Replying To Cockney_Cat:  "Kilkenny are not the first team to appear in an All-Ireland final after losing two games."

Replying To points50swiththeargyllsonthewrongfeet:  "The begrudgery is out there folks. When we won on 03, it was down to "puke football" and doing un-GAA stuff like swarm defending. Of course, now that everyone else has adopted a similar defensive approach, there's not a word about it.
Tyrone's win last year was of course similarly downplayed. The dominant narrative was that Kerry and Mayo lost it, rather than Tyrone won it. Pat Spillane said recently that, last year v Tyrone, Kerry had an off day, and "didn't show up". That is, the result had little to do with Tyrone, Kerry just didn't "show up". As for the final, well, Tyone won mainly because, remarkably, Mayo had an off day too, and missed lots of scores they normally would have got. The fact that Tyrone may have pressured the life out of them is overlooked. As the ever-gracious Martin Breheny said in March this year, writing in a national newspaper, Tyrone were "accidental champs, gifted the throne". In other words, a cheap all Ireland for Tyrone, who just got lucky in that their semi-final and final opponents both played well below their normal standards. It's almost as if Tyrone are unacceptable at the top table, and you can sense the relief when we're knocked out of the championship.
I love this, and pray that the begrudgery continues. The Tyrone psyche responds badly to praise and to popularity ..."