Here’s the thing about Mickey Harte, he doesn’t really give a f**k how you play. He has his system, they’ve been perfecting it for a while now and how the opposition set up doesn’t affect the Ulster champions.
Tyrone’s warm-up drill before the All-Ireland quarter-final dismantling of Armagh gave a great insight into what they’re working on in Garvaghey and how their training, obviously, suits their style of play.
After the Donegal game back in June, the Red Hand manager spoke about giving people a glimpse of what was to come in Gaelic Football.
The details were hazy but you get the feeling that he sees the game evolving further – tactically, positionally. And the way they set up this season shows that they sure as hell aren’t dictated to by whoever they’re playing.
Against Armagh, Tyrone showed once more that they have their formation and they basically force the other side to respond to them. Never the other way about.
Three Tyrone players were given strict marking assignments.
- McNamee manned Campbell inside
- Cathal McCarron followed Jamie Clarke wherever he went
- Aidan McCrory picked up the free-scoring Grimley in midfield
Outside of those three, Bradley and the goalkeeper Tyrone yet again had their 10 players freed up to not just fill the space that needs filled in the backline, but to overrun the opposition then going forward.
Armagh had far too many players standing around in unspecified positions and roles not really knowing what to do with themselves. Instead, they just ended up chasing.
Tyrone have a choice of 10 of them to launch at any time and you look at the stats which Mattie Donnelly racked up and you get a flavour of how breathless it is around that middle third when they turn the ball over and go at you.
The team is filled with classy footballers with pure skill and prowess but it is still based on a running game and their warm-up drill at Croke Park showed that off perfectly with a head-spinning exercise.
A drill that helps describe Tyrone 👌 pic.twitter.com/PHweL8Cqqs
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) August 5, 2017
Waves of attack, six men going at once. Three from one side, three from the adjacent side and they sweep up the field and pop it off.
In one go, the below men are active, then the remaining six take over on the reverse way up the pitch and it is back where it started.
Each time, the ball is popped off to the runner.
When a man goes laterally, someone is coming steaming from deep off his shoulder to drive forward again.
And it shows in their play.
Because, despite being called a defensive team – and, listen, they do get serious numbers back behind the ball – Tyrone are absolutely running opposition sides into the ground and beating them clean out of sight.
They’re not hanging onto wins like a traditionally defensive side would. They’re much superior to the opposition they’ve played so far and their system allows them to show that off. It doesn’t get them bogged down in scraps.
Their system allows their players to still flourish and it remains unaffected by what the others do.
It’s genuinely going to be one of Jim Gavin’s biggest challenges to date figuring out how to deal with it.
