Roll on Sunday…
Now is the time we finally get to see what Tyrone and Dublin are really made of.
Both sides have answered every single question that has been asked of them thus far and have done so emphatically.
Whether it be Dublin’s demolition of Monaghan and convincing victory over Kildare in this year’s Leinster final or Tyrone breezing past Armagh, Down and Donegal, the teams that were meant to trouble them.
It is sure to be a mammoth match up, their previous meeting in a rain stricken Croke Park during the National League was a cagey affair that ended 0-10 to 1-07 with Tyrone’s Aidan McCrory scoring the only goal of the game that day.
Tyrone will have their game plan drawn to upset some of Dublin’s top stars in an effort to intimidate them and roughen them up and get them off their game.
It’s no secret that Tyrone do this, you’d be foolish not to target top players, every team does it to some extent to ruffle their feathers.
Alan Brogan SAID earlier in the week about his experience of being targeted by Mickey Harte’s side and speaking on the GAA Hour Steven McDonnell elaborated on this.
Being from Armagh, McDonnell would have had plenty of experience dealing with Tyrone and how rough the game could become and went into detail of just how nightmarish it can all get.
“When you come up against Tyrone you have to expect you face verbals and niggles and punches. That was part and parcel of the rivalry we had with Tyrone at the time but I can remember watching a championship game and it was on TV between Dublin and Tyrone, I think it was maybe 2010.
“Alan Brogan actually picked up an injury and I remember seeing the physio out on the pitch and the video camera actually zoomed in on this incident.
“The physio was giving Alan Brogan treatment at the time and Conor Gormley is standing directly above him and he was nudging with his foot, kicking him with his foot.
“He was digging him with his foot while he was getting treatment and I was thinking ‘You little bollocks’ and that is the type of stuff that they’re obviously up to and I watched that and saw it for myself on TV so I can exactly understand where Alan Brogan is coming from.
“Listen, Muggsy (Eoin Mulligan) certainly held no punches back in saying that they did target players, a lot of teams target what they believe is going to be a threat to them.
“Some teams are more cynical about it than others. Certainly, Tyrone down through the years have targeted players. You look at the 2008 All-Ireland final, they really knew that they had to get into the face of Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh and they done that from the offset, the famous images and pictures of the two McMahons screaming into the faces of the Twin Towers as they were known back then.
“It was just more so a case of intimidating and trying to get into the heads of their opponents that they really felt were going to be a threat to them.
