So, five months after playing his last game at Croke Park, Sean Cavanagh is heading back to Croke Park.
Some people are just attracted to the Colosseum. It calls on some of its warriors and, no matter what, the most daring of them answer its call.
Cavanagh bowed out of a distinguished inter-county career last August, 15 years after first pulling a jersey for the Tyrone seniors. In that time, he marked out a rep as one of the most unstoppable attackers in the game, he made more appearances in championship football than anyone in Ireland barring Stephen Cluxton and he won a few medals along the way too.
Then he retired and won his first club title.
Then they won Ulster.
Now, they’re headed back to Croker but they’re going there with the club.
Moy saw off An Gaeltacht in the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final in a dogged game in Semple Stadium, winning 1-5 to 0-6 with a late burst when it looked like hope was gone.
The Kerry champions weren’t helped with the sending off of Eanna Ó Conchúir and Marc Ó Sé wasn’t happy when he saw Sean Cavanagh bring the incident to the attention of David Gough who was doing the line on the day.
Scór iontach ag B. Ó Beaglaoich don @AnGhaeltacht 0-04 acu anois – 0-03 ag @AnMhaigh #TheToughest @MunsterGAA @UlsterGAA . Muid beo ar @TG4TV #gaabeo pic.twitter.com/o8S1Fva2kT
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) January 27, 2018
Speaking at the launch of the AIB GAA All-Ireland finals media day, Cavanagh explained what happened.
“I was quite close to the incident where their 14 [Ó Conchúir] had struck out at one of our lads. I was only a couple of feet away from it,” he said.
“I obviously saw it happen and I wasn’t sure whether anyone else had seen it. I wanted to go over and I think it was David Gough on the line. I went over and the exact words I said to David were, ‘Did you see that?’. He said, ‘No, I didn’t see it’. I said, ‘Well, can you go and ask the umpires and linesmen because there was a strike there’. He said they were all wired up.
“Marc didn’t take it too well that I was bringing it to his attention. Probably, I suspected, because I was there and he was marking me, he saw what happened and knew the dangers if I highlighted it more than he wanted it to be highlighted.
“Myself and Marc have soldiered together for a long time. We’ve played International Rules and I played against him for Tyrone and also in Railway Cups. There’s the utmost respect there and I really enjoyed playing against him on Saturday.
“It was quite emotional because we knew it was the last time. We shook hands before the game, we shook hands after. I told him what I thought of him after the game, I told him it was an absolute honour to play against one of the best defenders the game has ever seen. It was a wee bit fracas in the middle but all good GAA stories have something like that in them.”
Still, he understands the frustrations that Ó Sé would’ve felt.
“He was coaching their team as well. He knew there was a danger that if I highlighted it, their full forward was going to get lined. He was protecting his own and I was at the opposite end of the piece. So, yeah, completely [I understand] and I would probably have done the same if I was him.
“What it epitomised was two guys who just wanted to win more so than anything. That was Saturday’s game, it was very intense, it wasn’t pretty at times. It was two teams wanting to win at all costs. Both teams held the ball for long periods and weren’t willing to play any purist football. That’s winter football, the conditions were tough and ultimately both teams just wanted to get over the line.”
