McGeary delighted to get back to the semi-finals

KIERAN McGeary ushered in the start of his second half century of Championship appearances in style on Saturday, picking up the man of the match award from the official sponsors after Tyrone’s seven point victory over Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park.

The Pomeroy man was making his 51st Championship start for the Red Hand County and continued his renaissance of late with another excellent showing against the Dubs, setting the tone early on with a composed two pointer in the second minute.

McGeary was the Footballer of the Year when Tyrone last lifted Sam Maguire in 2021 and after a couple of lean seasons, both for himself and the team collectively, he was thrilled to have made the last four once again.

“ It’s our first All-Ireland semi-final since we won it in 2021 and will be new territory for a lot of lads so we will look forward to it now whoever we get. There is a lot to brush up on despite the win. But that was the objective coming here today to make the All-Ireland semi-final and we have done just that.”

In this era of all singing, all dancing footballing classics, this was an altogether more cagey and scrappy affair with both teams struggling for much cohesion at times. McGeary admitted that Tyrone were far from perfect but still savoured the first Championship triumph over the Dubs since 2008, having suffered six painful losses to them during the intervening period.

“It feels unbelievable. It was a tough game. They had their chances and we had ours too with goal chances also going abegging but thank god we seen it out.

“We seemed to hold a slender lead throughout- three points, two points, one point and maybe trying to run down the clock as much as possible but we could never put them away.”

McGeary admitted that it wasn’t a match for the purists with both sides struggling to adapt to the greasy conditions on a damp evening, and possession regularly turned over.

“It was difficult out there especially to get out of the tackle. Some of the tackling was very strong and ferocious. Conditions were tricky and that made handling difficult at times. It was the same for both teams in fairness. We maybe took better options than them overall. Both teams also had goal chances which weren’t taken.”

Tyrone led from the 23rd minute onwards but struggled to put a hard-working if fairly mediocre Dublin side to bed, with each team coughing up scoring opportunities. McGeary felt the input of the Tyrone subs down the home straight helped swing it, with Ben McDonnell, Ruairi Canavan and Eoin McElholm all chipping in with vital scores.

“I thought our bench made a massive difference in the second half.

“The likes of Ruairi Canavan and Eoin McElholm came on and both scored. Lads like that just give you that burst of energy when it is needed to get over the line.”