HEALY SPARK
Red Hand legend Peter says Championship will be ignited by real ‘ding-duster’ in Ulster quarter
TYRONE legend Peter Canavan is anticipating a “ding-duster” in Omagh on Sunday.
Strangely, the Tyrone-monaghan tie at Healy Park will not be shown live on TV with RTE prioritising the Munster hurling double header on Sunday.
“There is people in a lot of quarters would be saying Ulster football is a mess and there is no football played in it anyway, so for those people maybe you are not missing much,” said
Canavan (below).
“But, if anybody is into competitive football, and it will be real, there is a lot at stake and I’d imagine it will be worth watching.”
Tyrone strolled to their second successive Ulster title last year, winning their three games by a combined margin of 28 points, something their 2003 All-ireland winning captain can’t see being repeated this year.
“Absolutely not. It was an anomaly, and it didn’t do Tyrone any favours and that was very evident when they came up against Dublin.
“Monaghan appear to have improved from last year. They have quality players. They have a quality manager, and if he can get all his players that he wants out on the pitch it’s going to be a real game. It will be a ding-duster of a game.
“Jack Mccarron appears to be playing better if you listen to Dick Clerkin, who raves about the quality of football that he’s playing with his club, and you have Conor Mccarthy, an exceptional stylish, skilful player, so they needed a bit of back up for Conor Mcmanus.”
Canavan’s former teammate Sean Cavanagh said recently Tyrone would be more comfortable playing the game in Monaghan’s home patch in Clones rather than their own in Omagh (inset) and Canavan could see the logic behind that thinking.
“The results would indicate they have had nearly more success in Clones than in Omagh.
“I don’t think it is a massive factor but playing in Omagh with 15,000-16,000 bearing down on top of you adds to the atmosphere. It will be electric and should add to the quality of the game but not a major factor in determining who wins.
“It’s one of the biggest pitches around, like Clones, so that won’t change anything.”
Tyrone were criticised for their lack of a plan B when it came to last year’s All-ireland semi-final against Dublin though Canavan believes they’ll be more tactically fluid this year.
He added: “They were very one-dimensional and Dublin knew exactly what way they were going to play.
“Previous teams I played on, Mickey [Harte] was always able to pull a rabbit out of the hat or change things.
“Last year the system was so rigid.. now he has mixed it up a bit and he will have that element of surprise. You do need to keep opposition on their toes and they are working on that.”