TYRONE LEGEND OWEN Mulligan believes Mickey Harte needs to show more trust in the Red Hand forwards if they’re to take the next step and challenge for All-Irelands.
But having said that, he doesn’t think any of their current forwards would get a starting place on the great Tyrone side of the 2000s.
Mulligan was part of a talented forward line that helped deliver All-Ireland titles in 2003, 2005 and 2008, and he feels they compare favourably to the current crop of attackers.
“Look we had the best player in Ireland at one stage, (Peter) Canavan, we had the second-best in Stevie (O’Neill),” the Paddy Power ambassador said yesterday. “Brian Dooher and I fed off them. Enda McGinley, (Brian) McGuigan, that’s freak.
“I don’t think they would have (made that team), but you know it is not the forwards’ fault at the minute because it is the defensive way they are playing.
“I just think there is a lack of trust there,” he added.
“The corner forwards can’t express themselves. All right they are leaving the two up. Are they getting the scores?
“They fall back, it’s the formation the manager wants to play. I’d like to see them play just to see what they would go like, six on six. Judging by what you see and hear that’s the way they want to play too. But the manager has made his decision.”
Mulligan is a big fan of Lee Brennan, who broke onto the starting team in this year’s league and finished the campaign with 2-30.
The Trillick ace is battling a hamstring injury to make Tyrone’s Ulster SFC quarter-final with Monaghan on 20 May and Mulligan believes Brennan has become one of their most important players due to his accuracy on placed balls.
“Lee Brennan, I think you can carry a free-kick taker, but he has also proved me wrong and he was scoring from play and in club games in Tyrone. He is right up there with 1-6, 1-7, 1-8 every week and he wasn’t getting that chance (last year).
He continued: “If your form is good for your club, it transforms to inter-county because you are confident and he has got that run in the team.
“Free kicks have been their downfall, 45s have been their downfall. I think there was one game two years ago, I think (against) Mayo and another free-kick was missed.
“I just think if you can carry a free-kicker, a 10/10 man. I’m not saying Lee Brennan is an All-Star but he is accurate with free-kicks and he seems to be able to deal with the pressure and he can pop them over. He kicks them week-in, week-out for his club. He seems to be relishing the chance.”
Mulligan was intrigued to see his old team-mate O’Neill join Harte’s backroom team at the start of the year.
“You only have to look at what Stevie has achieved in the game and it is a big job for him. There is his ability to get into people’s heads. I played with Stevie and we had some good chats and we played well together.
“If a wee bit of Stevie can rub off on one or two of them players and they can get that vital score…” he trailed off.
When asked if he’d like to be an inter-county manager one day himself, Mulligan replied: “I definitely would. You have to start off at the bottom.
“I’m not saying go back home to Tyrone and start off at one of the bottom clubs. People still remind you of 2003, 2005 and 2008 and you’ve got that experience of playing under one of the best managers about in Mickey Harte. Hopefully you can take a wee bit of inspiration from that.
“I’d love to see the forwards always express themselves. You know, I have experience, I’ve been managed by some great managers so you always take a few wee snippets from that.
“I’ve been one of the main players but also been a cancer to the group, the ‘come on out for a pint’ craic. If you can marry the whole thing together, God knows where it’s going to take you.
“But I’m not going to say I’ll be Jose Mourinho or that sort of craic, I’m just going to give it a go and hopefully it goes alright. It is something I’d be interested in.”
Based in London, Mulligan briefly came out of inter-county retirement last summer when he joined the Exiles for the championship.
The 36-year-old says they’re a better side than last season but admits beating Sligo will be a tough task in the Connacht SFC quarter-final this weekend.
“It’ll be a tough one for them. I think that they’re a better team than last year, they have better personnel.
“They have a few of the Fulham boys that I played with and they’re top quality footballers. Liam Staunton, Mickey Murphy – a Tyrone man as well – Conor Murphy, there is strength in the squad and they’ve got better facilities. You’ve seen them in QPR on social media and I think that’s what is needed around London.
“If you can buy into that and buy into the whole soccer thing, all their equipment and facilities, that’s the way to go, I think.”
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