Speculation is rife in Tyrone that Mickey Harte could be sensationally about to call on Conor McKenna for the All Ireland football final.
Rumours have refused to go away this week despite the chance of such an occurrence being incredibly slim. Tyrone are finalising their preparations for their date with Dublin in Croke Park on September 2nd.
The Irish News had the story on the back page on Friday. McKenna is playing for Essendon in the AFL but their season is about to come to an end with the final regular game scheduled this weekend against Port Adelaide.
McKenna played minor with Tyrone and trained with the senior side before he was snapped up by the AFL side. In an interview last year he noted his desire to return to county colours at some stage in the future:
“It's always one that hopefully I come home at some stage and represent my club, my county. At the minute, I'm signed for those four years so I'm there for four years anyway.
“In four years I'm going to be 25, I'm a young fella. Tadhg Kennelly came home he was 27 or 28; so there's plenty of time and if it's an option, I'll take it.”
Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has been bullish about their chances of causing the upset of the year. He says it is just about convincing the players that they can stop Dublin getting a record equaling fourth Sam Maguire win in a row.
"It's very difficult to win back-to-back All-Ireland's, to get three-in-a-row is even more difficult and to be in pole position to get four-in-a-row to such an extent that people are talking about five now - just shows you the level that Dublin are at.
"The quality of player that they have on the field, the quality that they have to come in, the quality of management they have and the experience they now have of winning titles at the top level - so yes, this is a huge, huge ask of us but, as I always say, every record and every good run comes to an end sometime.
"And, you know, we're in a position to try and effect that kind of change on the system so we have to do our best to try and do that."
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