JOE meets Johnny Doyle and Mickey Harte and gets some predictions

The Kildare star and the Tyrone boss talk about the Championship so far and give us a few predictions.

Those lads at Eircom really know how to pull in the big names. At yesterday’s official launch of the brilliant ‘Win, lose or draw’ game at Croke Park, some of the biggest names in GAA were on hand to explain how it works.

We already have a JOE League up and running so get in there, join up and be in with a shot at winning some sweet All-Ireland football final tickets.

So who did we speak to and what did they say? Here's Part I,with Ciaran Whelan and Donie Shine. Now, here’s Part II, with Johnny Doyle and Mickey Harte.

Kildare play Offaly today in Croke Park and the Kildare veteran wasn’t getting too far ahead of himself, saying he was “looking forward to the game”, assuring us that “everything was good” in the Kildare camp.

Clearly excited by the idea of the Championship finally getting going we asked the 36-year-old how he keeps the hunger going. “I love the game just as much as I did when I was younger but as you get older you feel even more privileged to be playing and that keeps me going”.

Doyle went on to say that Dublin are the form team and that they are there on merit. “Their bench is so strong, a lot of those lads who don’t start would be main men on most teams."

As for the titanic Ulster clash, Doyle, like a lot of us, fancied Tyrone to nick it against Donegal but he was impressed by both teams, especially Donegal, calling them “awesome”.

As a seasoned free-taker we also asked him about Niall Morgan’s travails and Doyle was very understanding of the plight of the young Tyrone keeper, calling the kicks he was taking “bonus territory” frees and that a free taker usually likes a few handy ones to get his confidence up. Morgan, he said, had “no room for error”. And when we asked him if he would be trying any 60 yard efforts this summer Doyle Doyle joked that his range was down to 30 yards these days.

Before he went he gave us the predictions for all the provinces bar Leinster and he went for Donegal, Mayo and Kerry.

As for Mickey Harte, the Tyrone boss was still processing the defeat in Ballybofey when we spoke. Harte put the blame for the loss at the door of the two goals Donegal scored, saying that the timing and the nature of them was the most damaging, especially after a positive start to the second half.

Harte was quick to defend Morgan too, saying that he didn’t expect him to repeat his National League final performance from distance but that the youngster would learn "a huge amount" from the game. Harte also confirmed Morgan wasn’t down after the game, saying he’s “not the sort of fella to let it get to him”. Good to hear.

As for the rest of the Championship so far Harte was surprised by the manner of Mayo’s win over Galway. Harte thought Galway would run them close but he warned that local derbies often throw up odd results and he expected Galway to “bounce back strong”.

Like almost everyone we spoke to, Harte was backing Dublin as the favourites for All-Ireland glory and he was most impressed with how Jim Gavin brought in lots of new faces and kept winning, a real sign of a strong side according to the multiple All Ireland winner.

And as a long time fan of Colm Cooper, Harte wasn’t surprised to see Gooch shine at centre forward last week, claiming that Cooper could play anywhere and still be a star.

As for the big calls, well Harte went for Donegal, Mayo, Dublin and Kerry, citing the injury to Colm O’Neill as the deciding factor against Cork.

We’ll see how all the lads' predictions got on over the summer and for their weekly picks, keep an eye on ‘Win, lose or draw’ and have a go yourself by joining the JOE League here.