on the pitch and really aggressive.
When you’re in management, you see the value of having someone talking to lads around them, especially a young team.
I see it at club level all the time. A young team with no real vocal leaders. Sometimes, it can be that missing piece.
It depends on the personalities within that group, obviously, but that can be of massive value.
He’s obviously always had that football brain, he’s always had that knowledge. Some people can’t translate that into management but when Mickey Harte brought him into the senior squad as coach in 2013, he had something there.
He knew how to set up teams, he knew the key messages to be sent out. It’s probably no surprise that he’s actually done what he’s done.
I remember him coming in and the one thing he brought with him that Mickey maybe didn’t have at that stage was an abundance of energy.
He had this way with him, especially in his first year or two, whereby he could really make you feel good about yourself.
That’s the bit I always remember. He was that sort of guy that could really develop a relationship with you. Mickey didn’t have that. He was more standoffish with players.
We had Fergal McCann too and he was a fantastic coach and a great fella, God rest him.
When ‘Horse’ came in, he just injected that wee bit of energy and passion.
You hear the Donegal players talking about Jim McGuinness in the same regard. If a coach and manager has that energy and passion, it is very easy to get on board with that.
Maybe things had become a bit flat with Tyrone at that time and we needed someone like that.
As I alluded to in a previous column, my favourite Ulster title win was over Donegal in 2016 . When I think back, ‘Horse’ was always very good at setting up against teams and we felt we finally had the measure of Donegal after losing to them so many times.
He had, even back then, an unwavering passion and drive. It gave you that kick and you’d be going into games fully confident. It didn’t matter who you were playing.
We were playing the best Dublin team ever in the All-Ireland final in 2018, but we fully believed we could turn them over.
His training off the pitch was probably the key for me. Our training, I’d say, had probably gone a bit stale. He brought a different intensity, he was doing different drills at a faster pace – everything was about pace and intensity every night.
Whenever you have somebody for a long period of time whether that’s coach or manager, it’s very hard to reinvent the wheel. A new voice and a new approach can really freshen things up as such.
It is great to see another Tyrone coach doing so well alongside him. Ronan O’Neill was always very vocal and very well-liked in the Tyrone set-up. He had a great personality with him as well.
When you are in that position as a manager or a coach, you have to have a wee bit of charisma and a bit of passion. You can see that in Ronan and it is no surprise to see him doing well.
As far as the All-Ireland semi-final goes, Louth have every chance against Mayo.
What I’ve seen of Mayo this season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Louth turn them over.
I can enjoy the rest of the Championship as a neutral, but I think Tyrone missed a great opportunity to beat Kerry in the quarter-fina l. I was lucky enough to be in the Hogan Stand to watch the game and I can’t help but feel we’d have gotten over the line with another five minutes.
From a Tyrone perspective, it was one that got away.
Kerry looked out on their feet in the final 10 minutes. I remember seeing Joe O’Connor struggling to make a run back with six or seven minutes to go.
I felt, for the most part, Tyrone handled David Clifford well enough, but class always comes through and the man is pretty un-markable at times.
Kerry now had a bit of time to recover and recoup. It’s going to be a big ask of Dublin.
Tyrone were in a privileged position in that they were getting them at a time when Kerry were vulnerable.
That was the chance to land the knockout blow on the Kingdom. I can’t see Dublin getting as close.
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