Tyrone manager Mickey Harte does not believe inter-county football has become a chore.

Speaking in Abu Dhabi where he is one of the managers on the GAA/GPA All-Stars tour sponsored by Opel, Harte insisted the pressure on inter-county footballers nowadays is not excessive.

"I think it's overplayed that it's a chore,” said Harte. “If that's the case I wonder why they go there - they should stay at home. If they don't like going there they should pick up a snooker cue or a tennis bat or do something like that.

"There's no pressure on, but they like to put themselves in those positions. I sometimes have to tell players to take it easy, hold back. I never had to do that in the 1990s.

"But now I'm saying 'I don't think you should train tonight, you've done enough' or 'you need to take care'. I actually hold people back rather than push them on. To me, that doesn't reflect people who aren't enjoying what they are doing - they really are.

"This is the other myth out there, that all managers are just out for themselves and don't care tuppence for the welfare of the player. That you have a game, you want these players and you want to take them away from everyone else.

"But if we have a player who was training for college and he was training that night, I wouldn't have it. If a player had a match the day after we have training, I wouldn't let him train, never mind demand that he trains."

Harte believes there’s too much negative commentary around Gaelic Games nowadays and says people need to realise that the standard of inter-county football is far higher now than it was in the past.

"I am an optimistic person,” said Harte. “I really do feel there is a serious amount of negativity around reporting and reflecting on Gaelic games.

"I think we need to take a step back. For example, they are not comparing like with like in terms of the quality of games we get sometimes. We never saw the games back in the day, we never saw anything on the television until the All-Ireland semi-finals and final.

"Even then, if you were to compare those games with modern day games, they are not the gold-dust that they appeared to be at the time."

Harte has just one year remaining on his current agreement with the Tyrone County board, but expects to continue working with the current football panel “for some time” yet.

"I am happy in what I am doing,” he said. If it turns out that somebody believes it is not good enough, well, that's their choice.

"There is a great group of players here at the minute, they have good confidence in each other and I think that we will work together for some time."