ALL IRELAND FOOTBALL FINAL BUILD UP: Ian O'Riordantalks to the Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, who says his squad are in no way overawed by the prospect of a final meeting with Kerry

WHEN IT comes to beating Kerry in an All-Ireland final, most managers would start with some psychology: confidence, control, concentration; the repeated visualisation of winning; the important belief that just because they have 35 All-Irelands (and you have two) doesn't mean they're better than you.

For Tyrone, there may even be a slight psychological edge. The current team, or at least the bones of it, have never lost an All-Ireland final to Kerry and did a fair job in beating them three years ago. Most of them have never lost an All-Ireland final, at any level. That in itself could provide the opening chapter of any potential Red Book.

Chapter 1: We're not better than you, but we're just as good. (Actually, we are better.) It comes as some surprise then that Mickey Harte claims he's never read a line of psychology in his whole life. Never needed to, never wanted to. Perhaps there's some reverse psychology involved in saying that, thus giving the impression Tyrone never doubt their mental strength to beat Kerry. Yet Harte is more about philosophy than psychology - his Red Book would be more Zen and the Art of Football Management.

"Of course it's important, very important, but I don't like to talk of it as just psychology," he says. "I think of it as life experience. When you put a terminology or some compartment into it, people put it in a place; like you do psychology one day, you play football the next. Of course it's not like that.

"The psychology of life is what I talk about. Each day brings a new story, and a new opportunity to develop, to grow. Players have to do that physically, and mentally, and sure psychology comes into that.

"But you also have to use the experiences you've had before to be of benefit to you in whatever circumstance you find yourself in during a game. That's what psychology is about. It's about dealing with experiences that are in front of you, accepting that things won't always go the way you want them to, and that there's no perfect script. That means thinking on your feet."

Whether it came down to psychology or not, Tyrone definitely wrecked Dublin heads in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Of course, that was never part of the Blue Book (Dublin's How To Win An All-Ireland) - which, by the way, Harte knew nothing about.

"Well, it's about doing whatever you think is required. But I think it's about normalising the psychology of sport, not about making it high-falutin' stuff that comes with degrees, or whatever. It comes with degrees of experience. Not just in games, but on the training field as well, and in the company you keep. And I think if players accept it that way, then it doesn't have to come out of a book or some masters course.

"Because players have got to make decisions, in live time, on the field and the only way they can do that is to learn it as a part of sporting life. Belief isn't enough. You have to be able to deal with setbacks as well. When you're playing quality teams, you're not always where you want to be."

Where was this mentality as Kerry hammered Mayo and Cork in the last two finals? Tyrone, at least now, have no fear of Kerry, although Harte doesn't claim this was something they were born without; rather something they needed to lose.

"That's a credit to our players. They've all come up through the ranks, won titles along the way, and they're not in awe of anything, either the occasion or the opposition. They've total respect for the opposition, but they're certainly not in awe of them. For a long time, maybe Tyrone were feeling a bit inferior. Not any more. It's not that they're arrogant. But they're confident players, and they'll play with confidence.

"Even in 2003, we were never overawed by the occasion, and have never been since. I hope it won't affect us now, but I don't expect that it will, because I think the players are well grounded. They know the seriousness of what they're about, and they know it takes a degree of nerves to be able to perform at your best level. It's just a question of managing your nerves, so they don't consume you."

It's easy to see where the confidence comes from: Harte has it oozing out of every word he speaks. Even when they lost to Down back in the Ulster championship, he was thinking "short-term setback".

"I know it may seem a little retrospective now, but I didn't doubt our ability after that. You know there is always the possibility that things won't work out the way you want. But my philosophy on that is simple: if you don't believe you can do something, you won't do it. If you believe you can, you might. And I always believed we could.

"We are at the last stage now, one step to go, and I believe it's possible. But then I believed it every other year as well."

Given his obvious assuredness about the mental strength of his team, the only battle Harte is concerned about in Sunday's final is the physical one. Tyrone have yet to come up against the Kerry team that have clearly advanced on 2005, particularly the so-called twin towers of Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh.

"True, that's the reality of it, and we have to deal with it. Even though we don't have first-hand experience of it. We have a bit of experience with Donaghy from the league, but Tommy Walsh is in the mix now, and how we cope with that will be a key factor, obviously.

"Though Kerry are certainly not a one-dimensional team. They never were. It became a little bit predictable what they were at when Donaghy first went in there. Now they're much more versatile, something that has always served them well, the quality football that they play. It's about how much you have in your artillery, not being a slave to one particular way of doing things. So it's not a question of me saying 'there's what Kerry do, go fix it'. There's a lot more to deal with."

Not even a final psychological teaser - that whoever wins next Sunday can claim to be the team of the decade - can unsettle Harte's cool, calm philosophy.

"Sure we're two decent teams around at the same time. We've had a couple of good years against them, maybe had the chance to beat them in the years in between but weren't good enough. So how can you hold that against a team? Kerry beat whoever was put before them. This is a one-game result. People will read into it in all the ways they want, do what they like with statistics, but the only statistic that matters to us is can we get a third All-Ireland.

"I'm only in the business of getting to the top. I'm a realist, and know it doesn't always happen. But if you don't believe it, how can you expect your players to believe it? You have to show the leadership, aspire to the top."

HARTE ON STEPHEN O'NEILL COMEBACK

"I HAVE consistently said, and you can check back on this, that if and when Stephen O'Neill felt he was ready to resume his intercounty career, the door was always open. That never changed.

"He decided a week and a half ago, whenever, that it was time for him to reassess the decision he made, and for me it was quite a simple answer. Out of courtesy to the rest of the players, and respect for the timing of it, I had to put it before them, that this was a possibility, and with their blessing, it could become a reality. And they had no doubt either that it was the right thing to do.

"But he's not coming back for one game. He's ready to resume his intercounty career, and wants to be a Tyrone player in 2009, 2010 and beyond. With a player of his quality, you just don't look a gift horse in the mouth, and that's the bottom line.

"There are many awkward positions in sport and in life. The more you get and the more you deal with you should only come out wiser. I wouldn't say it was an awkward decision, but it was an acute decision. You have to make a lot of acute decisions in sport, and this was just another one."