Tyrone footballer Aidan McCrory.
By Cian O'Connell
Operating on the Croke Park stage in late August is exactly what every inter-county footballer wants to do. So Aidan McCrory is delighted that Tyrone will feature in Sunday’s sold-out All Ireland SFC Quarter-Final.
That standard bearers Dublin provide the opposition merely adds to the challenge, but the fact that Tyrone are back viewed as a serious contender is a source of hope and pride. Two successive Ulster titles ensure Tyrone’s confidence and belief is growing.
“Winning back to back Ulsters was huge for us as players,” McCrory admits. “The Ulster Championship, being what it is, can be so hard to win. It took us so long to get there and to do it two years running is brilliant. Now it has led on to this point. We are just happy to still be playing football, to be in with a shout.
“It has been a couple of years since we have been playing football well into August so it is great. There is a great buzz about the county, a lot of people are excited about it.
“That is your goal when you start out at the beginning of the year. It is what you are aiming for. The fact you are still here, you are doing it at where you wanted to be.
"If you are finished and you are watching other teams play you are just thinking that is where you want to be. When you are still playing football and other teams aren't, that is really when you want to be playing.”
Now Tyrone face a demanding test against Dublin with McCrory adamant that there is a nice mix of established players alongside the 2015 All Ireland Under 21 winning crop in the Red Hands camp.
Aidan McCrory in All Ireland SFC Quarter-Final action against Armagh.
“Yeah, there is a nice blend,” McCrory says. “There are a few of us older boys still about and then you have the young boys who come in with a great attitude which means there is a great balance with what is there. All the boys just seem to get on really well and seem to gel really well.”
Mickey Harte remains at the helm, keeping the Tyrone team together. Tyrone are heading to the capital armed with equal measures of hope and expectation.
A fellow Errigal Ciaran clubman McCrory acknowledges Harte’s deep role. “Mickey would have been involved with Errigal when I would have been very young,” McCrory recalls.
“He would have been involved with Errigal up until 2002, I would have been under 16 at that stage. I would have had him for schools football, he taught in St Ciaran's while I was in St Kieran's. We would have come across each other there.”
Harte remains an inspirational figure in the enduring Tyrone tale. “Yeah, there doesn't come much bigger in any football story than Mickey,” McCrory says.
“What he has done and the level he has been at for the length of time he has been at. It is neverending his enthusiasm for football, for the job, and for improvement. That really seeps into the players.
“I'm sure Sean (Cavanagh) has been influenced, the length of time of his inter-county career, the length of time that Mickey has been the manager, all these boys have only ever had Mickey as the Tyrone manager. It is hard to foresee it being anything other than that.” Tyrone wouldn’t want it any other way.
