Longer evenings and a dangle of sunlight above the fields of Ballygawley. There's a sea of yellow on the gorse of these parts, a different scent in the air. It's that perfect time when everything still lies ahead, completely attainable. Tyrone are oiling up for the months to come and from Monday they're back training twice a week. Ever since January players have been like noosed greyhounds but the time to discard the muzzle and work those limbs has at last arrived.

Summer and football. Two words that will always stretch a smile across the face of Mickey Harte. "We're looking forward to it, " he says. It's a sentence that shows much about his understated way but it also hides his eloquence.

When Mickey Harte talks Tyrone and football, he speaks often of an existence lived on the edge. He refers to 2003 and those games rescued from defeat in the Ulster championship. He recalls last year and the 10 games of Tyrone's All Ireland series, a number of which they could have lost. He files it as the season when they scampered through minefields and emerged in September with their legs still beneath them.

The man remembers games with great detail and has little incidents taped inside his head. These things make the difference, he says.

A word in the dressing room, the bounce of a ball. He recognises and appreciates the nuances of football, the fickle nature of tradition and reputation. Here in Ballygawley, in a land drenched with football, Harte rewinds his memory and tries to put his finger on what brought Tyrone to their destiny.

First, he must fire two tea bags out of a white pot and half-fill his cup with milk.

Note: Mickey Harte likes his tea weak and his footballers strong.

So much has happened since he took charge of the Tyrone minors. There were losses on the field, tragedy away from it, before success came at underage level. And the gates finally broke down 10 months after he became the county's senior manager.

The core of his team, Harte included, have trucked together through the years. They have faced their obstacles and heartaches as a solid entity.

He has given his players that foaming desire to succeed and not just in the championship.

Harte approaches every game with the same high intensity, be it the McKenna Cup opener or the All Ireland final. It's not just about succeeding; it's about potential and fulfilling it.

"You must have total respect for every competition and every single game, no matter what, " he says. "I see no other way of approaching sport. Others may go about things differently and good luck to them. But it's not in my capacity. I can think no other way."

The respect of which he speaks spills over into the relationship he has with those who play for him. The members of the Tyrone team are not just players to him, they're individuals with a life and an existence that extends beyond the lines of a football field. All that has passed has enabled him to see above the rim of Gaelic glory.

"We have to appreciate what is required from the modern football athlete. He has to put life on hold a little bit so you have to manage a person's time as much as his football talent. We try to give them [the players] plenty of time and not be too demanding. We've been training one night a week up to now and that allows the lads an opportunity to go to their club.

That's important because it keeps that connection, it keeps them in touch and they don't feel like they're leaving the club behind.

"The more you can accommodate the lifestyle of the player the more likely you are that they will have that desire to get to the top and stay there. If you're drilling players into the ground four or five nights a week at this stage, wellf life's not worth that.

Life is to be lived. I think it's criminal that there are lads training four nights a week at any time of the year. I cannot understand how any player would allow themselves be abused in that way. And I would call it abuse.

"I'm not saying I have all the answers but people need to be with their families, they need to have social time and we need to bear this in mind.

Players are not just this piece of Gaelic football talent that we see. You must see the person and respect that person."

The start of April now and Tyrone are easing off the brakes, they're shifting gears for the first time this year.

Counting the win against Monaghan in the McKenna Cup final, victory over Cork today will bring their fifth straight win. Under Harte, they have slowly built a tradition as the team that stands up when the big occasion calls.

The league began with a kind of strangeness to it and after two games Tyrone were avoiding relegation and dodging the gaze of the media. The incident against Dublin was "one of these things that happens, " says Harte, and he stands firmly behind his opinion that it "wasn't as brutal as portrayed".

Onwards and upwards, though. These passing weeks have brought better news and results and have launched Tyrone into a battle to make the play-offs. Last weekend was significant. Facing a breeze and a four-point deficit Tyrone nailed 1-5 without reply in the opening stages of the second half and took Kerry's scalp in the process.

To add to the cocktail, Brian Dooher returned and kicked a delicious point late in the game.

"We're coming good at important stages and there's comfort in the knowledge that we can come from difficult positions and win games. But you can't rely on that, some day you'll get caught out. It's in our hands now, whether we make the semis." They're right where they've wanted to be since that first day out against Dublin.

That Cork have spluttered through the league thus far doesn't concern Harte. Cork, he says, have provided tough opposition in recent years and he believes Sunday will be no different and anyway, he has his own memories of the Munster county. As a teenager, Harte was full-forward on a Tyrone minor side that lost to Cork in the 1972 All Ireland final.

Then, 10 years later he was at the centre of a feud that split his parish of Ballygawley.

The finer details of the story have been lost over the years but Harte was sent off during a parish league game while playing for his townsland of Glencull. A suspension was ordered, elements of the club disagreed and other events began to play out. When the noise had died down, what remained was a Ballygawley club that operated without the men from Glencull.

Glencull went unrecognised by the higher powers of the GAA and they began to traverse the province Sunday after Sunday picking up challenge games that meant more to the wanderers of Glencull than they did to their hosts.

They raised money and found a home. They survived on their own. Perhaps it was during this period that those concepts of family and loyalty were first wedged into the soul of Harte.

In any case, it took nine years for Ballygawley and Glencull to be reunited as Errigal Ciaran, nine years and the Hartes and the Canavans and others from Glencull hadn't kicked a competitive football.

Back in the bosom of the GAA, it didn't take long for officialdom to come knocking at his door and the role of minor manager was offered to him. Since then his own blend of beauty and brawn has seeped over all corners of Tyrone. Life on the edge. It's followed him or he's followed it. Who can say?

With the last sups of milky tea he says that Tyrone are a decent side with a decent record over the past few years.

Another understatement.

"Well, that's what I'm saying.

Things can change quickly, you know. Four or five years ago nobody was speaking about Tyrone, nobody anticipated us. There are other sides lurking and they could be the team of the next five years.

You're always just one result away from wiping out your record. We'd have been one-hit wonders if we didn't win the All Ireland last year and we were one kick of the ball away from that. People would say we underachieved and that's a fact because I've heard them say it about other teams. We're a decent team and we'll keep working hard. You must make hay while the sun shines and you know, we've still some hay to make".

Summer has yet to fully greet us and already he has the autumn harvest on his mind.

NFL DIVISION 1A PREVIEW TYRONE v CORK Healy Park, 3.00 Referee E Murtagh (Longford)

There's plenty at stake in this re-"xed encounter at Omagh today. Tyrone look to bag two points that will keep them in contention for a play-off spot while a win for Cork would ensure they remain in the division for next season.

Should Cork lose here, they won't fancy a trip to Monaghan in the last round of the league for a tough relegation dog"ght. And the signs are already looking ominous for Billy Morgan's team. Brian Dooher returns at wing-forward for Tyrone and a "rst start since the All Ireland "nal of last September.

The win over Kerry last weekend has strengthened Tyrone's case for a semi-"nal spot that could boil down to points difference again and you get the feeling that the All Ireland champions are clicking once more after a less-than-convincing start to the league.

Nicholas Murphy is named at number 14 for Cork and will add some experience to a forward line that has failed miserably to impress.

They have the worst scoring record in all of Ireland this year . . . only London have given the umpires a quieter time of it. Kevin O'Sullivan also returns at corner-forward, though it won't help that Cork have prepared for the trip without their under-21 contingent, in action last night against Tipperary. It would take a brave man or an imbecile to look beyond Tyrone as they set their sights on four league wins on the trot.