Joe McMahon hailed the Tyrone football panel for their unity in overcoming the many hurdles presented to them on their way towards All-Ireland success against Mayo.
McMahon came into the Tyrone backroom team ahead of the 2021 season, having previously been involved with Ryan McMenamin's Fermanagh. What followed was another unconventional season as Covid-19 again disrupted the traditional GAA calendar, with the Level 5 lockdown in the Republic delaying resumption of group training for teams until May.
The belated championship eventually swung around, however, and Tyrone showed up in Ulster like a team who hadn't taken their eyes off their objective during the long delay felt by all teams.
They blazed past Cavan and Donegal before defeating Monaghan in an Anglo-Celt decider held at Croke Park to accommodate a larger attendance.
It was in the build-up to that game that Tyrone panel members started to feel the pinch, with many contracting Covid-19. This was a disruptive factor which then reared its ugly head again ahead of the semi-final against Kerry - this time to a more damning extent.
McMahon recalled the impact of the virus on the playing squad, and praised the wider panel for how they held things together and kept the Tyrone train rolling.
He said: “The build-up to the Monaghan match, when there were players dropping out here and there, you were really going, ‘This is going to be some test of the panel.’
"And the fact of it is that it was players on the periphery of the squad who were the ones who were carrying the thing in those weeks."
Having had their semi-final with Kerry initially postponed for six days, that extension of time was not sufficient as the squad was depleted due to the severity of the outbreak of the virus.
Tyrone GAA then became involved in a standoff with the GAA hierarchy as they looked for a further postponement to allow recovering players enough time to return to match fitness after contracting Covid-19.
Their request was initially denied but after they released a response stating that they would have to concede the game if further postponement was not granted, the GAA gave in and pushed the semi final back a further week.
And McMahon described the monstrous effort put in by returning players in their preparations for what became a semi-final that had the attention of the whole country.
He continued: "When we were getting ready for the Kerry match, you had boys coming back in and at all times, player welfare was first and foremost.
"So you would have had sessions and drills where players would step out for a few minutes and go and chat to the medical staff who were watching everything very closely.
“That was what we were stressing with them over and over.
"If any man needs to step out of a session, there is no pressure to keep going.
"We left it to the players and the medical staff all the way through.
"That’s when the whole panel really kicked into effect because you can’t really imagine what it must have been like for those players coming back from Covid.
"It was some effort from everyone to get back to a place where we could compete.”
