By Michael Devlin

There is a distinct sense of intrigue surrounding this Saturday’s All-Ireland Quarter-Final group stage clash between Tyrone and Dublin in Omagh.

Many neutral onlookers will be curious to see reigning All-Ireland champions in action outside of Croke Park, and they’re sure to get a rousing reception at Healy Park on Saturday night when they come to Tyrone’s county town.

“It is something special, there’s no doubt about it,” commented Mickey Harte after last Saturday’s comfortable win over of Roscommon in the first round of Group Two. “It’s something we never dreamt maybe that would ever happen, but it’s a very novel idea now that we have Dublin, All-Ireland champions, coming to play Championship football in Omagh in the month of July.”

Dublin are coming back off a five point win over Donegal in their first quarter-final series outing, but didn’t exactly hit their usual high standards, with sloppiness creeping into their play and a number of scoring opportunities spurned. It’s something which manager Jim Gavin says will have to be improved on Saturday night.

“The chances that we had that we didn't convert is disappointing particularly when we spend most of our practice sessions going after the skills of the game - shooting for points and goals.”

Dublin have already been to Omagh in 2018, back on a cold February night in the National League. Tyrone looked more than up for the fight and made a fine start to lead at halftime, but Jim Gavin’s men, as they so often do, turned on the style in a superb second half show to run out five point winners.

For Tyrone, it was a marked improvement from their disappointing league opener with Galway the week before, while it was a reminder that Dublin are just as formidable a force on the road as they are in Croke Park.

The Championship is a different proposition though according to local Omagh journalist, Paddy Hunter.

“Teams are at their peak and everybody’s buzzing. You can feel the anticipation rising as the days go on. It’s such a novel thing, such a massive thing, to have Dublin playing in a Championship quarter-final basically of an All-Ireland series in Omagh.

“It’s a big occasion for the town. You know people are talking about it on the street, and there is an air of anticipation. Businesses are prepared for it, there is a going to be fan-zone on Main Street for earlier in the day where people can sample the pre-match atmosphere.”

Hunter is doubly invested in Saturday’s game, being part of both the Omagh St Endas’ and Tyrone County Board communications committees. He also serves as the county ladies football PRO.

“It’s good to be involved. You have to put your time and effort into the club and on days like this, there is a lot of work to be done but it’s special to be involved in it.”

By no means is he alone however in the task of making sure all boxes are ticked at Healy Park. Conor Sally, Omagh club secretary, has been working around the clock this week, as has chairman Paul Breen, health and safety officer Michael McCarney, and groundsman Paul Turbitt, as well as a whole host of volunteers from the St Endas’ club and county officials.

The committed team had a lot of the groundwork done in time for the Ulster Championship opener with Monaghan back in May, but it’s been a case of keeping the house in pristine order ahead of the arrival of the Dubs.

“A lot of work was done before the Monaghan game just to tee the place up a wee bit. At the end of the day with a stadium of that size there is a lot of maintenance that goes on. It’s been a case of generally maintaining things, just keeping everything ticking over.

“There’s no getting away from the fact it’s a new concept, a new series of games, but from an organisational perspective it’s the same as any big game you host in Omagh. The same things have to be done, the stewards have to be there, the organisation of it all.

“Obviously there are a few extra tweaks, the fact that it’s televised live, there’s extra media attention that has to be looked after. But when it comes to hosting the game, it’s another game, whether it’s 10,000 people at Healy Park on Tyrone Club Championship Final day, or 15,000 for Tyrone and Dublin, the same things are in place for it.”

Mickey Harte has been fielding questions about last year’s All-Ireland Semi-Final capitulation at the hands of Dublin at Croke Park so regularly he feels he now knows the game ‘inside-out’.

Con O’Callaghan’s early goal paved the way for a comfortable 2-17 to 0-11 win, with Tyrone offering up only a facile resistance to a clinical Dublin display was facile.

“If you didn’t study that game and try to learn from how we found ourselves in the position we did, we’d be sleep-walking into a challenge if not the same but even better than last year,” commented Harte.

“We didn’t get to begin to perform the way that we felt we could do early in the game. We were on the back foot from a very early stage in the game, therefore we didn’t get to challenge Dublin in the way we felt we might be able to do.

“It was a damage limitation job almost from early on, and that’s not a nice game to be in, knowing that you’re playing the best team in the country and they have a bit of a march on you.

“It wasn’t a good day, and we’ve been reminded of that many times since, so we are well aware of what we are thought of because of that.”

It’s a question that continues to arise - are Tyrone the team to knock Dublin off their perch? Just like last year, when they steamrolled Ulster opposition en route to the final four showdown, the team is coming into Saturday’s game full of a similar confidence off the back of two substantial wins over Cork and Roscommon, racking up a total of 7-44.

The return of National League top scorer Lee Brennan will be a welcome boost to Harte, and whether or not the Trillick sharp-shooter will play a central role on Saturday, the Tyrone manager will expect Connor McAliskey, Niall Sludden, Peter Harte and Richard Donnelly to be on song in the scoring department.

Harte admits though it could have been very different had the Red Hands not ‘got out of jail’ in Navan in the first round of the qualifiers against Meath, where they ground out a nervy win after extra-time.

“We’re lucky to have that opportunity, we could have been out of it altogether [that] day, and we mightn’t be in this place at all. So we used our luck up quite a bit that day and we learned to build on that, we took an advantage of the little bit of a break we got that day.”

Tyrone will have to use all their breaks against the Dublin juggernaut, but he’s dismissed the notion that Healy Park alone will be a big enough benefit in his side’s quest for victory.

“Is Omagh any big fortress for us? There’s not real history to suggest that it is. We’ve never played a Championship game of this importance in it before, so we’ll see what we can do with that. But I’ll not be depending on the ground to get this game for us, we’ll be depending on many other things.

“We have to actually be better at all of the things that we do well and add value to that, and know that even doing that doesn’t guarantee you a result. But it should guarantee us to be more competitive than we were last year, and that’s the first challenge, be more competitive than we were.”

Roll on Saturday evening.