Watch out Kerry if we turn the 'Tyroneyness' up to 10

I was reared on memories of Tyrone's 1986 meeting with Kerry. It felt like almost an honour for that Tyrone team to have done what they did in even ruffling the feathers of those green and gold-clad icons in that All-Ireland semi-final.

Even as a child I remember struggling to compute how a team could be seven points up in the second half and still lose by eight. The penalty chipped over the bar. The impact of Mr Spillane. Tyrone got all the typical Kerry warm words in the aftermath, but Kerry had done what they have done to so many: put us back in our place.

2003. Tyrone won the National League, won the Ulster title and won their first ever All-Ireland. Yet, for me, the seminal game was the semi-final. You know the one. The one that provoked that wave of nausea in the same man who had run riot 17 years previous.

Pre-game, in that dressing room underneath the Hogan Stand, a combination of an all-conquering underage group hungry to prove themselves as seniors and several special older heads, knew this was our day of days.

Most of those older heads had come through (mostly bandaged) that other infamous Tyrone semi-final in 1996. That day, against the Royals this time, Tyrone had been reminded of their place. Sneers of boys trying to play a man's game and being 'soft’ stuck. Tyrone were ‘too small and nice’ to ever win anything.

On that day in 2003, Tyrone as a people, discovered their esprit de corps. Tell us we can’t and we’ll show you. Look down on us and we’ll be standing over you by the end.

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