Tables turned
Cav sees Farney as a huge foe
IN THE past, Seán Cavanagh presumed a slight inferiority complex on the part of Monaghan when it came to facing his Tyrone team. Take the 2010 Ulster final, for example. Monaghan came into that tie off the back of some impressive form, including a serious lesson dished out to Armagh.
But when it came to actually claiming silverware, they fell well short, losing out by 10 points on a disappointing afternoon.
Perhaps, as Cavanagh suspects, it was Monaghan’s lack of tradition subconsciously kicking in as they engaged a Tyrone team full of three- time All- Ireland medal winners.
As the in-form midfielder now prepares for their latest head-tohead, however, he believes the dynamics have shifted.
In fact, when the Ulster rivals meet at Croke Park this Saturday evening, Monaghan will be the ones who run out as provincial winners.
And they will do so happy in the knowledge that they have done something that neither Tyrone nor anyone else has been able to do in Championship football since 2011 — beat Donegal.
‘Their heads have got to be in a different position now,’ said Cavanagh of Monaghan. ‘Over the last five, six, seven years, they’ve almost thought coming to play us that there was a pecking order. Maybe they felt a bit like: “Oh, Tyrone have got us a few times before and beaten us”.
‘But this time they’ll be a different animal. Doing what they did to Donegal, I don’t think they’ll fear too many after that.
‘And Malachy O’Rourke’s been brilliant for them. They’ll have a formula and a game plan and we’ll just have to forget about what games we’ve had with them down the years or how well we’ve done because next weekend is a completely different prospect.’
If t here is a constant throughout the years, it is Cavanagh’s form. Mickey Harte was moved to describe the 30-yearold’s performance against Meath last weekend, which yielded eight points, as perhaps his best yet.
‘He was probably Brian Dooher and Peter Canavan and Brian McGuigan all rolled into one,’ suggested Harte.
Relayed back to Cavanagh, he flashes a quick smile and then thinks about Monaghan again. Specifically, his likely midfield opponent Owen Lennon.
‘Owen Lennon, I played football with him in America, I know exactly that him and them all really are quality footballers,’ said Cavanagh. ‘ They haven’t exactly won what they’ve deserved down through the years. It’s come to the fore now. Malachy has got them in as good a position as they have been in a while. He’s pulled them together. To watch them dismantle Donegal the way they did, it was hugely impressive.’
Cavanagh’s improving form has mirrored the team’s general progress up through the qualifier ranks.
After bowing out of Ulster at the hands of Donegal, they had to overcome Offaly and Roscommon first, then Kildare and finally Meath last weekend. But the former Footballer of the Year knows what it takes to win an All-Ireland and says i t’s about to get much more difficult.
‘We’re not the finished article until we’ve taken out some of the big guns,’ he said. ‘No disrespect to Kildare and Meath, they’re big teams but there’s bigger teams that lie ahead.
‘That starts with Monaghan and the likes of Donegal, Dublin. They are the top sides in Ireland.
‘We know we’re on that ladder but we’ll not become a good team until we take out some of the big guns and that starts next weekend at Croke Park.’