Peter Harte gives important advice to every young footballer after glorious display

You ask Peter Harte what his position is and he doesn’t even know.

He wore number seven on his back again in what was another Sunday lit up by the flamed-hair playmaker but he wasn’t wing back. Nobody on the Tyrone team was.

Tiernan McCann – supposed to be on the other flank – was the exact same. At times, the pair were making runs out from full forward with their backs to goal. At other times, they were being barked at by Colm Cavanagh to get f**king back.

And still, if Peter Harte really is a box-to-box player – which is a scary prospect considering the sheer size of a football pitch – he’s in no danger of losing all the effortless class that makes him such a genuine privilege to watch.

Harte struts around the field like he belongs in every section of it – like it would be a shame to not play him here or there or anywhere. So he plays everywhere and he does it with such beauty.

Outside of the boot passes, piercing runs, left foot, right foot, vision and bravery.

He’s so adaptable that he was standing at the edge of the Tyrone square at one stage wrestling with a man mountain in green and gold.

“The modern footballer has to play anywhere,” Harte spoke with SportsJOE after Tyrone stormed into the Ulster final.

“I think I was picking up Neil McGee in full forward at a stage – so it just shows you, people just go all over the field and it’s about being adaptable and being able to work in different positions.

“It’s probably one thing every young footballer has to try and do now – be able to do both sides of the job.”

The Errigal Ciaran man can certainly do both sides of the job. He can do it tactically, wherever he’s required on the pitch. He can do it physically, in defence and attack.

His uncle and his manager explained after the game about “what might be to come” for football as he assessed Tyrone’s performance. He gleed that his side finally, for the first time in 18 months, clicked and let poor Donegal feel their full, brunt force. You can’t help but think that men like Peter Harte are crucial to that.

Some days, you get the feeling that Tyrone are playing football a couple of years ahead of everyone else with their new, undefined roles. Some days, you think that opposition managers simply don’t have enough time to work it out and that the other players just can’t live with the power of the Red Hands.

Clones on Sunday was one of those days but, as the O’Neill faithful roared and screamed and applauded their representatives off St. Tiernach’s Park, Harte wasn’t getting carried away.

“It means we’re in an Ulster final,” he bluntly told SportsJOE.

“First and foremost, that was the target today. The first half performance was spot on where we want to be and it’s good to get a win and get back into the final.”

They still have four more games to win.

Still, decent shooting for a team with no forwards…

“I don’t know if we have no forwards or loads of forwards. It’s probably a mixture for people who say we don’t have a marquee forward,” the half back half forward player said.

“There are plenty of boys who can score from range and score from inside – it was good shooting today.

“We talked about a lot of permutations that might happen and Donegal did throw some men in and some men out – but the game is so fluid now, there’s no 15 on 15.

“There are different tactics, different styles – even during games – you just have to be ready for what’s coming.”

It’s tough to be ready for what Tyrone are bringing though. Because they’re rewriting the book. It feels that way some days – it felt that way today.

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