Tyrone manager Mickey Harte believes that the fitness of Joe McMahon is vital to his teams chances against Mayo.
Mayo and Tyrone clash this weekend in the first of the All-Ireland football semifinals and earlier this evening Tyrone manager Mickey Harte spoke to Newstalk's Off The Ball.
In conversation with Diarmuid Lyng, Harte spoke about the fitness of Joe McMahon ahead of the All-Ireland semifinal against Connaught champions Mayo and the importance the two-time All-Ireland winner in his side.
“His experience is as valuable as his fitness. His ball-playing ability and his versatility is key to our team so we would be very happy that he is back and available to us again.”
Tyrone are coming towards the end of a long intercounty season and many people believe that could be detrimental to his sides chances of overcoming what is perceived to be a much fitter and fresher Mayo team. On that topic Harte believes that Tyrone are just where they want to be.
“We’re as good as we can be considering you play a long season. I think this is our 20th or 21st match of the season. That’s a lot to ask of players, as well as club football and the training too. We’re happy enough that it’s as good as it is at this stage.”
Harte, who is in his 11th season as manager of the Tyrone senior team, also believes that his side were written off earlier in the season following their defeat against Donegal in Ballybofey. He believes Tyrone played much better than the final scoreline suggested and that people should not be surprised they have reached this stage of the championship.
“For periods of that game we were on top. People tend to look at the result and think that Donegal were superior on the day and everything they did was good and everything we did was bad. That’s not the case at all. We analysed that game in blocks and for blocks of that game we dominated, particularly in the first half.”
Harte also added:
“I did believe that day that we would be in the quarterfinals and that we would do everything in our power to be there. You have to make bold statements like that sometimes and that’s what we did then but we got there and now were one step further.”
Listen to the full interview here.
