There was a moment in the first half of Tyrone’s hammering of Cavan on Sunday that showed things would be in no way similar to two weeks previous.
The Red Hand county were undone by Terry Hyland’s cosmic threat in the first outing of the Ulster semi-final and those high balls were all that kept Cavan in touch with an otherwise dominant Tyrone display.
So, naturally, the blue jerseys threw another one up early doors in the replay at Clones.
The O’Neill’s ball was kicked skyward and the scampering began beneath. From the outside, it looked like chaos. It looked like anything could happen. Suddenly, Colm Cavanagh rose from the ground and pointed two extended tractor beams towards the size five and caught it dead at what must have been at least 11 feet in the air.
Colm Cavanagh is one of the most underrated men in football https://t.co/aR6DjFtEbj #Tyrone #GAA @TyroneGAALive
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 24, 2016
Cavan wouldn’t catch them out again. Not with Colm Cavanagh manning the fort in his false number eight role.
And his older brother Sean is in awe of the former Jordanstown student who is proving to be one of the key ingredients in Mickey Harte’s latest team.
“I think he’s made a real niche position of his own,” Sean told SportsJOE after the game. “He’s like the Claude Makelele of 10 years ago. He’s made that defensive midfield/sweeper position his own. He enjoys it, he thrives on it. He’s a big guy who loves tackling and it’s nice to have him back there.
“It’s nice to have Justy (McMahon) alongside him because it’s just like two 6 foot 4 beasts that are able to limit that aerial threat that Cavan obviously beat us with a couple of weeks ago. It’s nice when you know those guys are back there because it allows some of us – some of the other guys out the field – to go wandering around the pitch and chase scores and obviously it worked.”
25 minutes after full time, Sean Cavanagh is still here shaking hands and taking photos with supporters #GAA pic.twitter.com/TVB26OxBhP
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) July 3, 2016
That discipline of Colm is giving others a licence to go and win the game and that’s where Sean thrives. Even if the 33-year-old isn’t feeling as quick as some of the whippets in and around him.
“I know when I’m trying to run against Petie Harte and Tiernan McCann and guys like that in the 100-metre sprints down in Garvaghey, it’s not easy trying to catch them,” he laughed. “I think they showed it: whenever they see open road, it’s tough trying to live with them. There was open road there in the second half and we were able to exploit it.
“I was playing around midfield. I’ve been preaching it since the Art McCrory days, I love playing out around there. It’s where I’ve played 90 per cent of my career. I haven’t got that turn of speed that Conor McAlliskey or Ronan O’Neill has inside and it can get a wee bit frustrating [in full forward].”
Just don’t go calling them world-beaters just yet. Tyrone have an Ó Fiaich Cup, a McKenna Cup and a league title already for their season’s efforts but Sean Cavanagh is fully aware of what lies ahead in the championship, firstly with Donegal in the Ulster final on July 17.
“It was a McKenna Cup and it was a Division Two,” Cavanagh didn’t dismiss the honours but he wasn’t talking them up either. “We’re not at the Dublin level whereby they’ve been winning everything for the last two or three years at the top table. We know where we are and we have work to do. We’ve done so far so good but we are going to come up against a Division One team for the first time in two weeks time.
“That’s the challenge ahead and obviously Donegal have had the upperhand on us so…”
So.
