Cavanagh sees the back door benefits

It may, statistically at least, have tipped back in favour of convention last year with Dublin’s second title in three years but Sean Cavanagh has seen the benefits of the more scenic route to Croke Park in September.

In the 13 seasons since the introduction of the qualifier system in 2001, six All-Irelands have been won by teams who had been knocked out of their provincial championships. Four of those sides – Galway (2001), Tyrone (2005) and Kerry (2006 and 2009) – gained revenge later in the summer on their provincial conquerors.

Two of Tyrone’s three All-Ireland titles in six years in the last decade came via the back door so Cavanagh is ideally placed to assess both eventualities.

“Strange as it sounds, probably coming through the back door is slightly easier in that you get up a momentum that can be very hard to stop.

“I think when you go through the front door and you’re not playing for two or three weeks it’s hard to get that momentum. Things are very start-stop and you’re dipping in and out of the club fixture list. It’s obviously ideal to go through the front door but the back door isn’t far behind.”

It was Tyrone’s opponents this weekend who sent Mickey Harte’s side down the less glamorous route when they won their last All-Ireland in 2008. Down won that Ulster quarter-final after a replay but Tyrone took advantage of a less than exacting set of fixtures that included routine wins over Louth, Westmeath and Mayo before they blew Dublin away in the quarter-final.

“Both of those games we played against Down in 2008 were very open and anyone who knows anything about Down knows they have some brilliant attacking players and they’ve always seemed to have that. Whenever you give them time and space they’ll punish you and we have to be wary because we’ve perhaps given teams slightly too much time and space in our defence through the league so we’re going to have to watch that.”

In 2010, Down got to test the theory of momentum-building through the qualifiers after Tyrone had knocked them out in the Ulster semi-final. And after putting away Longford, Offaly and Sligo they shocked Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Despite falling just short against Cork in one of only two deciders in which both finalists had lost provincial ties, it looked like James McCartan was building something special in the county.

That year, though, marked something of a watershed for both sides: Tyrone have failed to claim the Anglo-Celt Cup since while former All-Ireland winner Conor Deegan said recently Down have been on a “gradual slide” in the last four years. Cavanagh, however, insists Tyrone will be taking nothing for granted.

“People will say we’re favourites but Down will fancy their chances. They have that way of playing football and they’ll come and attack us and fancy their chances of turning us over as an attacking force. As we’ve seen in the Donegal game they played in last year’s championship and a couple of the games they’ve played in the national league this year they’ll be stubborn in defence as well.

“They’ve tightened up and will get men behind the ball so it’s a tough challenge for us and we’re going to have to be as well prepared for it as for any championship game.”

Tyrone just failed to pip Dublin to a league semi-final place but Cavanagh admits there is no guarantee a fertile spring won’t be followed by a fallow summer period.

“You always look for silver linings but ideally you would have liked the two extra games because you’re trying to build a team going forward into the championship. Look back a year. We made the league final and we went into the Donegal game maybe ahead of ourselves thinking that because we had run Dublin close we could go and get a result in Ballybofey. But that didn’t work out.

“This year we’re in slightly different territory. We’re going in with our heads down a bit more and with a bit more to prove to ourselves and people outside the camp as well. We’re in with something to prove in Omagh.”