Tyrone 0-16 Cavan 0-7Given the county has waited decades for a first senior national title, it might sound dismissive to say that Tyrone's acquisition of the 2002 Allianz NFL title was tedious but the one-sided nature of their win definitely lent an air of anti-climax to the achievement.
Any way you care to examine the details of the match, the scale of Tyrone's superiority is immediately apparent: seven points clear by half-time, nine at the end, 15 wides to decorate their winning margin and a couple of points that in high-summer battle might be expected to yield goals, and the concession of only two points from play.
Cavan never got started. Not alone did they fail to make their usual fast impact but there was no period of superiority at any stage of the match to give them a platform to show what they could do.
Far from scoring a goal in the early minutes - as has been their trademark this campaign - Cavan struggled to get within point-scoring distance of the Tyrone posts and were quickly chasing an ever-expanding deficit once the opposition got their sights adjusted. After some early wides, Tyrone settled and were four points clear after 10 minutes.
Tyrone were dominant everywhere. It had been suggested their centrefield might not have things as easy as they had against Mayo in the semi-final but this prospective competitiveness never materialised. Without any sort of a supply, Cavan's forwards were always struggling and never looked remotely likely to repeat their massive semi-final haul of 5-13 against Roscommon.
This was largely because the attack saw hardly any decent ball and also because Tyrone's defence pressurised them, pushing up constantly and denying space. Under the few wayward high deliveries that occasionally got flung into the danger area, the winners' corner backs, Conor Gormley and Brian Robinson, were completely dependable and never looked in difficulty. Such was the extent of the shutdown Cavan never really even got as far as regretting the unhelpful weather conditions, which mixed driving rain and bright sunshine.
Completing this picture of uninterrupted dominance, Tyrone's forwards were effortlessly putting away chances. Captain Peter Canavan maintained his recent hot form with a six-point tally, four from play. He was in the sort of sharp mood that makes marking him a torment.
Young Eamonn Reilly was the first to step into the ring but it took just 15 minutes - and a fairly patient 15 minutes - for him to be switched to the left wing where matters improved for him. Michael Brides took over and although he got tight on Canavan and didn't do at all badly, the points continued to flow. On his game, the Tyrone captain needs only a hint of space to manoeuvre point-scoring opportunities and so it was yesterday when he was plied with a succession of tasty opportunities.
If there was a faint criticism of the winners it would be that they didn't manage a goal. But they did create two good chances in the first half only for Ryan McMenamin - on one of his turbo-charged runs up field - and Cormac McAnallen to fist points quite happily within the square. General accuracy was far from impeccable but the match atmosphere had been drained of all tension so early and it was hard to come to any firm conclusions.
With the exception of Brian Dooher, all of the Tyrone forwards scored and Dooher did get through a huge amount of work. Together with Gerard Cavlan on the other wing, he ranged up and down all afternoon and even at the end of the match the pair were still covering back and emerging from defence on lung-bursting shuttles back up the field.
It took Cavan nearly half an hour to score from play - Peter Reilly providing it on 29 minutes - and they trailed by 0-3 to 0-7 at the break. The scale of manager Matt Kerrigan's problems was magnified by the thin resources on the line. With the starting 15 failing to make an impact he had to shuffle the deck but the substitutions had little impact beyond moving Cavan a little closer to fielding an attack full of Reillys.
Captain Anthony Forde moved forward in the second half and nearly scored a goal when his fierce shot flew straight at Peter Ward, who saved acrobatically in the 58th minute.
The second half was a bit more competitive and it was to Cavan's credit that they refused to give up but Tyrone still kept the scoreboard ticking over, with Canavan and Stephen O'Neill the main instruments.
Kevin Hughes, who had been swapping between full forward and centre forward with O'Neill, ran out of steam and was replaced by Sean Kavanagh and the attacks crashed down remorselessly on Cavan. By the time the match ended the winners had miraculously failed to extend their lead well into double figures by dint of a skip full of wides. It was the afternoon's only merciful touch.
TYRONE: P Ward; C Gormley, C Lawn, B Robinson; R McMenamin (0-2), C Gourley, P Jordan; C McAnallen (0-1), C Holmes; B Dooher, S O'Neill (0-4, one free), G Cavlan (0-1); B McGuigan (0-1), K Hughes (0-1), P Canavan (0-6, 2f). Subs: S Kavanagh for Hughes (51 mins), Pascal Canavan for McGuigan (64), D McCrossan for Jordan (65).
CAVAN: A Donohue; E Reilly, T Prior, C Hannon; J Doonan, A Forde (capt), M Brides; P McKenna, C Collins; P Galligan (0-1), P Reilly (0-1), F O'Reilly (0-5, fs); L Reilly, J Reilly, M Graham. Subs: E O'Reilly for Graham (43 mins), E Jackson for Doonan (50), R Rogers for L Reilly (68).
Referee: M Collins (Cork).
