After a relatively entertaining championship thus far, we have the four semi-finalists we expected. Mayo/Kerry is centre-stage this weekend, with Tyrone and Dublin slated to joust at HQ next weekend.
Although most of the attention this week has been focused squarely on Mayo/Kerry, Mickey Harte held a media night last night looking ahead to his side's first All-Ireland semi-final since 2015. The Tyrone boss is expecting to see Diarmuid Connolly at some stage, in spite of Jim Gavin's being characteristically coy on his possible selection.
Harte also addressed the influence of Hill 16, and while he spoke of it as a positive - saying that they seemed to suck over a few points for the Dubs against Tyrone in 2005 - but also flagged an incident which he hopes will either not happen on Sunday week, or is at least ensuring his players get the message to ignore it.
I would say one important thing, and this goes back to a game against Dublin...
At a very important time in that game we put a wonderful ball into Martin Penrose - and there was a whistle blown from the Hill. He just paused for that split-second and he lost that opportunity of a clear-cut goal.
I haven't heard it much this year, I hope it doesn't come back again.That wouldn't be a good thing to happen, I hope it doesn't happen, but we have to be very aware of the possibility of that.
Mickey Harte: the whistleblower on, er, whistleblowing.
Read all of Harte's comments on The Irish News' website.
See Also: Kerry Make Three Changes For Mayo Semi-Final
