Cavanagh: ‘Cross my heart, defeat never crossed my mind’

SEAN CAVANAGH summed it up best afterwards.

“There’s no other player in Ireland I’d rather have kicking that free than Peter Canavan,” said the Tyrone midfielder. How true. As soon as ‘The Great’ strolled up to take the winning kick, Armagh hearts must have hit the floor.

Owen Mulligan felt much the same.

Frees from the left-hand side had been his territory all afternoon but when Paddy Russell pointed to the posts, the bleached blond corner-forward looked at Canavan, smiled and shook his head from side to side.

“There was no way I was going to kick that,” Mulligan joked afterwards. Sean Cavanagh made sure of it.

“Peter was actually down on the ground injured when we were awarded the free,” Cavanagh explained. “I went up to him and said, ‘please Peter, please take that’. I knew rightly he was the only man for the job but he said Muggsy was alright to take it. I just grabbed him and told him to get up there and kick it.”

An hour later and Canavan found himself back out on the Croke Park sod. The Limerick minor hurlers were pucking around in preparation for next Sunday’s All-Ireland final against Galway and Canavan was asked by one of the mentors to have a word.

“Give it everything you’ve got next Sunday lads. Don’t come off that field thinking you could have done more. Don’t have any regrets,” he told them.

He’d already walked the walk. Now here he was talking the talk.

As the Americans would say, Canavan’s kick finally gave Tyrone closure on Armagh. Twice already this summer they had their foot on Armagh’s throat and the failure to close the deal on both occasions left them with a resolve that finally carried them past the post yesterday.

“Aye, we were criticised for not closing out the Dublins, the Derrys and the Ulster final, but we showed a lot of character today, especially after they went two up near the end,” said Conor Gormley.

“It took a lot of work to get through it but we’ve nothing on the table yet. There’s still an All-Ireland final to play against Kerry and we’ll have to get our heads right for that.

“It’s hard to imagine how, but going to play Kerry in an All-Ireland final will be another step up again. We thought playing Dublin was hard but this was even more difficult, probably the toughest game of our lives. It’ll be a real struggle against Kerry.”

Even though they had ‘previous’ in letting wins slip through their fingers, Cavanagh claimed he never once let the thoughts of defeat enter his mind and being proven right when the game looked beyond them made it all the better still.

“Cross my heart, it never crossed my mind. Even when McDonnell got the goal, I knew with Peter and Stephen up front we were always going to get a couple of scores in the last ten minutes. The whole team dug deep.”

Seeing Kieran McGeeney’s number six being held up on the sideline with seven minutes to go played it’s part too, he said. Here was their leader, their talisman, being called ashore just when the battle was entering its most critical juncture.

“I’m not sure Kieran has been as fit as he would like to be, but the presence he has is amazing and they lost some of that when he left the field. Definitely the run I made for my point there near the end wouldn’t have been on if Kieran had still been there.”

When the game was over, it was hard to believe that the Tyrone celebrations were not those of a team that had won an All-Ireland final itself. They may not have been but it certainly felt that way, as Cavanagh admitted.

“We showed the grit and the character that Armagh have been showing all year and the last couple of years to eke out that victory. To be honest, I think that’s the best ever victory.

“Everyone was talking about how strong mentally Armagh were. Mickey reminded us of all that talk in the media at half-time and we promised ourselves that the last ten minutes was going to be ours. We learnt from the last ten minutes of the Ulster final and the replay that we can’t afford to be hiding.”