IT USED to be that any manager lucky enough to lead his team to an Ulster football title would leave the field sweating profusely, every nerve in his body in shreds, a look of total exhaustion across his brow. Tyrone manager Mickey Harte is not doing that image any good.
In the afternoon sunshine in Clones yesterday Harte had the look of a man leaving a garden party, his hardest task how to make it sound like it had somehow been an effort, only now beginning.
“Sure it always looked like we probably could win the game. But then it always equally looked like Antrim could pose a threat. Had they got a goal at any stage, and narrowed the gap, then they would have been a very difficult team to deal with. Because they kept coming back from positions that looked like they should have taken a beating, so to speak.
“So we had to work to the very end. And we couldn’t really relax on the sideline, think this game is won, until the final whistle.”
Harte couldn’t deny there is something ominous about Tyrone, that they are only coming together now as the season reaches its high point: “I’d say it’s a maturing team all the while. That’s the important thing. We’re moving on, trying to discover new things about ourselves. And I think we have that versatility that a lot of other teams would like to have.
“We did create some good team scores, moved the ball fast. And our support play was good. But there were times as well when maybe we overplayed the ball a bit, and got turned over too often. We got a serious amount of possession around the back of midfield for a period in the second half, and if we’d converted all of that, then the game would have been over.
“So there’s lots to be happy about, and lots to work on. That’s what it always is. A work in progress.”
The more jaded look of Antrim manager Liam Bradley reflected the far more testing afternoon for his men, but he wasn’t making any excuses: “Look Tyrone, were by far the better team, and I’d be clutching at straws if I tried to say we were good enough to beat them on the day. We weren’t good enough. Full stop.
“We’d have been happy enough with a start. They scored 1-3 without reply. We were chasing the game all the way after that. Against teams like Tyrone you will nearly always suffer. We fought hard, but for every score we got, they always seemed to come up the field and tag on one of their own. And stayed that four or five points in front of us.
“The goal was the real killer. We talked about that during the week, that if we didn’t concede goals we’d be there or thereabouts. Seán Cavanagh has a great habit of doing that, coasting in on the blind side. He lost Aidan Gallagher, and for some reason Niall McKeever picked him up, he shouldn’t have been near him at all.
“Hopefully it is the start of good things for this team. I firmly believe that this team is going places. It was a learning experience here today. A cruel learning experience, one might say. But we’ll be back.”
But in true championship spirit, Bradley had no doubt his team would lift themselves again for next weekend’s fourth-round qualifier: “I’m telling you now these boys will be up for the qualifiers.
“We’re not going to let this one defeat end our season. And whoever meets us next week will know they were in a game.
“This team wants to play in Croke Park this year, and I firmly believe they will. We’ll get up and get on with on. They can either lie on the bellies or get up and fight next week. Hopefully it will be the latter.”
