MICKEY HARTE HAS backed the radical new changes that will see a ‘Super 8′ format introduced for next year’s All-Ireland football championship.
The three-time Sam Maguire winning manager felt change was necessary and the new system will be fairer to provincial champions.
He has also rejected suggestions that the power makers in the GAA have no interest in the club game.
“I think something had to change. I’ve been an advocate of this for many years now that four qualifiers and the four provincial champions to me wasn’t a fair mix for the last eight.
“I had other ways of suggesting how we could get there but I feel anyway to come to something different is a good thing. Yes there’s going to be problems sorting out the logistics of how it fits into club life.
“I think there’s a lot of talk about that people don’t care about the clubs, that they speak about caring about the clubs but don’t show that they’re doing it and that’s not true.
“I think that’s unfair to the people in headquarters that have to try and deal with everything at their disposal. I think they understand the necessity to be as helpful to clubs as possible but at the same time, this is the shop window of the GAA and this is why the GAA is so popular. You can’t dismiss that either.
“I think this will be worth experimenting with and I think maybe when the experiment is done, people will find if there’s issues that it doesn’t fulfil and therefore while it’s going on, people will be assessing if they need to make some adjustments to it. In principle I would be with the whole concept.
“We’ve been in that place where you’ve won your provincial championship and two weeks later you’re out of the All-Ireland, that’s not a nice place to be. That won’t happen now. You win your provincial championship and you’ve three more games.
“Therefore if you do well in at least two of those, you’ve a chance of making a semi-final. I think that’s a fairer and more level playing field.”
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Derek McGrath, Austin Gleeson and Mickey Harte at the annual KN Group All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge Launch. Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE / SPORTSFILE
The prospect of Tyrone entertaining heavyweights in Omagh in a quarter-final tie or travelling around the country to other provincial venues, appeals to Harte.
“Absolutely, I think it would be a magic occasion, magical. It’ll bring some sort of intensity and some sort of colour to places that maybe wouldn’t have it otherwise.
“It’s in the real heat of the summer championship. There are things there that we can only anticipate how good they can be.
“I don’t think we should write them off before we at least get a chance to see it and I think the good thing about it is it’s being trialled.
“Some things haven’t even got a trial and I think they should have got a trial. So I think the idea being trialled is a very positive thing.”
Harte takes his side into action on Sunday against Mayo, at a time when they are in a four-way tie at the top of Division 1 of the Allianz Football League.
Tyrone are one of three teams that have drawn with Dublin this year and Harte does not believe the reigning title holders are storming miles ahead of the pack.
“I never actually accepted the gap was as wide as people suggested. I think that became a bit of an urban myth in many ways.
“Yes, the results were showing they were ahead of other people because they were winning the big trophies but I never would have felt that other teams couldn’t challenge them because there were teams that could challenge them. But nobody challenged them well enough to beat them on important days.
“I think Dublin have never been at full strength yet (this spring) so we have to factor that in as well. They’ve been on the road a long time now too so maybe the league hasn’t become as important for them in so far as they’re not maybe pushing all their best players out, all the time.
“They’re still probably in pole position to win this final. They’re in a good place without having shown anything like their full hand.
“It’ll be another few months before we’ll be able to decide whether the gap is as wide as people suggest or as narrow as I think it can be from time to time.”
One player Tyrone are planning without in 2017 is forward Conor McAliskey but Harte revealed the Clonoe man is a positive mood as he battles back from cruciate damage.
“He’s a serious loss. He’s just accepted that’s life for him. He’s coming to the training most nights to be there, he’s doing his rehab work.
“He’s a happy go lucky young man. He lights up a place when he comes to it, he’s a very positive outlook on life and he’s not letting it get him down which is wonderful.
“I know the work he put in to get ready for this season and he had really high hopes for his own season as well as Tyrone’s and to have that wiped out on the very first game of the year, it was awful hard on him.
“But I’m really pleased that he’s taken it in such a positive way.”
'Magic' Super 8 occasions, Dublin's dominance over the rest and McAliskey's cruciate recovery
MICKEY HARTE HAS backed the radical new changes that will see a ‘Super 8′ format introduced for next year’s All-Ireland football championship.
The three-time Sam Maguire winning manager felt change was necessary and the new system will be fairer to provincial champions.
He has also rejected suggestions that the power makers in the GAA have no interest in the club game.
“I think something had to change. I’ve been an advocate of this for many years now that four qualifiers and the four provincial champions to me wasn’t a fair mix for the last eight.
“I had other ways of suggesting how we could get there but I feel anyway to come to something different is a good thing. Yes there’s going to be problems sorting out the logistics of how it fits into club life.
“I think there’s a lot of talk about that people don’t care about the clubs, that they speak about caring about the clubs but don’t show that they’re doing it and that’s not true.
“I think that’s unfair to the people in headquarters that have to try and deal with everything at their disposal. I think they understand the necessity to be as helpful to clubs as possible but at the same time, this is the shop window of the GAA and this is why the GAA is so popular. You can’t dismiss that either.
“I think this will be worth experimenting with and I think maybe when the experiment is done, people will find if there’s issues that it doesn’t fulfil and therefore while it’s going on, people will be assessing if they need to make some adjustments to it. In principle I would be with the whole concept.
“We’ve been in that place where you’ve won your provincial championship and two weeks later you’re out of the All-Ireland, that’s not a nice place to be. That won’t happen now. You win your provincial championship and you’ve three more games.
“Therefore if you do well in at least two of those, you’ve a chance of making a semi-final. I think that’s a fairer and more level playing field.”
The prospect of Tyrone entertaining heavyweights in Omagh in a quarter-final tie or travelling around the country to other provincial venues, appeals to Harte.
“Absolutely, I think it would be a magic occasion, magical. It’ll bring some sort of intensity and some sort of colour to places that maybe wouldn’t have it otherwise.
“It’s in the real heat of the summer championship. There are things there that we can only anticipate how good they can be.
“I don’t think we should write them off before we at least get a chance to see it and I think the good thing about it is it’s being trialled.
“Some things haven’t even got a trial and I think they should have got a trial. So I think the idea being trialled is a very positive thing.”
Harte takes his side into action on Sunday against Mayo, at a time when they are in a four-way tie at the top of Division 1 of the Allianz Football League.
Tyrone are one of three teams that have drawn with Dublin this year and Harte does not believe the reigning title holders are storming miles ahead of the pack.
“I never actually accepted the gap was as wide as people suggested. I think that became a bit of an urban myth in many ways.
“Yes, the results were showing they were ahead of other people because they were winning the big trophies but I never would have felt that other teams couldn’t challenge them because there were teams that could challenge them. But nobody challenged them well enough to beat them on important days.
“I think Dublin have never been at full strength yet (this spring) so we have to factor that in as well. They’ve been on the road a long time now too so maybe the league hasn’t become as important for them in so far as they’re not maybe pushing all their best players out, all the time.
“They’re still probably in pole position to win this final. They’re in a good place without having shown anything like their full hand.
“It’ll be another few months before we’ll be able to decide whether the gap is as wide as people suggest or as narrow as I think it can be from time to time.”
One player Tyrone are planning without in 2017 is forward Conor McAliskey but Harte revealed the Clonoe man is a positive mood as he battles back from cruciate damage.
“He’s a serious loss. He’s just accepted that’s life for him. He’s coming to the training most nights to be there, he’s doing his rehab work.
“He’s a happy go lucky young man. He lights up a place when he comes to it, he’s a very positive outlook on life and he’s not letting it get him down which is wonderful.
“I know the work he put in to get ready for this season and he had really high hopes for his own season as well as Tyrone’s and to have that wiped out on the very first game of the year, it was awful hard on him.
“But I’m really pleased that he’s taken it in such a positive way.”
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GAA Mickey Harte super 8 Tyrone