Mickey Harte says the positive appraisal of hurling is in stark contrast to how football is viewed.

Pondering the positive reaction to Sunday's drawn All-Ireland SHC final during the course of his weekly Irish News column, the Tyrone manager writes:

"There was little or no focus on the poor passages of play of which both sides were guilty. No one was counting the number of possessions forfeited by thumping the ball towards the opposition goals where the forwards (sometimes singular) were heavily outnumbered and the ball was regularly returned from whence it came.

"Indeed, a defender collecting a ball driven forward and creating enough space for himself to get a full-blooded delivery attracted a huge roar of approval from the supporters of his team.

"It didn't matter a whole lot if that clearance was won by the opposition - the supporters appreciated the endeavour and skill required to execute that piece of play.

"Massed defence was often the order of the day and there were many dogged scrambles for possession from puck-outs on both sides, which invariably took place on the opposition's 45m line.

"At times, particularly in the second half, Joe Canning found himself hugely outnumbered a la Colm McFadden in last year's All-Ireland football semi-final.

"But none of these incidents in the game were considered valuable talking points. Nor was anyone counting the number of times possession was lost by pucking the ball into an area of the field where the opposition had the upper hand numerically.

"For me, this epitomised the stark difference between the hurling fraternity, who are invariably positive about all things relating to the small ball game, something the big-match pundits and scribes generally reflect.

"They look at the good in their game and - surprise, surprise - they get it in abundance." Tweet

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