Forgotten champions Tyrone can answer many critics

Davy Burke delivered an old-style 'ye wrote us off' smackdown last Sunday, accusing the punditocracy of disrespecting Roscommon in the run-up to their all-too familiar ambush of Mayo in MacHale Park last weekend.

Bemused, the media scurried back to review the various previews to see who might be culpable - David Brady is the chief suspect, having unwisely speculated as to how Mayo might cope with Galway in the upcoming provincial semi-final.

Lee Keegan wrote during the week that the Rossies were probably trying to embrace a "Tyrone style siege mentality." More evidence, if it were required, that Ulster's most recent All-Ireland winners have become synonynous with the gambit.

Tyrone's reputed need for a cause has been floated as an explanation for their consistently dreadful title defences.

With the silverware claimed, the All-Stars handed out and a general sense of contentment settling in over the winter, there is nothing left to rage at, fewer knockers left to sicken.

The 2022 season should at least sort out that problem. It may have been a terrible year on the pitch from start to finish, but it might well prove fruitful in replenishing the stocks of resentment and grievance that have fired Tyrone to greatness so often in the past. Next to them, Michael Jordan was a mere novice in this department.

Peter Canavan has previously recalled how Tyrone were "driven by a sense of injustice" in the triumphant campaigns of 2003 and 2005, whether it be the purist hand-wringing over their tactics or protracted disciplinary sagas.

"Over the course of the season ('03), we came to believe we weren't welcome at football's top table," Canavan wrote in the Belfast Telegraph in 2015. "Because of that we played with fury. It helped us."

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