A number of pundits have fastened onto Tyrone’s impressive tackling in their own half as if it was a new sensation when it has been in the making these last two seasons.

“Yeah, and because people talk about something, doesn’t mean it’s the truth,” said Mickey Harte when asked about the drop in frees erroneously being highlighted as a new element of Tyrone’s play.

Rock’s ability to kick over frees from 50 metres out, as he demonstrated against Monaghan, is obviously an area of interest for Harte. “I think discipline is always very important, and discipline in the tackle, of course, particularly in the scoring zone and, when you’re talking about Dean Rock, that’s anywhere within 50-55 metres of the goals.

“You have to be very mindful of that, it’s something you have to work at all the time. You can’t flip a switch and say: ‘Today we will be so disciplined in our tackling’; it’s a process over time and people need to learn to tackle well and to tackle with that discipline.

“I believe our players have learnt that very well and that their record will prove that, that they don’t foul very often, and even some of the frees given against them could be of a ‘flip of a coin’ nature. They’re very disciplined and I hope that’s something they’ll really take on board as an essential part of staying in this game.”

While Dublin did see Cillian O’Connor convert nine frees in last year’s All-Ireland final replay, their own discipline is commendable, but they go about their business in a different way. As much as Donegal in 2014 taught Dublin invaluable lessons about defensive cover, turnovers are largely the result of one or two defenders overpowering an opponent.

Tyrone target in numbers and isolate, harry and overwhelm. Harte trusts referee David Coldrick will be able to distinguish that being outnumbered doesn’t necessarily mean a player is being fouled.

“The rules are essentially written down the same way but different referees interpret them ever so slightly differently, so that’s something you have to think about, but the trend of the top-class referees at the moment is that they’re not quick to blow people up just because there are numbers around them.

“There was a stage there when the number of people around [a player] suggested they were fouling them.

"Now, referees are smart enough and have worked at it enough to know [that] because there are numbers around somebody doesn’t mean they are fouling them…. I think that will serve both teams well, they’ll know what they’re able to do, and what they’re not able to do. That’s the greatest way for a referee to show his consistency, that whatever is good for the goose is good for the gander and we’ll all take that.”

Harte recognises Dublin are beatable, but that doesn’t skewer his sense of reality. For example, he knows the All-Ireland champions have a deep well of personnel to call on.

“I’m not sure we have that kind of artillery, to hold five or six players, but I do believe we have game changers on the bench, so we’ll line up our own way. It won’t be just because of what Dublin do.”

Harte would also take a pinch of salt analysing the close-run league affairs when he has shared the sideline with Jim Gavin — 2013: Dublin 1-14 Tyrone 0-18, Dublin 0-18 Tyrone 0-17; 2014: Tyrone 1-15 Dublin 3-10; 2015: Dublin 1-9 Tyrone 0-12; 2017: Dublin 0-10 Tyrone 1-7.

“We have played them in the league, different time of year, different competition, probably Dublin have more opportunity to experiment with their squad than we would have had. We probably would have had a fuller hand out any time we were playing them than they had.”