Canavan: Red Hands still looking for top gear
Though he won't start against Laois in their fourth-round championship qualifier in Croke Park tomorrow, the All-Ireland winning skipper is in positive spirits.
Canavan is content that the All-Ireland champions are still in the race for Sam Maguire despite falling at the first big hurdle in Ulster.
And he is buoyed up by the realisation he can still play a part in getting them through to the quarter-final.
Manager Mickey Harte made it perfectly clear earlier in the week that his inspirational captain of last year would not be starting. It would not be prudent, Harte argued, to expect a player with a quarter hour of championship football since September under his belt to make the line up.
Canavan fully agrees.
"I just wouldn't be match fit or anywhere near being able to start a game at this level. But, hopefully I'll get on at some stage," he admitted.
After a prolonged recuperation following his ankle operation early in the year, he had achieved a satisfactory level of fitness before deciding to play two reserve games with his club.
In the second outing, he cracked a rib which knocked him back five weeks during which he could do virtually nothing, not even swim.
"I only got a week and a half training from that until the Galway match. At this stage, I'd still only be finding me feet. It's very frustrating, but at least we're still there and I'm getting a chance to play at some stage. You have to look at it from an optimistic point of view," he added.
Against Galway, in the last round of the qualifier, he scored a marvellous point after being sprung for the final 15 minutes.
Understandably, he was delighted to be involved again with the team "on a playing basis" rather from the sideline.
"It was very much reassuring for myself to know that I could still contribute and that was important too, all the more so to be involved in a winning team."
Canavan admits Tyrone are "not too sure" about the current state of their game, compared to the corresponding performance level last year.
Nobody denies they didn't play well against Donegal and, as for the win over Galway, he makes a rather interesting observation about John O'Mahony's side.
"Sure, they have a number of good players, but for all the talk about Galway, if you look at their National League form they proved to be very average team in a lot of their matches. With the exceptions of ourselves, I don't think they beat anybody of note. And, the same can be said of the championship! It's hard to weigh up how strong they actually were.
"While it was good from our point of view that we won and we put so many younger boys in, we would still realise we have to move to another level if we are to be able to compete with the top teams.
"We're happy to be there, but still there's a realisation that we're still not playing as well as we did this time last year. We know there's plenty of scope for improvement."
Talk of Laois being undermined by injuries does not alter his view of them as being major threat to retaining their All-Ireland crown.
"They're still in that frame of mind and they know that they can still do it. I'd expect that they'll see this match as a way to kick-start their campaign. And, playing the All-Ireland champions won't require much of a motivation, especially after some of the criticism they received.
"Finally, they have Mick O'Dwyer in charge. We know that they'll come out with all guns blazing."
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