By Michael Devlin

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte says Sunday’s game with Dublin was an “opportunity” to give Championship auditions to squad players ahead of this weekend’s All Ireland Semi-Final against Kerry.

With progression to the final four guaranteed before the Healy Park fixture, Harte opted to make a full 15 changes to the team that took on Cork two weekends before, keeping Niall Morgan, Colm Cavanagh, Peter Harte, Mattie Donnelly and Cathal McShane out of the match-day 26.

Harte cited a bruising Qualifier run and two further Quarter-Final Group games as further reason to rest up his more familiar names and delve into his squad, and he dismissed claims that the game was a mere ‘dead rubber’ for both sides.

“Obviously we have been on the road for five weeks and most of our players have played most of that game time so it was an opportunity to give them a rest and to give the players who had been looking for more game time during that run – ‘Here’s your chance, against the top team in the country’.

“There was no dead rubber in that game,” he said. “We didn’t take it that way. It was a question of who would be top of the group and who would be second.”

The defeat for Tyrone sees them finish second place in Group Two, setting up a semi-final showdown with Kerry this Sunday. Old foes of Tyrone's from the 2000's, Harte is expecting the contest to be as tough as the Kingdom’s distinguished footballing tradition would suggest.

“Kerry are still the top team in the country as far as the Sam Maguire is concerned. They always have their eye on that and people always expect them to be big contenders for that and they seldom let people down.

“It is a big battle and we have to bring our best game and if we bring our best game we believe we can make it a very competitive game and then who knows who might win.”

His Dublin opposite Jim Gavin meanwhile also fielded an unorthodox side, with only Jonny Cooper and James McCarthy surviving from the team that routed Roscommon in Croke Park a fortnight ago.

The much anticipated return of Diarmuid Connolly was the day’s main talking point. The St Vincent’s man hadn’t featured in a Dublin jersey since the 2017 All-Ireland final, and he was due to spend this summer in Boston, but that trip fell through.

Gavin revealed a few weeks ago Connolly was back training with the squad, and he handed him a start in Omagh, one of several personnel changes that saw Seán Bugler catch the eye with 0-3 on his first start, and Robbie McDaid and Andrew McGowan among those given rare appearances.

"Diarmuid loves Dublin,” said Gavin after the game. “Myself and the fellow players love him because he's so committed to the cause. And like any player, if they're performing well in training, they get the slots.

"We're in a very privileged position to be able to work with these players on the training field each week. We see the quality and the natural skill they have. Our most difficult job is selecting 26 that travel on game day.

"They love playing for Dublin, they love representing their clubs. It's a massively privileged position we're in."

Dublin’s semi-final fate sees them meet Mayo on this Saturday afternoon, and Gavin reiterated that his team’s focus was firmly on Tyrone despite their own passage to this weekend schedule already assured.  

"I thought the atmosphere was excellent today. The stand behind me was certainly full, as it was on your side, I presume? I thought both teams went really hard at it. Great game of football. Great entertainment for the supporters who've travelled up from Dublin and locally from Tyrone.

"I don't think any team has a particular advantage over any other team. I think it's fairly even. And just looking forward to it.

"All of our focus today was on paying to ultimate respect to Tyrone. We know what a talented team they have and what an outstanding management team. We couldn't but focus in on Healy Park today at 4 o'clock. Thankfully, we got over that game and we'll look forward in a couple of days to next weekend."