Mickey Harte, the Tyrone manager, should probably have known better than to make himself a hostage to fortune.
Yet this was precisely what he did five years ago. Stating at the time that it was “highly doubtful” that a team competing in Division 2 of the Allianz league would ever win the All Ireland in the same year, he set himself up for some serious backpeddling.
That moment arrived yesterday when, flanked by reporters ahead of Tyrone’s Division 2 final against Cavan this weekend, he was reminded of his dour prediction.
In Harte’s defence, statistics backed up — and continue to back up — his argument. No county since Armagh, in 2002, have won the All Ireland from the base of Division 2 league football.