Cavanagh: Back door the way
Many a player and manager has praised the combative advantages of the qualifiers but Cavanagh’s admission is among the starkest evidence yet of the provincial championships’ diminishing allure for teams with an eye to September.
This year’s championship has only emphasised the shift in power from front door to back with a largely forgettable programme of games in the provinces being trumped by some superb Saturday night entertainment in the shadow competition.
Tyrone are the poster boys for the more complicated route having won their last two All-Ireland titles, in 2005 and 2008, via that path. That contrasts with their exit in the last eight in the last two seasons after claiming the Anglo-Celt Cup.
Last year, they were caught by a Dublin team that had smoothed away its rough edges through the qualifiers but the roles will be reversed Saturday when Pat Gilroy’s side will be the one rousing itself after a midsummer slumber.
Mickey Harte has been a consistent critic of the status quo and has called for the provincial champions to play each other with the winners advancing to the All-Ireland semi-finals and the losers meeting the best two qualifiers for the other two openings.
“We’ve always struggled whenever we’ve won Ulster,” said Cavanagh. “It probably is (a disadvantage) even though people would look at (the qualifiers) and say we maybe haven’t got very much time to rest our bodies but that momentum is there with us. It probably is the route I would choose if you had a chance to go in as provincial champion or sailing into the quarter-finals from the back door. Personally, I’m happy enough with that and I’m sure the rest of the lads are the same.”
Tyrone looked a beaten docket when Donegal eliminated them from the race in Ulster in June but Cavanagh has admitted he couldn’t halt a half-smile when the final whistle blew that day in Clones.
He knew the qualifiers could be the making — or remaking — of this Tyrone side. Harte has landed on a better blend of youth and experience beating Longford, Armagh and Roscommon.
“The qualifiers gives you a chance to regroup. It gives you that bit of fight, that bit of grit between your teeth. It fires you because you know you have to perform on any given day. There’s no safety nets. It moulds the team. You can see some of the new guys that have come into the team and they’ve fought for their places. Now we have a wee bit of momentum. There’s a good buzz around the squad.
“We didn’t have a particularly good league. Throw in a couple of games in Ulster and win Ulster like we did last year and the year before and sail into the quarter-finals, it wouldn’t have been the best preparation. The qualifiers certainly bring the best out of you.”
The do-or-die nature of the qualifiers is undoubtedly its most important bargaining chip but another intangible is the fact that teams facing into them are automatically those with something to prove, teams that have shipped some criticism.
Tyrone are no exception. The perception of Tyrone after their defeat in St Tiernach’s Park was of a legendary bunch of players that had grown old together and those same players were reading newspapers, watching TV and hearing the views of the man on the street.
“It probably does take something like the qualifiers to draw the best out of you,” said Cavanagh who has rediscovered his form in the last three engagements. “All of a sudden you hear people saying ‘you’re done, the team’s finished’. Any player that’s over 30 that has a bad game is finished and he should retire. Things like that do hurt players. You can see that some of the younger lads have had a chance to be blooded and they’ve come through well.
“The likes of Sean O’Neill, Peter Harte, they’re all starring now. We have a really balanced squad and we feel we’re in good shape heading into the All-Ireland quarter-final.”
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