Tyrone action man Cavanagh on a mission

Diarmuid O'Flynn talks to Kerry, revenge and Aussie Rules with genial Tyrone giant Sean Cavanagh.

WATCHING Tyrone's Sean Cavanagh in serious football action doesn't prepare you for meeting him in the flesh.

On the field, he's a bruiser, a powerhouse, not so much a tank of a man as a full armoured division.

Over the last few years, whether operating at midfield or wing-forward, Sean has run roughshod over some of the biggest names in Gaelic football, becoming one of the driving forces behind Tyrone's rise to the top.

Though only 22, already he has a brace of All-Star awards to his name, from last year and 2003, an All-Ireland senior medal from the latter all-conquering season, along with a complete underage collection at provincial and national level.

He defends, attacks, scores vital goals and points while still fulfilling his primary midfield duties. Cavanagh is a thundering all-action colossus who defies his size, covers acres of ground at astonishing pace, yet is going as strongly at the finish as he is at the start.

So, in the flesh, you expect to meet a glaring, glowering, intimidating brute of man. Instead he strolls into the Tyrone press evening, smiling, joking and at ease with his surrounds.

He's only an inch over six foot, and at fourteen-and-a-half stone is not particularly big these days on the street or on the football field.

And he's just so bloody friendly. Honest also, a blunt admission that when this season kicked off all was not what it should have been in the Tyrone camp. "At the start of the year, maybe the drive wasn't there. It was hard to get ourselves up for the league and even the start of the championship. Maybe it is because we had won so much.

"Being beaten by Armagh forced us to take a look at ourselves, ask ourselves what we wanted out of this year. That lifted our spirits."

It wasn't the first wake-up call this year for Tyrone. In the league semi-final, the raging hot favourites were toppled by unsung Wexford. Since then, it's been a real rollercoaster ride. They've played nine games in this year's championship, one more than the title-winning season of 2003. Three draws are built into that with the replays against Cavan, Armagh and Dublin leaving them little time to catch breath. At the heart of all those games - Sean Cavanagh. At a time when the hugely-paid Steven Gerrard of Liverpool is pleading exhaustion from a game that involves only a fraction of the hard-hitting, stamina-sapping runs of Cavanagh, his attitude to these extra demands is refreshing.

"Ultimately, every inter-county footballer wants to play in Croke Park. Every time I set foot in it, I enjoy it. I'd play there every Sunday, week in week out if I got the chance. I enjoy it, it's something special and I can't wait for Sunday.

"I love playing football and an All-Ireland final against Kerry, that's the place to be."

A midfielder for most of his career, in his last two games Cavanagh has been chosen at wing-forward, where his natural attacking instinct is given even greater scope. Either position, doesn't faze him. "To me, they're very similar positions. Everyone knows I'm an attacking midfielder anyway and that I like to play in around the half-forward line. So it was no great change for me to actually start at wing-forward."

Might make a difference this weekend, when he'll probably be man-marked by Tomás Ó Sé, the toughest defender in the game. The suggestion prompts an ear-to-ear grin.

"Yeah, Tomás was Footballer of the Year last year, but in midfield you come up against Darragh, one of the best footballers in Ireland for the last decade or so. I don't think it's going to affect the way I'll play in the final."

What about the revenge factor in Kerry, following on their humiliation in the All-Ireland semi-final defeat of 2003, will that be an issue?

"You can talk all you want about Kerry on a revenge mission but I think that's all gone, especially as Kerry won the All-Ireland last year. Whenever you're in an All-Ireland final, maybe revenge isn't the best way to prepare. We've plenty of scores to settle with Kerry ourselves, we went down there in a league match, got hammered, lost by six points but it could have been 16. It felt like being beaten in a championship match. We walked off the field demoralised."

Look Sean, some friendly advice, be prepared, because rest assured, revenge WILL be a factor for the proud warriors from the Kingdom.

"If Kerry want to do that, fair play to them, but from our point of view, there's a trophy to be won, and we'll be going all out to win it."

A nice guy, a decent guy, a genial guy, but that doesn't stop him from being the mean machine he is on the park. Already there is interest from overseas, the Aussies running the Rule over him, speculation that he could soon be lost to gaelic football.

For the moment, all that is on the back burner. "I was in contact with Brisbane before the Armagh game, and we more or less agreed we'd get back to it after the championship is over.

"I haven't been talking to them since the middle of July, and we won't worry about it until Monday."

In the meantime, he has some business to take care of closer to home.