Keith Dugganlooks at the Tyrone phenomenon and, with the help of informed parties, seeks to ascertain the genesis of recent success

LAST WEEK'S All-Ireland football final was such a rumbling, heavyweight encounter that it was widely forgotten that none other than Tyrone had played second fiddle to Kerry back when the Kingdom last completed the three-in-a-row.

That was in 1986, a different century and a period when there were no revolutions on the Gaelic fields of Ireland. Art McRory had committed something close to rebellion merely by leading an Ulster team to the All-Ireland final, and as he watched last week's latest September instalment between the two rivals, his mind may have wandered back to that day when his Tyrone team led the legendary Kerrymen by a clear seven points early in the second half.

That, of course, was then.

This week, McRory was, like all Tyrone football people, more interested in the future than the past, and he believes last Sunday's win was the supreme vindication of the current generation of players.

"To put it in context, the first one was tremendous. Oddly enough, the next one was even better because of the 10 matches they had to play to get there. But this one here beats the lot. Without doubt. Number one because the expectations were so low.

"After we went out against Down, the county board sold 500 tickets for the Louth match. That is laughably low for Tyrone but at that stage people had given up. It was after the Dublin match that it gathered momentum. The Dublin performance was as good as anything I have seen from Tyrone. And it went from there."

As Seán Cavanagh remarked during the week, Tyrone were sort of like the invisible team in the path they took to the All-Ireland final: "Probably staying away from the white heat of the Ulster championship helped," he noted, "and also, all the talk of a Dublin-Kerry final probably suited us as well. We snuck in under the radar and ended up in the final."

If their arrival was stealthy, then their exit, with the Sam Maguire, was nothing short of a proclamation. In the estimation of most commentators and pundits, Tyrone went in a matter of weeks from being barely credible contenders to a team who could justifiably lay claim to the fabulist title Team of the Decade.

After Tyrone's maiden All-Ireland title in 2003, there was a scarcely concealed disdain for the style of game they employed in getting there.

After 2005 and the chilling deconstruction of a fine Kerry team, there was a muted acknowledgement that there was more to them than the grim concoction of Ulster athleticism, dourness and bamboozling tactics that offended connoisseurs of the game.

Now, after this latest perceived Lazarus act, there has been a rather embarrassed rush to acclamation, a clearing of throats and an announcement that Tyrone were the choice team of the last 10 years after all.

McRory is in no doubt as to where he stands on the whole "team of the decade" debate.

"That is a load of rubbish," he explained. "Talk about it when the decade is over. Anyway, I think Tyrone have proven themselves a great team regardless. I have no doubt. To come from where we have come from - and that is from rock bottom - in 20 years to ride the crest of the wave is something else."

And that may be the critical point in any evaluation of Tyrone. Look where the Red Hand has come from in scarcely two decades.

Tyrone was always fierce about football but like so many counties, the most they could do on the national stage was to flicker like an unreliable bulb, with occasionally gifted teams winning sporadic Ulster titles to break the monotony - and safety - of being locked within the province; 1956, '57, '73 and '84 were all Tyrone had to shout about prior to that maiden All-Ireland final appearance in 1986.

They had bona fide football heroes like Iggy Jones and Jody O'Neill and Frank McGuigan, but actually appearing in an All-Ireland final (they beat a young Galway team in the semi-final) was beyond the scope of most imaginations.

In times of barbarous violence and economic stranglehold, the 1986 appearance created an element of giddiness and escapism in ordinary lives.

"It is keeping our minds off our work," Iggy Jones told Paddy Downey back then.

"But the important thing is that it's taking the minds of many people off of the lack of work and other troubles. Our lives have been brightened, enriched by this event."

Tyrone were playing a Kerry team reaching the apotheosis of a sort of private greatness. Páidí Ó Sé was chasing medal number eight, the team a third title in a row. To even talk of Tyrone winning seemed a form of insolence, but McRory promised his team would have no fears and he was true to his word: the Northern men tore into Kerry.

They were three points clear at half-time. Then Paudge Quinn smuggled a goal home. Two minutes later Eugene McKenna was pulled down for a penalty.

GAA traditionalists must have believed their were watching a through-the-looking-glass version of the All-Ireland final. Reality, of course, asserted itself.

Kerry stormed back with goals from Ger Power and Mikey Sheehy and ended up winning by 2-15 to 1-10. The crushing element of invincibility about their closing quarter just seemed to reinforce the fact that the All-Ireland was Kerry's dominion and theirs alone.

Maybe the origins of the fire belong to that day. Three years later, Tyrone were Ulster champions again. And less than a decade later they came agonisingly close to winning an All-Ireland when Peter Canavan took on a tired, through-the-mill Dublin team.

"The Eugene McKenna team inspired an interest in football in the county," McRory says. "The next man then who was singly responsible for us coming up was Peter Canavan - not just for his contribution on the pitch but because of the inspiration he gave to young lads. He made it all look so simple. That built a platform we're working off at the moment."

And perhaps there were other, intangible factors too. The dawning of the 1994 Peace Process and the slow clearing of the smoke made it easier for GAA people in the Six Counties and contributed to a new ambition where winning All-Irelands was not such a far-fetched notion.

Armagh and Tyrone, bedded down in the belly of Ulster, missed out on the brief, spectacular Northern reign that lasted from 1991 to 1994 but they have made up for it in this decade, and now nobody is surprised when those counties produce heavyweight performances.

There has always been a formidable ready-to-play attitude about Armagh but Tyrone are different: Tyrone are the exception to the old sporting adage that you cannot turn on form as if it were a light bulb.

It has generally been forgotten that Tyrone have always been a moody team, liable to indifferent Ulster performances but equally likely to electrify their audience in Croke Park. They did it against Dublin in 2005 and again this summer. They did it to Kerry in the same years.

They saved their best for Armagh too: it was no coincidence that Ryan McMenamin singled out one match when he placed the All-Ireland final in context.

"It was the most intense match we have played since the semi-final against Armagh three years ago."

Tyrone grew their beards and rode their luck - their succession of knockout games against Louth, Westmeath, Mayo, Dublin and Wexford gave them a perfect blend of rugged, physical challenges, plenty of quality players and the theatre of Croke Park - and they looked on, with some amusement, as their team ethos was held up against Kerry's shimmering individual brilliance. They were being damned with faint praise and they knew it.

"I was surprised to hear people talk about Kerry being better individual footballers," Cavanagh remarked. "You only have to look at some of the positional changes - I was obviously full forward, you had Joe McMahon going from wing forward to corner back and Conor Gormley, who is really a midfielder or centre back, going back to corner or full back.

"So the way we looked at it, we have 15 great footballers and I felt that, yeah, people weren't giving us credit for the players we have. Fair enough, we have a great collective spirit but we also have really good footballers.

"There are guys on the bench like Raymond Mulgrew, fantastic footballers who couldn't even get near the first 22. But I suppose people are entitled to think what they like."

Watching Tyrone during the league, Art McRory got the impression the core players were simply going through the motions, doing enough to survive.

There were flashes of their best vintage - most tellingly against Galway in Salthill, a wonderful league match in which both teams gloried in a good game for its own sake on a day when it was clear, to anyone present, that the bones of the brilliant and inimitable attacking game Mickey Harte had devised were still intact.

Tyrone have in Harte a managerial maverick, a man who sees the game in more dimensions than most.

After that, it was simply a matter of getting everyone healthy, and if Tyrone still had the ambition and requisite appetite for the punishment of fitness sessions, then they would be one of the few teams with the necessary range of quality ball players and forwards to challenge Kerry's supremacy.

While the world in general fixated on the retirements of Peter Canavan and Stephen O'Neill, Mickey Harte alone saw the worth in transforming Cavanagh into a point-scorer.

He also saw the rising confidence of Tommy McGuigan and Colm McCullagh.

"Then the championship came and it took a couple of matches to gather momentum," McRory says.

"Don't underestimate the leadership of Dooher. Dooher is a total phenomenon and he is on top of every aspect of the captaincy, from players' welfare to players out of form.

"I spoke to someone very close to Dooher and I said that Brian was struggling on All-Ireland final day. Between bursts, he was virtually limping. I wondered if he might retire after this. And this man just laughed. 'Not a chance,' he said. 'It's his life.'

"Brian is very determined and a highly intelligent and motivated little man.

"He doesn't exude the same charisma as Canavan and his contributions are based on sheer graft rather than Canavan's genius. But replacing Brian Dooher may prove even more elusive."

Tyrone cut it fine. That is their nature. Their early-summer defeat against Down is generally regarded as the turning point - Cavanagh admitted the fact they had, for the first time since 2005, a full squad to choose from and yet were beaten had caused them to confront the kind of doubts they were not used to.

In 2004, 2006 and 2007, there were plenty of reasons to explain away their underwhelming seasons. After Down, they faced the choice of either quitting for good or returning to the fun and dedication of their best years.

They could have exited against Mayo, but once clear of that hurdle, they were back in old country: Dublin and the big time.

By the time they reached the final against Kerry, they were perfectly placed to stage another spectacular raid.

This third successive championship defeat by Tyrone has severely damaged the mythology of Kerry football. Tyrone simply have no fear of those famous green and gold hoops. Before and afterwards, they handsomely acknowledged Kerry's unique heritage as a football county but on the field of play they behaved as though utterly oblivious to it.

"They treat Dublin and Kerry with the same respect: that is, they are good and we need to step up to beat them," says Art McRory. "That is it. It is easier said than done. The present Kerry bunch of players - they have a terrific skill factor.

"But - possibly within their own county and maybe because of the referees within Kerry - and this is just speculation - it seems to me that they have trouble coping with teams who graft against them. Monaghan proved this for two years. This Kerry team does not like teams who are prepared to graft and defend.

"I think Monaghan are a nice team possibly on the up or possibly gone as far as they could go. All Tyrone had to do was match that Monaghan graft and then use their forwards.

"Now, the Galway-Kerry match was the best game played this year in those conditions and Kerry gave an exhibition in that match. It was so refreshing - and Galway made a huge contribution to it as well. It showed what Kerry are capable of when a team is prepared to stand back and let them play football."

That did not happen in the All-Ireland final. Tyrone did not give the Kerry men a second's peace. During 70-odd minutes, Tyrone turned the football hierarchy on its head.

But the origins of last week's spectacle, of that sense of daring, may well go back to that day in 1986 when a Tyrone team had the impetuosity to almost run the most gilded off all Kerry teams off the field.

And how they were scolded for it. It was all so new in Tyrone then. Not anymore. From rock bottom, Art McRory said.

Take a look at them now.