Cavanagh: I’d take a black card to secure victory

Seán Cavanagh admits he would have no qualms about pulling down a Monaghan player if he has to in Sunday’s Ulster quarter-final.

The 2013 All Star revealed he wouldn’t think twice about picking up a black card in the closing stages of a game to secure a win.

Cavanagh infamously rugby-tackled Conor McManus in the 49th minute of last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final as the Monaghan forward prepared to strike for goal.

Tyrone won the game and Cavanagh was castigated for his action, particularly by pundit Joe Brolly.

The 31-year-old has previously pointed out he has been at the end of more cynical fouls than the cause of them.

However, he doesn’t believe the black card goes far enough. “It’ll probably not change an awful lot. I know people through this year’s Championship will go down or pull people back on purpose to stop then scoring goals. “Goals are just too big of a score in the Championship.”

Asked if he would pull down a player to stop a goal in the last two minutes in Clones on Sunday, Cavanagh replied: “Yeah, it’s as simple as that. Pulling somebody back to me isn’t dangerous. Maybe if you were getting a red card and it’s deemed a professional foul and you’re going to miss a game or something like that, you definitely would think twice about it. If it got you over the line and through to the next round of a Championship I think then 99.9% of players will tell you the same. They probably would take one for the team and it’s just the way players will use the rules to their advantage every now and again.”

Cavanagh acknowledged he would be less likely to repeat last August’s foul on McManus with over 20 minutes of the game to play.

But he agreed the black card as it stands keeps games clean apart the closing minutes.

“I think most players would agree with that. Pulling somebody back with a jersey, you’re not going to break his leg or smash his face. But I think most players would take a black card if it meant the team was going to get to the next round of the Championship.”

Cavanagh anticipates an open, exciting game in St Tiernach’s Park. If there is some physical payback from the Monaghan team for last year he will be ready for it.

“I’m sort of too long in the tooth now. I’ve been getting personal attention for long enough to know what to expect. I know Conor personally and he’s a great lad and I have no doubt if we’re winning by two points or they’re winning by two points on Sunday and I go through no goal in the last five minutes that somebody’s going to rip me down.

“You have to accept that. It’s part and parcel of the game. The black card will work to a certain extent but there’s still these anomalies. I didn’t realise until a couple of weeks ago that you could stay on your feet and pull somebody back. The more I think about it I could have done that last year and the net effect would have been the same. I could have stayed on my feet and pulled him back and he still wouldn’t have scored a goal so I still think there is a few rule tweaks that need to be done with the black card.”