Cavanagh and McManus bond to answer Ireland’s call

INTERNATIONAL RULES SERIES FIRST TEST:

That hauling Monaghan’s Conor McManus to the ground was merely his way of warming-up for the International Rules series.

The former Ireland captain didn’t play it cute though, instead holding his hands up immediately to the crime of cynical play and finding that there were a thousand canes ready to smack his knuckles.

The ironic thing is, if the veteran midfielder puts in a tackle on one of Australian’s indigenous players in Cavan on Saturday evening like he did on McManus in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, he will be hailed a hero by the very same GAA supporters.

It is just one of the many curiosities of the hybrid code, which rewards heavy duty tackling. Another little curiosity of this year’s series is the friendship that Cavanagh has formed with, yes, you guessed it, Monaghan flier McManus.

Both are part of Paul Earley’s 23-man squad for the first test at Kingspan Breffni Park and may even display something of a kindred spirit when in possession, such is their apparent mutual respect.

“Myself and Conor have probably spent more time together in this Irish camp than anyone else,” revealed Cavanagh. “I’ve never really worried too much about what happened because it’s one of those things that if it was going to happen again, and okay it can’t happen again because the black card is coming into play, but if it did happen, you would do the same thing.

“Every coach and every manager has told players somewhere along the line — and it’s not that Mickey Harte has told us specifically to do it — but it’s just one of those unwritten rules that you do it.”

That evening, TV pundit Joe Brolly was Cavanagh’s greatest critic, slating the three time All-Ireland winner for the foul and even calling into question his personal integrity. Yet Cavanagh revealed the criticism which stung most came from inside his own home.

“My wife had me well warned (about a likely fallout),” said Cavanagh, who put in a similar tackle on Meath’s Graham Reilly in the previous round.

“There was a bit of hullabaloo over that incident. So at the time against Monaghan, I thought ‘ah no, this is going to come back to bite me’. I knew it right away once I did it.

“Ah, you live with these things. My wife had me warned never to do it again and all this, saying ‘don’t be letting yourself down’ and what not.”

Cavanagh has played 10 times against Australia. Back in his early 20s, he was offered contracts by two different clubs to play in the AFL permanently.

“The Brisbane (Lions) one, I still have it in the house, it may have been a rookie contract,” he said. “The second one (from Carlton) was a full contract. It was hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s nice when you see it there in print but, to me, I had everything I wanted at home in Ireland. I was never motivated by money or going over and playing a sport I may not have enjoyed in a foreign land.”