'Toss Of A Coin': Mickey Harte Nearly Gave Man Of The Match Award To Tyrone Man

Tyrone's season ended in pretty disappointing fashion on Saturday in Croke Park. After a bright start, Tyrone were found out and a rampant Kerry were convincing winners. The points difference was six on the final scoreboard but the difference in quality was stark.

On the whole, it's been a mixed first season for Malachy O'Rourke as Tyrone manager. Tyrone were relegated from Division One and despite wins over Donegal and a scrappy Dublin side, they failed to build real momentum across the season.

One bright spot from Tyrone on Saturday was goalkeeper Niall Morgan, who put in his best performance of the season in the nets. His kickouts were huge and he thwarted a number of Kerry goals.

Morgan was inspirational for the Red Hands, especially in the first half. Kerry could’ve been out of sight if it wasn’t for the heroics of the Edendork man. He prevented at least three further goals from going in with his cat-like reflexes denying Sean O’Shea, Joe O’Connor and Dylan Geaney.

Interestingly, on BBC post-match commentary, former Tyrone manager Mickey Harte said he was considering giving the man of the match award to Morgan instead of David Clifford, but in the end opted for Clifford.

To me it was a toss of a coin. Because you look at which individual had the most impact on the game. Obviously David Clifford from the off, you could see what he was about. But Niall Morgan's contribution to this game today, I thought, was immense.

Never mind the shots that he saved physically. The ones that he forced to go wide, the ones that he caught out from a crossfield pass. Catching three or four - and some over - the bar. His kickouts were brilliant on most occasions. He made a huge contribution, but how do you beat that kind of man [Clifford]?

There was some consternation over the selection of the award on RTÉ as well, where Clifford didn't win it.

It would have been an indictment on the Player of the Match selecting processes if Clifford left Croke Park without something for his mantlepiece.

Speaking after the game, Malachy O’Rourke admitted the decision to target Paudie Clifford and Sean O’Shea created problems elsewhere.

"We were trying to nullify Paudie Clifford as much as we could and make sure Sean O’Shea didn’t get on as much ball as the last day but then we probably hung Padraig Hampsey out to dry on David Clifford we tried to remedy that at different times but Kerry were very economical with their chances."

Tyrone didn’t show up in the second half at all, their decision making and shot efficiency was really poor, to go 22 minutes without a score is unforgivable at this level.

They were compounding mistakes, every missed shot was soul destroying and gave Kerry oxygen, only two players scored for Tyrone in the second half, that win over Donegal in Ballybofey feels like a long time ago now.

Reflecting on the year as a whole the Tyrone boss labelled it a mixed bag.

"We got off to a bad start in the league but pleased to finish strong although we were relegated. We had a couple of great performances, did really well against Dublin a few weeks ago. We knew we were improving but Kerry is a big jump up so it was a bit of a mixed bag I suppose. We know after today there’s a lot of hard work to be done."

The future looks very bright for Tyrone. There's some work to do in the mean time, however.