COL TO ARMS Towering midfielder Cavanagh warns Red Hands they must hit heights in Croker
COLM CAVANAGH admits Tyrone must up it if they are to survive in the Championship beyond the Super 8s.
Mickey Harte’s side have maintained their fine record in the qualifiers by reeling off wins over Meath, Carlow, Cavan and Cork to reach the last eight for the fourth successive season. But despite having 16 points to spare over the Rebels, Cavanagh says they’re not carrying the same form into the latter stages that they have in previous years. They play their first game in Group 2 against Roscommon at Croke Park on Saturday. “We haven’t hit heights that we have probably hit in the last year or two,” said long-serving midfielder Cavanagh.
“We do know that there are big performances in this team. We also know there can be average performances on any given day.
“As the cliche goes, we just have to look at the next opponent and it’s going to be an interesting few weeks with the new system.
“We’ve played a lot of football over the last three, four, five weeks so hopefully that stands to us.”
The new format appears particularly unforgiving for sides who have come through the qualifiers like Tyrone.
In order to reach the All-ireland final, they’ll have to play on eight weekends out of 10.
However, it’s the type of schedule Cavanagh relishes.
“I had a bit of a setback and it has taken to now and probably over the next few weeks as well to get back close to full fitness,” he explained, having worked back from a quad muscle injury.
“People talk about the games being tiresome, that playing week-on-week is bound to be strenuous on the body. I don’t believe that.
“I love playing football weekon-week, I look forward to the excitement of matches.
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“If you can’t get yourself up for this time of the year I don’t know when you can.
“We have a few lads back, it’s great to see Mark Bradley back.
“We have lads that weren’t used today that are chomping at the bit. The team is going to be very important going into this new system because there are going to be different lads used in each game.
“We are blessed with that. We have a strong 15 and a strong bench.
“That’s hopefully going to stand to us in the coming weeks. The new system is going to bring new ideas and new approaches.
“There’s going to be a lot of excitement with it and unknowns, a lot of unknowns.
“Dublin are coming to Omagh for the first time for a Championship game, that’s unbelievable.
“The place will be rocking that day but at the same time that’s down the line. Everyone says you can only talk about the next game and in this format if we lose against Roscommon the Dublin game might not have much importance. We have to do the business.”
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