Davy Burke delivered an old-style 'ye wrote us off' smackdown last Sunday, accusing the punditocracy of disrespecting Roscommon in the run-up to their all-too familiar ambush of Mayo in MacHale Park last weekend.
Bemused, the media scurried back to review the various previews to see who might be culpable - David Brady is the chief suspect, having unwisely speculated as to how Mayo might cope with Galway in the upcoming provincial semi-final.
Lee Keegan wrote during the week that the Rossies were probably trying to embrace a "Tyrone style siege mentality." More evidence, if it were required, that Ulster's most recent All-Ireland winners have become synonynous with the gambit.
Tyrone's reputed need for a cause has been floated as an explanation for their consistently dreadful title defences.
With the silverware claimed, the All-Stars handed out and a general sense of contentment settling in over the winter, there is nothing left to rage at, fewer knockers left to sicken.
The 2022 season should at least sort out that problem. It may have been a terrible year on the pitch from start to finish, but it might well prove fruitful in replenishing the stocks of resentment and grievance that have fired Tyrone to greatness so often in the past. Next to them, Michael Jordan was a mere novice in this department.
Peter Canavan has previously recalled how Tyrone were "driven by a sense of injustice" in the triumphant campaigns of 2003 and 2005, whether it be the purist hand-wringing over their tactics or protracted disciplinary sagas.
"Over the course of the season ('03), we came to believe we weren't welcome at football's top table," Canavan wrote in the Belfast Telegraph in 2015. "Because of that we played with fury. It helped us."
After last season, there should be plenty of material out there to work with. Some podcasters had taken to branding the Tyrone side of 2021 as the "worst All-Ireland champions" of the past three decades.
They were portrayed as the Gaelic football equivalent of Howard Wilkinson's Leeds, who had opportunistically availed of a power vacuum at the top of the sport, left by Dublin's abrupt - though possibly short-lived - decline and Kerry's status as an unfinished product.
Tyrone were never as besieged - and therefore never as in their element - as they were that August, when engaging in a daring game of brinkmanship to force a postponement of the All-Ireland semi-final, so that a sizable chunk of their squad could recover from Covid in time.
Kerry took the high-road and were duly sucker-punched when the All-Ireland semi-final was eventually played. It became apparent very early that the Tyrone players on the field weren't labouring under the effects of post-Covid fatigue at any rate.
There was widespread Mayo jubilation in the aftermath of Kerry's defeat, though football supporters in Ulster - most especially those of Tyrone's rivals - were inclined to shake their heads warily, sensing what was coming down the tracks. Less than a month after almost forfeiting their place in the competition at the semi-final stage, Tyrone were All-Ireland champions, winning the final with a surprising degree of comfort. The final five minutes were a triumphant victory lap for Tyrone, as Mayo supporters in the stands once more buried their face in their hands.
Given the narrative around the team, it's hard to recall now that they won the All-Ireland so recently. The long grass isn't normally the natural habitat of such recent winners.
In the popular imagination, Tyrone's penchant for poor title defences has already taken on the character of a 'tradition' - one of those things that always happens and will always happen. As sorrowful curses go, there are probably worse ones to have, Last year's effort was the worst since they themselves bowed out to Laois in an early season qualifier in 2006.
In 2009, they did at least win an Ulster title, however they were subsequently beaten decisively by a 14-man Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final, after which Pat Spillane wasted no time whatsoever in pronouncing that the contentious 'Team of the Decade' question had been settled. (Michael Lyster had barely welcomed viewers back to the studio before Pat interjected to point out that this meant that Kerry were now inarguably the team of the 2000s. Needless to say, this is still being argued about.)
We got ample warning that things had gone awry early in the year, when no fewer than seven squad members, all admittedly on the fringes of the All-Ireland victory, walked away from the panel. Their dismal Ulster championship loss to Derry suggested many of those who stuck around wanted out too, with Brian Kennedy's first-half sending off as inexplicable as it was damaging. They put in a more respectable showing against Armagh in the last-chance qualifier but still wound up well beaten, exiting the championship at the earliest opportunity.
Things got worse for Tyrone in the off-season, with Conor McKenna, who scored two goals in the 2021 semi, and deftly set up the second for McCurry in the final, returning to the AFL after signing for Brisbane Lions.
Tyrone were barely even mentioned in the All-Ireland chatter over spring, with Kerry, Dublin, Galway and latterly Mayo cited as the main runners and riders.
Derry had grabbed the baton in Ulster, with all their irrepressible momentum. Armagh turned heads with their exuberant style of play, arguably generating more hype than their results merited. Even Canavan insisted before this season's league that they had established themselves as Ulster's top two.
In an interview with the BBC's GAA Social podcast in February, Conn Kilpatrick said the loud part out loud - so to speak - when he stated that "other teams don't like to see us doing well" and referred to the antipathy towards Tyrone from south of the border.
It would be hard to say they're imagining this phenomenon, although the north-south dimension doesn't explain why Tyrone are the most widely disliked outfit in Ulster itself.
Ulster, as the most varied and democratic football province, doesn't really have a 'default' winner, though, if they do, Tyrone fit the bill. Since the early '80s, they are the only team not to experience a sustained famine at provincial level, never going longer than six years without an Ulster title.
Of course, the year of 2022 wasn't a total loss. Beneath the surface, Tyrone football is still in rude health. Last May, they picked up their sixth under-20 crown, the wider GAA community realising that they have yet another Canavan to contend with.
Midway through the league, it appeared they hadn't recovered from their 2022 stasis. Their three journeys out west were miserable. The meek display in Castlebar, in particular, left many feeling Tyrone had undergone a personality transplant.
It's no great surprise that it took a game against Kerry for them to recover their mojo.
Three-time All-Ireland winner Enda McGinley - our resident tactical guru - said that tactics were almost beside the point after that one. Tyrone's mentality was personified by Darragh Canavan's snarling clenched fist after winning a late free.
In relegation bother a month ago, Tyrone now come into the championship with some momentum. More recently, they had the pleasure of relegating Armagh in Healy Park. In between, they made light work of this weekend's opponents Monaghan in Clones.
On paper, their squad looks the strongest in Ulster. Cormac Quinn makes his championship debut at wing-back, having impressed during the league. Errigal Ciaran's Joe Oguz has added a bit of ballast and energy in the middle third, with either Kennedy or Kilpatrick shoved into full-forward on his introduction.
Darragh Canavan, deployed as a super-sub in '21, is now a regular starter, sprinkling games with his inherited magic. Mattie Donnelly, a regular for a decade, was in the Man-of-the-Match form against Kerry, clipping over three from play, in addition to a mammoth contribution around the field.
The lauded full-back line of 2021, Hampsey, McKernan and McNamee is back in situ, with the latter returning to action in time to sink Armagh. Altogether, McKenna and Niall Sludden are the only changes to the team from the 2021 All-Ireland final, with Sludden an option on the bench. One downside is the doubts over the fitness of Cathal McShane.
Tyrone have been trampling on Monaghan dreams since time immemorial, a restraining influence - sometimes literally - on their ambitions. Even in 2018, when Monaghan did overcome Tyrone in Omagh, who were there in the semis to prevent them reaching a first All-Ireland decider in 88 years?
Monaghan are still revelling in yet another sixth placed finish in Division 1, their fifth in the last eight years, even if this season they benefited from some fortuitous fixture scheduling. While they can take pride in another escape, it must be noted that Vinny Corey's side did not have to face the same Mayo team that everyone else did.
Tyrone-Monaghan games are rarely one-sided but usually end the same way. Expect Tyrone, quietly seething after a year of jibes and recrimination, to get home this afternoon.
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