Canavan: provincial titles must be kept alive
The former Player of the Year is adamant that the success of teams that come through the Qualifier system, including his native county, should not devalue the competitions in Ulster, Munster, Connacht and Leinster.
Said Canavan: “For many the very notion of not winning your provincial title and then being there on the third Sunday in September to raise the big one does not add up.
“Often teams that have been knocked out of the championship early have benefited greatly from using the back door system. Players perform under less pressure and after a win or two momentum begins to build and confidence in the squad is high as the team looks forward to the bigger picture. In recent years a peculiar scenario developed whereby a team that has won a few games in the qualifiers was in a far stronger position playing a side that was just after losing a provincial title. Plus for many of the players the concept of having to beat a side twice in the championship can be an irksome one to comprehend.
“When it happens that the side you have to defeat twice are your bitter rivals it only makes the perceived unfairness worse,” he told hoganstand.com.
But he agreed that Tyrone have suffered and benefited from this scenario.
“In 2001 we defeated Derry in a keenly contested game on our way to the Ulster final success. The last team we wanted to meet in the All-Ireland quarter-final was Derry and that’s exactly who we got. This situation was reversed last year. We had two chances against Armagh last year to win an Ulster title. Despite Tyrone playing very well in the drawn game and the tempestuous replay, Armagh showed the greater resolve to hang in there and win back to back Ulster titles. Feeling aggrieved and disappointed, we took our defeat knowing that we would gladly sacrifice a provincial title to win the All-Ireland.
“Hence for the All-Ireland semi-final we looked forward to our third clash with Armagh and a chance to redeem ourselves. Despite the fact that we lost to them initially we felt as players that we were in a much better state of mind. We were hungry and couldn’t wait to face them.
“The fact that this situation has happened a number of times to date in the qualifiers whereby the same teams are meeting again has certainly diluted the importance of winning the provincial crown. However anyone who witnessed the scenes of excitement at the final whistle of any of the provincial finals this summer would not have felt that there was anything diluted about it. “A provincial final victory still means so much to the players and fans. Following Dublin’s win over Offaly in the Leinster final, the pitch invasion by the Dubs led one to wonder what they would be like if they actually go on to win an All-Ireland.
“And for anyone unsure of the significance of winning a provincial title then the scenes of unbridled joy that greeted the final whistle in Castlebar said it all. Mickey Moran running on to the pitch and congratulating Ronan McGarrity with a massive bear hug made it apparent what winning meant to them.
“Winning a provincial title however does not automatically mean that the team will improve. Take the Connacht final. There was only a kick of the ball between Mayo and Galway. In the aftermath will Mayo spend as much time looking at the flaws and weaknesses in their performance as Galway? Players are often like spectators after a big game. When their team wins spectators can reflect on all the great scores, catches or blocks that were made during the course of the game. But when their team lose the only incidents that stand out in their mind is the ball that was dropped or the misplaced pass or the shot that went wide. With all the euphoria that comes with winning a provincial title it is easy for a team to get carried away and fail to address serious flaws. It is here that a good manager will come into his own.”
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