SFC Qualifier Round Two/ Laois 0-9 Tyrone 0-6: So this is where the end came and with it a beginning - not on the bone-hard field at Croke Park in front of the sun-baked multitudes but in something resembling a club match in December with 9,250 watching on.
Portlaoise in the pelting rain and nipping cold of a most unseasonal July evening became the frame for two extreme experiences: the loss of an All-Ireland crown and the rediscovery of what two weeks ago looked like an irretrievable self-respect.
Laois, still smarting from their humiliation by Dublin, manned the trenches and clung tenaciously to their early advantage on the scoreboard in the face of a buffeting second-half wind.
It was sufficient to prevent for a 16th year the retention of the Sam Maguire and make Laois the first Leinster county to defeat either of Ulster's big two, Armagh and Tyrone, in championship since Meath seven years ago.
Since a relentless stream of misfortune broke its banks last May with Brian McGuigan's broken leg, Mickey Harte's Tyrone have been living on borrowed time in their title defence.
It wouldn't be accurate to say they went down with all guns blazing but they gave it as much as they could with the core of their first-choice 15 all but ripped out by injury. Harte sent on all of the players he had felt it wiser to keep on the bench earlier last week but it wasn't enough.
Their improvised defence coped heroically under relentless attack but up front they never posed enough threat - the whole attack mustered just one point from play - to trigger the self-doubt that might have undone Laois. And on the day finding any such vulnerability might have been difficult. Laois clearly understood their reputation was in the balance. Manager Mick O'Dwyer has hardly ever been as animated.
Gone was the bobbing stroll up and down the sideline with match programme rolled up behind his back.
Instead he almost played like a 16th man, agitatedly encroaching on the pitch to remonstrate with players - and at half-time the referee. His fury found its response even if it means he may be banished to the stand for his serial infractions.
"I got plenty of stick after the Dublin game," he said. "They said I was going over the hill, that I shouldn't be managing the team, that I should have gone early in the year."
He identified his team's efforts after the break as key - "gave a wonderful exhibition in the second half" - and that was the consensus.
Speaking to the victorious Laois dressing-room Harte echoed his counterpart: "The second-half performance was better than I've seen for a long time. You have turned a bad defeat into a wonderful win. Keep that up and you'll take some beating."
That "bad defeat" cropped up quite a bit in Laois reactions. Defender Aidan Fennelly summed up the collective resentment: "You don't train from October to August or September to have people telling you you're useless and have no bottle. But we'll forget about today and concentrate on next week."
With the weather inclement the prospective winners were going to need fiery enthusiasm just for starters. Laois delivered on that from the throw-in; on a wet, heavy pitch they unleashed their running game and kept pressing to the extent that Tyrone had no real interludes of sustained pressure in response.
The tone was set by Laois's Kerry import Billy Sheehan, who ran himself ragged and scored three points from play - a huge total in the circumstances even if a more clinical demeanour would have turned one of them into a goal in the fourth minute.
Beside him Chris Conway led the physical challenge, which in emulation of the champions at their best, made possession and movement very hard for Tyrone's defence.
Laois needed the constant focus because their opponents were still well able to lose markers and launch long-range build-up, but the champions lacked penetration up front. Stephen O'Neill made an unexpectedly early entrance in the 26th minute, evidence that Harte was concerned with the drift of the match.
Nonetheless, his deployment at centre forward was too deep. He steadied the attack and established a platform but for optimum effect he needed to be on the inside as well to pose a scoring threat.
A driven first half left Laois 0-6 to 0-3 ahead and with the wind to come, Tyrone might have felt the worst was behind them. Instead Laois raised their game in the third quarter.
Inaccurate shooting suggested this renewed effort would blow itself out but in a way the most significant action was the statement of intent detectable in Ross Munnelly's dispossession of Ryan McMenamin a minute into the restart.
Laois didn't stop. Conway's 44th-minute free pushed the margin to four and when Owen Mulligan missed a 25-metre free, it dawned on even the sceptical it was the champions who were feeling the pressure.
Three points isn't a huge deficit, and in such weather a streaky goal is always possible but so rare were Tyrone's moments of threat the Laois backs - sharp and committed - coped without panic. Exchanged scores ran out the final quarter, Conway's 69th-minute point sealing the result.
Goalkeeper Fergal Byron described the road to redemption after the 14-point mauling by Dublin.
"We needed a performance that would dig deep because we had to get out of the fairly big hole we'd dug for ourselves two weeks ago. This has been the hardest couple of weeks I've ever put in in football. Micko took the first session after the Leinster final himself so there were a few fellas feeling sick afterwards. The presssure came from within ourselves. We knew we were better footballers than we showed against Dublin."
It can't be Mickey Harte's favourite venue. A lost All-Ireland title on his 28th wedding anniversary became the latest in a catalogue that includes last year's NFL semi-final shock against Wexford and Errigal Ciarán's defeat by Nemo Rangers in the 2003 All-Ireland club semi-final.
"People will make their own value judgements," he said on Saturday, "but I know the efforts the players made even if today wasn't one of their better performances.
"I knew that the Leinster semi-final hadn't been a true reflection of the quality of this Laois team. We know them going back to the minor championships in the 1990s. We also knew that anyone playing the All-Ireland champions have nothing to lose.
"It wasn't designed for us this year.It's been a difficult year. It's very hard to see quality players getting serious injuries. But it happens and it happened to us. I know the good people of Tyrone - not the ones who have a knee-jerk reaction for everything - will understand that these players have been doing their best."
LAOIS: 1. F Byron; 2. A Fennelly, 3. D Rooney, 4. J Higgins; 5. P McDonald, 6. T Kelly (0-1), 7. P McMahon; 8. B Quigley, 9. N Garvan; 10. B McCormack (0-1), 11. C Conway (0-3, 2 frees), 12. R Munnelly (0-1); 15. G Kavanagh (capt), 14. B McDonald, 13. B Sheehan (0-3). Subs: 20. I Fitzgerald for Kavanagh (64 mins), 22. S Cooke for McMahon (72 mins). Yellow cards: G Kavanagh (6 mins), C Conway (17 mins), A Fennelly (34 mins), N Garvan (60 mins).
TYRONE: 1. J Devine; 2. R McMenamin (capt.), 3. C McGinley, 4. M McGee; 5. D Harte, 6. C Gourley, 7. P Jordan; 8. K Hughes (0-1), 9. S Cavanagh (0-1); 12. E McGinley, 11. R Mulgrew, 10. R Mellon; 13. M Penrose, 14. O Mulligan (0-1, free), 15. C McCullagh (0-2, 0-1 free). Subs: 26. S O'Neill (0-1, free) for Mulgrew (26 mins), 23. J McMahon for Hughes (44 mins), 18. D Carlin for Gourley (61 mins). Yellow cards: S Cavanagh (22 mins), K Hughes (40 mins), J McMahon (49 mins).
Referee: J Geaney (Referee).
