The 16th Man

The hill was truly alive with the sound of Dublin on Saturday as the Dublin team laid to rest the ghosts of 2008 and 2009 with a fantastic performance to give a new found optimism in the capital to Gilroy and the boys. The Dublin team who never let their northern counterparts play to their normally high standards started the game at an incredible tempo and finished with a roar from the thousands of Dubs that came out in force for similar to what Down thought what might be but weren’t too sure if they could.

What was important for the Dubs and fans I talked too was the start for the team, the memory of the Kerry game last year with Colm Cooper netting after the first minute was still fresh in the mind of the Dubs who were there. It would have been in the minds of the players who were lining out, but the team had changed since then with it being ‘out with the old, in with the new’ as Gilroy’s motto which had mixed results up until now, ranging from Dublin’s first win in Killarney in the league for a long time to a car crash performance against Wexford where they somehow managed to stumble over the line. Tyrone had come into this game as provincial champions and were worthy favourites after ’08. Mickey Harte made one significant change for this game with the move of Sean Cavanagh to full forward to what Mickey Harte thought he could do was expose the rookie Dublin full back of Rory O’Carroll.

However the move seemed to have helped O’Carroll who produced the greatest performance from a Dublin full back since the days of Paddy Christie. Tyrone started as usual though with the blanket defence from the offset with big Joe McMahon acting as a sweeper for the red hand but wore the number 12 on his back. For Mickey Harte though the number on your back is just that, a number. Gilroy started a tactical battle then from the offset by setting up his charges in a formation to counter that of Tyrone. Dublin captain David Henry started on the wing and the Dublin used him as a playmaker by playing everything through him to drag the Tyrone backline asunder and to Dublin’s credit it began to work. The lead that Dublin built up of 0-6 to 0-2 was a signal of that.

The defensive system both sides employed resulted in the game becoming rather scrappy with a huge amount of frees being awarded to both sides. Tyrone used this to pump up the pressure on the Jacks but usually accurate men like Cavanagh, Brian Dooher and others left their shooting boots up at home and Tyrone began to rack up the wides.

For the dubs all year they needed and wanted someone to step into the shoes of the fearful Ciaran Whelan who had put the fear of god into many teams through the years, the call though was answered by a youthful flyer by the name of Michael Dara McCauley. The Tyrone team never got going at midfield and that it was in no small part to McCauley.

For Tyrone they were being kept in it on the score sheet from the formidable marksmen Owen Mulligan and Martin Penrose, the start that Dublin had however was pulled back by the Tyrone machine to leave 1 in it at the break to the Red Hand, Tyrone 0-8 Dublin 0-7.

Half time brought some much needed rest for fans after the first exhilarating half and the second half was going to be the same, the switches from both sides would have a massive effect on the game with the introduction of Paul Flynn for David Henry, Cian O Sullivan for Barry Cahill for the dubs and the introduction of Stephen O Neill for David Harte. The legs introduced for the dubs started to show with Tyrone going through the second half like a slow death, players like Dooher and Cavanagh were being pushed into mistakes and the doglike performance of the Dublin backs sweeped the breaks up accordingly.

All through the year the Dublin faithful had been weary of what was perceived as a way too inexperienced full back line, all three rookies but yesterday they showed maturity beyond their years, with corner back Philly McMahon even getting up for a superb long range score, similar to the previous game for Down. As soon as the Dubs were starting to put daylight between the two sides the fans began to believe that today was their day, the Tyrone team were not giving up just yet though and bombarded the Dublin defence with pressure but anything Mickey Harte and his team through at Dublin it was swiftly batted away with ease.

The icing on the cake for the Dublin team was the goal for Eoghan O’Gara, the man who is quickly building a reputation for himself around Dublin and elsewhere got on the end of a move that was very much against the run of play. Ger Brennan who was sweeping up at 6 sent in a ball on the head of Bernard Brogan who laid it off to the oncoming Paul Flynn who hit the bar only for O’Gara to sweep across the rebound to leave a five point win to send the Hill into raptures and with the spirit of ’95 the Dubs will begin to believe again.

Dublin: S Cluxton (0-1, ‘45), M Fitzsimons, R O’Carroll, P McMahon (0-1), K Nolan, G Brennan, B Cahill, MD Macauley (0-1), R McConnell, B Cullen (0-1), A Brogan (0-1), N Corkery, D Henry, E O’Gara (1-0), B Brogan (0-9, 5f).
Subs: P Flynn for Henry, C O’Sullivan for Cahill, E Fennell for Corkery, C Keaney (0-1, f) for A Brogan, A Brogan for Cullen

Tyrone: P McConnell, C McCarron, Justin McMahon, R McMenamin, D Harte, C Gormley, P Jordan (0-2), C Cavanagh, K Hughes, B Dooher, B McGuigan (0-1), Joe McMahon, M Penrose (0-5, 4f), S Cavanagh, O Mulligan (0-5, 2f).
Subs: D Carlin for McCarron, S O’Neill for Harte, E McGinley for Hughes, P Harte for Penrose

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