NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE:IF THIS weekend represents a sort of mid-term assessment in the Allianz National Football League, Tyrone are under more pressure than most to deliver the right result. As the only Division One team yet to record a victory, Saturday evening's rematch of last year's All-Ireland semi-final against Cork has fast turned into a crunch game, in more ways than one.
Cork beat Tyrone last August in the physical stakes as well as most other stakes – which essentially means they beat Tyrone at their own game. That meeting was also notable for the late exclusion of Tyrone’s Seán Cavanagh, which manager Mickey Harte later claimed in his autobiography was because “the roof simply caved in” on the 2008 footballer of the year.
Now, as if on cue, Cavanagh is set to feature in his first game for Tyrone since that semi-final loss last August, having sat out the first three rounds of the league – which saw Tyrone fall to Derry, Mayo, and, last Sunday, to Monaghan. Cavanagh has recovered from the ankle surgery he underwent late last year, and played three games for his club Moy in recent weeks.
“He certainly would be in the reckoning somewhere for the Cork game,” said Harte, who has since clarified his remarks on Cavanagh in that autobiography. He said they were somewhat misinterpreted, and were more about the “culmination of a year’s worth of pressure and expectation” leaning on the player.
Cavanagh did end up playing for the last 20 minutes against Cork, but the then All-Ireland champions were still well beaten on the day. His return against Cork couldn’t be better timed, as Tyrone are fast heading towards relegation unless they turn their results around very soon.
Harte has been typically philosophical about the dangers of relegation, saying he’s not worried about ending up in a “dogfight” but that he’s more worried about “playing good football”; and “if we keep playing good football we’ll survive this year”.
It’s worth noting Tyrone failed to win the first three games of their 2008 league campaign – drawing with Kildare, and losing to Kerry and Galway – but they recovered not only to finish mid-table in the old Division One A, but went on to win the All-Ireland that year, beating Kerry in the final.
Tyrone are still playing with a relatively understrength team; Brian Dooher is still a few weeks away from returning to competitive football, and Stephen O’Neill, who sustained a dislocated elbow in the pre-season Dr McKenna Cup, won’t return until next month and will play no part in the next three games.
On the positive side, Philip Jordan is also back playing for his club having been out with a groin injury and is also in line to play some part against Cork in Omagh on Saturday evening.
In Division Two, both Westmeath and Tipperary are still looking for a first win after the first three rounds but Tipperary have at least one point from a draw with Down. Westmeath, under new manager Brendan Hackett, came very close to securing at least one point before they narrowly fell to Meath last weekend, and the hope now is that they can get some points on the board when they host Laois this Sunday.
“I do think that last weekend was a big turnaround,” said Hackett. “We do need two points on Sunday, badly, but at the same time it won’t make or break our season. But last weekend was a positive step in the right direction, in terms of attitude, and commitment. We were a point up, with about four minutes to go. We had a great chance to level it with a late free, and I think if that had gone over, the referee would have blown it up.
“It would have meant a lot to have even got the point from a draw. Even to have the one point at this stage would mean a whole lot, mentally, instead of being on the three losses. But we still took a huge amount from the game.”
Laois came within a point of Armagh last weekend and will present another difficult challenge for Westmeath: “Armagh fairly well tanked us,” added Hackett, “beat us by 15 or 16 points, so that was a very good result for Laois, getting within a point.”
