Time for Tyrone to finally cut loose
Canavan’s Harte plea
TYRONE’S Ulster championship blockbuster with Monaghan will not be screened live on television this Sunday.
It seems like the GAA and their broadcast partners have dropped the ball as it is one of the few genuinely intriguing football matches before the Super Eights, but Peter Canavan feels there will be a few happy it’s not on our screens.
The Tyrone attacking legend believes there remains a perception out there that Ulster football is not worth watching — so there will be some who think it is only right that there is no live coverage.
‘There are people in a lot of quarters who say that Ulster football is a mess anyway and there is no football played up there, so for those people, maybe there are not missing much,’ observed Canavan, who will be one of Sky Sports’ chief football analyst again this summer.
‘But if anybody is into competitive football, a real Championship game where there is a lot at stake, I would imagine it will be worth watching so it is an opportunity missed. ‘Ulster football mightn’t be to everybody’s tastes but you can be guaranteed, be it this game or Fermanagh-Armagh, that there will be passion, that the two teams will be going out to give it everything, regardless of the backdoor or the Super eights,’ he added. ‘The lure of winning an Ulster championship medal is still something special.’ And, even though the advent of the Super Eights has made it more difficult for an Ulster team to win the AllIreland — a team that is in the preliminary round will face nine games to reach the final — Canavan believes the allure of Ulster will not be diminished with the new Championship structure. ‘I think it will still survive, but if it was hard for an Ulster team to win the All-Ireland before, it’s even harder again, but as long as you have provincial championships in place, that’s the way it’s going to be,’ Canavan said.
‘It’s not fair. It’s not a balanced way of determining the All-Ireland champions but that is the way it is and I can’t see it changing because counties and provinces don’t want it to change.
‘But having said that, I think the Super Eights will add to the whole thing and we have a real possibility of having our best ever Championship this year.’
Canavan is also expecting more tactical variety from Mickey Harte’s side this year which will allow attacking talents like Lee Brennan and Mark Bradley to flourish.
‘They need to change their style,’ Canavan says. ‘Through the League, we saw signs they are starting to change and that will be good. They were very onedimensional last year and Dublin knew exactly what way they were going to play,’ he added, before drawing on first-hand experience of how Harte operated.
‘On previous teams I played on, Mickey was always able to pull a rabbit out of the hat or change things about in some way to surprise the opposition.
‘Last year, the system was so rigid if he was bringing different players in, it was to perform the same role in the system whereas now he has mixed it up a bit and he will have that element of surprise in there.
‘But there will be games where he will have to revert to type and maybe the way the played last year,’ said Canavan.
‘If it means winning then that’s okay but you do need to change a style of play and keep opposition on their toes and that’s what they are working on at the minute.’