Sean Cavanagh’s confidence in Tyrone’s The possibility to advance deep into the All-Ireland championship remains intact, even after suffering a defeat against Mayo over the weekend.
The five-time All-Star and three-time champion Sam Maguire winner believes the Red Hands are in a positive place, with all the capabilities required to bounce back from the seven-point defeat that threw Group 1 of the Championship wide open.
All four teams in the round-robin section are level on points going into the decisive final round of games on the weekend after next.
“I believe we're still present; I think we've demonstrated sufficient capability, and I've witnessed enough, in the matches against Cavan and even Armagh and Donegal ", to indicate that we're in quite a decent position," stated Cavanagh.
Read more:
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- Tyrone nurse their injuries following Mayo's resurgence, which pushes Group 1 back into contention as a highly competitive mix.
- Tyrone v Mayo live: New-look Mayo shake up Group 1 again with a convincing seven-point win over Red Hands in Omagh
“Hopefully this was an outlier, an anomaly that we’ll look back on in a few weeks time as a bad night at the office.
“I think if you had said to us before Ballybofey, I’ll give you two points out of the first two games against Donegal and Mayo , and you have to go and beat Cavan To either lead the group or advance further in this competition, I believe you would have managed to do so.
Occasionally right after the last whistle can feel quite emotionally charged, but I believe when looking at the bigger picture, we didn’t truly merit getting anything from the match.
But I've witnessed sufficient from Tyrone in their matches against Cavan, Armagh , Donegal To inform you that there are footballers who could potentially play in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and even finals of the All-Ireland championship."
The unpredictable nature of Mayo, combined with various motivating elements, should have set off warning bells for the Tyrone team well before the start at Healy Park.
It came as no shock to Cavanagh when the western teams received an overwhelming reaction following their unexpected loss to Cavan at Castlebar.
“We were susceptible to an ambush, and Mayo had a lot of emotion brought into the game from Kevin (McStay, manager) not being well.
“Had Tyrone won, we would all have been talking about one of the best weeks in Tyrone football, with the Minors and Twenties winning as well, and coming off the back of Ballybofey the previous Saturday night.
“So it was always going to be hard to back up the highs we had seen in the early part of the week.”
The impact of the pre-match loss of midfielder Brian Kennedy and full-back Padraig Hampsey, both carrying injuries from Ballybofey a week earlier, cannot be underestimated, according to Cavanagh.
In particular, Tyrone struggled badly in the battle for possession around the middle third, where Mayo built a platform to attack and punish.
Right from the start, Mayo showed their aggressiveness in the match; we really missed Big Brian in the center.
“Every time we maintained control of the match and the play went to the center, Mayo managed to secure more favorable outcomes and gain uncontested possession, which formed the foundation for their victory.”
We simply didn't receive the ball fast enough into our forward line as we were losing those contests.
I'm confident Brian will return for the match against Cavan the following day, and ideally Paudie should also come back. Losing these two players really removed significant leadership figures from crucial parts of the field, which made it difficult for us to bounce back.
“Mayo were the better team, they created better chances, they were more structured in around that mid sector.”
It all comes down to the final round of the group, where permutations for Tyrone range from topping the group to exiting the championship.
The bottom line for Malachy O’Rourke’s men is that they must beat Cavan to ensure that they remain in the hunt for the All-Ireland title.
“It’s the way this group is going to pan out now. It’s going to come down to the last few minutes to see who’s going through and who’s going out, and that becomes a knock-out game for Cavan and Tyrone, and that’s the way it will have to be approached by everyone involved.
“Whilst it’s not ideal, I think if you had said to Malachy, you’ve got a knock-out game to play to move forward in the All-Ireland Championship, I think he would have taken it.
“This probably takes that little bit of wind out our sails, and there has been that bit of flatness around this last coupe of years, so you’re sort a hoping it doesn’t knock us back in that sense.
“But that game with Cavan is going to be massive, and if we can get out as a county and come together with all our focus on that game, I would be reasonably confident we’ll go into that game ready for it.”
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