Cavanagh: Watch out for a more physical Tyrone next year

Seán Cavanagh admits he cried for hours after their All-Ireland defeat by rivals Armagh in July.

However, he has vowed lessons were learned from that loss and predicted Tyrone will be a more physical outfit next year thanks to the appointment of his former underage team-mate Peter Donnelly as strength and conditioning coach. Cavanagh, who also said Mickey Harte knows the county have to achieve something in 2015 after four barren Championship seasons, lamented how Tyrone players in possession turned back because they didn’t believe they had the power to beat the Armagh players.

“Physicality was another thing we probably were lacking that day against Armagh this year and that’s what annoyed me, that guys were getting thrown around in the tackle a wee bit and it was annoying the talent they have wasn’t coming to the fore. We have Peter Donnelly on board as a strength and conditioning coach. He’s only been in the position for four or five weeks at this stage and you can already see the difference. The guys want to work for him, guys are doing extra sessions on their own.

“There’s just an awful lot more energy and feelgood factor and I have no doubt people will see a more physical Tyrone in 2015 because of that. Hopefully, that will help us overcome those difficulties we’ve had with strong defensive systems because 2015’s not going to be any different.”

Cavanagh ranks the three-point reverse as the most difficult he’s had to digest as a Tyrone player. “As you get older you become a worse loser. I’ve heard people say it before and I’ve no doubt about it. The defeat this year to Armagh was probably as tough as I’ve ever seen because I was captain of the team, you have that responsibility to lead the team and to lose in that manner unexpectedly and particularly at home against our biggest rivals was gutting for me. You can ask my wife (Fionnuala) — when I went home after the game I was in tears for hours. I couldn’t comprehend it. I’ve lost All-Ireland semi-finals, I’ve been lucky enough I haven’t lost too many finals but I’ve lost big games.”

With one year left in Harte’s current agreement with the Tyrone County Board, there appears to be more of an onus on him to deliver once more next year. But Cavanagh said: “I always laugh at these terms given out to managers because it is an amateur organisation. It’s not like a professional contract so I’ve no doubt that with success this year, Mickey will continue to be Tyrone manager. I think the players know that. He’s not been tailoring down the past couple of years, I’ve seen a serious amount of fight. Even in the past number of weeks, whenever I’ve managed to get to training, there’s a drive there within Mickey as well. He knows himself success hasn’t been good enough in the past few years and he knows we have to do something. Not because of his role but because Tyrone have let their standards slip.”