Tyrone move on without Canavan

WITH injuries in the camp reaching epidemic proportions, Tyrone could probably do with the galvanising presence of Peter Canavan now more than ever.

However, last year’s captain Brian Dooher is confident the All-Ireland champions are ready for life without their talisman of old, starting with their Ulster opener against Derry on Sunday.

Mickey Harte is currently waiting on news on Stephen O’Neill, Martin Penrose, Ger Cavlan, Michael McGee, Enda McGinley and Joe McMahon with play-maker Brian McGuigan already crossed off the roster for the rest of the season.

Canavan showed he had lost little of his class earlier this month by scoring 2-5 for his club Errigal Ciaran, but Dooher believes a new generation of leaders are capable of making up for the void his retirement has left.

“You are never going to replace Peter, there isn’t two Peter Canavans about,” said Dooher. “You’d be lying if you said you weren’t going to miss him, but there’s enough boys to step up into his place. We have enough good players in Tyrone so that, while we can’t replace him, hopefully we can get by without him.

“It’s just a matter of everyone else upping their performance five or ten% and hopefully we can have the same success as we had whenever Peter was there.”

The team that started last year’s All-Ireland final recorded an average age of just over 25 (24.5 minus Canavan) but that youth is perfectly balanced with the balance most have of winning titles inside Ulster and on the national stage.

Dooher is confident Tyrone will not lack for leaders this summer.

“Stevie (O’Neill), Muggsy (Owen Mulligan), Conor Gormley, Sean Cavanagh, Philip Jordan, those fellas are getting to the stage where they are playing the best football of their lives now hopefully, and they are all leaders. Hopefully they will go out this year and show that.”

If there are question marks about Tyrone lately, then they aren’t the only Ulster team whose ears are burning. Despite their win over Monaghan last Saturday, the jury is still out on Armagh and the rest of the province has yet to convince this year.

Rightly or wrongly, the failure of any Ulster side to reach the semi-finals of Division One in the NFL, is being used as evidence that the game in the north is not the all-powerful force it was being made out to be.

Tyrone themselves lost out on a spot in the last four after drawing with Mayo in the last round. For a team whose motto could be ‘win every game’, it was seen as significant.

“I’ve no doubt that every Ulster team will be up flying and ready,” countered Dooher. “They had a few weeks after the National League to get ready and get injuries sorted out.

“Some teams were out two or three weeks later, but we had more time to prepare ourselves. It definitely was a good amount of time to prepare.”

Tyrone have won three of their last five championship meetings with Derry, a run which included an easy 11-point victory on their first defence of the title in 2004, but the fixture is still one of the GAA’s most intense rivalries.

With a recent record like that to live down, Derry should lack nothing in motivation, nor have they as much to lose.

A nice low-key start for Dooher and co. then.

“They are certainly low key games — it’s one of the less high-profile matches of the championship alright! No, it will be tough to match Derry.

“They had a very good National League. With Derry-Tyrone matches, there’s never very much in it and this time I don’t see it being any different.”