By Barry O'Donnell
FEW people would have predicted back on the 14th June that Tyrone would be the only northern light left flickering in this year's All-Ireland race, but will the Red Hand beacon still be burning proudly by teatime this coming Saturday?
Idle boosts voiced about the perceived merits and strengths of the Ulster Championship have a hollow ring to them right now following the derisory showings by the likes of Down, Fermanagh and Armagh over the last fortnight at Croke Park.
The fancied trio saw their Sam Maguire aspirations extinguished by rather humble opposition in the form of Wexford and Kildare, and their demise now leaves Micky Harte's men carrying the torch for Ulster aspirations single-handedly.
Further opposition from the eastern province stands in their path and in all due respect to the Lilywhites and Slaneysiders, it represents a significant step up in terms of calibre and tradition, in the guise of the four in a row Delaney Cup (Leinster) champions, Dublin.
Over 80,000 spectators are expected to cram into the Jones Road venue for this All-Ireland quarter-final collision and given the recent spine-shuddering confrontations between the two counties, it won't be an occasion for the faint-hearted.
Such a mouth-watering scenario seemed highly unlikely for Tyrone when they bowed out of the Anglo-Celt race in the first round replay against Down at Newry on Saturday June 14th after an extra-time epic, yet the squad have battened down the hatches and plotted a route back into the spotlight via the Qualifiers.
It has been far from scintillating at times, the side digging deep into their reserves of character and determination to chisel out victories over stubborn opponents in Westmeath and Mayo, but the objective has been achieved.
Tyrone locked horns with the Dubs in two epic Championship blockbusters at a similar stage of the competition back in 2005, though the footballing landscape has changed considerably during the intervening period.
Back then Tyrone belonged to an elite group known as the 'big three', sitting cosily alongside Kerry and Armagh, with Paul Caffrey's charges frustratingly cast as outsiders desperate to get an invite to the top table.
Wind the clock forward three years, and Kerry sit alone as the undoubted premier force in the country.
Dublin are now touted as the Kingdom's principle rivals for the Sam Maguire crown, while Armagh and Tyrone are cruelly tagged as 'yesterday's men' in various quarters. Such jibes however will give Harte's fired-up troops no shortage of motivation to prove their carpers wrong this weekend.
Saturday's showdown represents Tyrone's sixth All-Ireland quarter-final appearance in eight seasons, and to date their last eight record reads: won two (Fermanagh '03, Dublin '05), lost three (Derry '01, Mayo '04, Meath '07) and drawn one (Dubs '05).
The most memorable quarter-final ties of course were those breathtaking encounters with the Metropolitans three years ago and especially the initial drawn meeting which threw up one of the most abiding moments in Championship history- Eoin Mulligan's wonder goal.
Another landmark occasion was last February's National League fixture which marked the official switching-on of the floodlights at Croke Park, Tyrone staging a stirring fightback to take the spoils 0-11 to 0-10.
The counties recent clashes however also evoke one or two more notorious recollections, most notably the infamous 'Battle of Healy Park' in February '06 when both sides ended up in the dock after mayhem ensued on the Omagh pitch.
Hopefully the emphasis will be on positive, enterprising football this weekend, with Tyrone all too aware that they will have to produce their best display since the 2005 All-Ireland showdown with Kerry if they are to prevail and advance to a semi-final meeting with surprise packets Wexford.
Aside from Chris Lawn, Gavin Devlin and Stephen O'Neill, the northerners line-up won't be drastically altered from that which crossed swords with the Dubs in '05 (Peter Canavan was suspended) but in terms of level of performance, hunger and intensity, they have laboured to match the herculean achievements of that season.
A cursory glance at the scoring stats from the Red Hands brilliant 2-18 to 1-14 replay triumph in their last Championship clash against Pillar Caffrey's men tells its own story.
The currently out of form and out of favour Eoin Mulligan and currently retired Stephen O'Neill chipped in with 2-10 between them. It's hard to fathom two current Tyrone marksmen accumulating the same type of prolific return in such a high-octane environment at a jam-packed Croke Park.
By contrast Dublin looked dynamic and explosive in the attacking sector against Wexford in the recent Leinster Final, registering a frightening 3-22 to slaughter Mattie Forde & co. And any argument questioning the validity of the Dubs opposition has been considerably weakened with Wexford's subsequent victories over both Down and Armagh.
Nevertheless, unlike Kerry, the Metropolitans, are far from the finished article and having flattered to deceive on countless occasions over the last decade, captain Alan Brogan and his men have many psychological hurdles still to surmount.
The team and management have been burdened with unrelentingly negative fallout any time they come up short and this is something Tyrone will look to exploit. If the Red Hands can stay on their coat-tails until the very late stages, it will be interesting to see the Dubs response.
For Tyrone this is the game that could be the making of them. Up to this juncture in the Championship they have operated under pressure but will enter the quarter-final as underdogs. They will set out to neuter Dublin's midfield diamond -- Bryan Cullen, Shane Ryan, Ciarán Whelan and Jason Sherlock-and Conal Keaney in order to arrest the boys in blue's ability to control the tempo of the game.
A midfield partnership of Joe McMahon and Enda McGinley will provide Whelan and Ryan with entirely different questions to answer than anything they've faced up till now. And at the back Conor Gormley and Ryan McMenamin will do whatever it takes to get under the skin of Dublin's most influential attackers.
When the counties clashed in the summer of 2005, it was Harte's personnel and positional switches that worked the oracle to deny the Dubs. Between the 10th and 33rd minute of the opening half in the drawn game Whelan cleanly won six kickouts at midfield -- four led to scores. However, in the second half the introduction of McMahon to the midfield sector saw the Raheny man's influence on the game wane significantly.
With Whelan struggling to wrestle back his grip on the game the Dublin attack suffered massively and was it not for two late Tomás Quinn points they would not have earned a replay despite the fact the Dubs had led by five points at the interval.
For two counties who compete in different provincial Championships the rivalry between Dublin and Tyrone is massive - just check out their NFL meetings alone of recent times - and Saturday clash should be one of the games of the season. After staggering along with a hangover for months now this assignment could mark the 'Hair o' the Dog' for Tyrone. It will either cure them or kill them!
