Why multiple Sam Maguires now look inevitable for Tyrone

Whatever the outcome in Croke Park tomorrow evening, be certain that Tyrone are going nowhere.

The profile of the senior squad is encouraging and it is in the care of a smart manager. But the real reason for optimism among Tyrone supporters relates to their underage success. It has been so consistently bountiful that multiple Sam Maguires look inevitable — and that’s allowing for the notoriously tenuous connections between underage talent and senior delivery.

Last week’s minor final win over Kerry confirmed Tyrone as champions in the two prestige underage competitions this season, following their Under 20 triumph over Louth in May (they beat Kerry in the semi-final en route to that title, after defeating them in last year’s decider at the same grade. Tyrone stalk the Kingdom far beyond the senior grade).

The Tyrone team celebrate with the cup after the Electric Ireland GAA Football All-Ireland Minor Championship final match between Kerry and Tyrone at Cedral St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

It was their fourth minor title in 15 years and their sixth since 2001. They have won three of the last four U20 titles as well, while also winning it in 2001, making them only the second county to do the underage double twice.

And that matters because history shows us that the years immediately after these doubles invariably bring senior success. The first county to do it was Kerry in 1975, and thereafter dawned the Golden Years.

Cork did it in 1981, and by the end of that decade, they were on their way to winning back-to-back All-Irelands. Then came Tyrone’s double in 2001, before Dublin did it in 2012 — a year before Jim Gavin started building the greatest team of all time.

The one exception is, fittingly, Cork: they did it in 2019 but never got the dividend at senior level. That’s as much about coaching and development structures within a county currently trying to correct generations of drift when it comes to football.

But where the proper support is in place, prepared counties reap the bounty from a gush of success like the one the Red Hand County have enjoyed this season.

Jack O’Connor, steeped in the schools and underage game himself, was aware of what Tyrone are building when he spoke before tomorrow’s game. ‘They have really good structures and really good people involved in coaching in the schools,’ he said.

David Clifford of Kerry celebrates with manager Jack O’Connor after the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Armagh and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile

‘I’m not saying there are not good people involved in the schools down here but that’s what it comes down to, it comes down to the quality of the people involved in coaching.’ Mention of schools is pertinent, too: Omagh CBS have won two of the last three Hogan Cups, the prestigious senior schools competition.

Tyrone also won last week’s minor decider without the prodigious Joel Kerr, who signed for West Ham United on a contract that began on July 1. Negotiations to release him didn’t get anywhere, but he wasn’t required in the end, as they held out in a gripping finale.

There was an expectation at the start of that season that Malachy O’Rourke, in his first season in charge, would feed through the produce of some of recent U20 triumphs, but the age-old mistake of throwing young players in en masse has been avoided.

Tyrone manager Malachy O’Rourke after his side’s victory in the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Dublin and Tyrone at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

There’s a long and inglorious history of counties trying to fasttrack underage winners into senior football in bulk, and the challenge is simply too great. Eoin McElholm, Shea O’Hare and Seánie McDonnell, the latter with two goals in the win against Donegal in Ballybofey, have been the stand- out graduates. McElholm is a tremendous talent who is being used with deliberate care.

The way he blitzed Ciarán Kilkenny to score a late point in Tyrone’s quarter-final win was heralded as generational change in real time, with one of the true modern greats beaten by a coming talent. Kilkenny (a star on the All-Ireland-winning 2012 U21 team) has nothing left to prove in the game, but that cameo did vividly illustrate the potency of youth. Tyrone have already had a micro-taste of the effects of underage success recently.

They won an U20 title in 2015, and Kieran McGeary, Pádraig Hampsey, Rory Brennan, Conor Meyler, Frank Burns and Mark Bradley all enjoyed senior success in 2021.

That final was against the head, coming in the second Covid season and in a knock-out championship. In keeping with the spectral feel of those years, that Tyrone side dissolved. Key components of it remain, not least many of the names mentioned above, as well as an imposing midfield, but there was no sense at the time that this was a generational force emerging. Subsequent events proved that instinct correct.

The rise of Derry and the enduring competitiveness of Armagh meant Ulster remained fraught for them in the years after the 2021 win, while the stroke suffered by joint manager Fergal Logan in early 2024 was another serious complication. If there was enough residual talent left in that group to convince O’Rourke of the potential for success, the other clear calculation was around what is coming through from the minor and U20 ranks.

Pádraig Hampsey of Tyrone during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Dublin and Tyrone at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Yet the manager has, in public at least, been keen to set that talent against the greater need for application. Some might suggest that’s in keeping with O’Rourke’s tradition of well-drilled teams, but it’s also likely to be about tempering expectations around what remains, at senior level, mostly potential.

‘There’s no doubt there’s a lot of talent there because they obviously had great underage success, but I suppose I’ve said to them and everyone else that talent only gets you so far,’ he said earlier this season. ‘It’s about working really hard, it’s about maximising what you have and it’s about learning to work really hard as a team.

‘I think that’s the process we’re going through and trying to make sure that we do that. ‘There’s no doubt there is a lot of really good players there. There’s good experience there as well, there are lads who have been there a number of years who have had success at the top level, and then there are lads in between as well. ‘But we’re just concentrating very much in the short term.’ That has been his challenge this year.

Tyrone were flagged from his appointment as contenders for the All-Ireland, and have duly arrived in Croke Park in mid-July. Tyrone supporters are used to success and want more of it. Sporting wisdom has it that the only competition to target is the next one, so potential won’t figure much in Red Hand discussions on the way to Dublin tomorrow.

But Tyrone are coming down with it. No county looks better equipped to compete in the coming seasons — and some of their promising youths could yet tilt tomorrow their way.