CANAVAN: U21 WIN IS NO SENIOR GUARANTEE

PETER CANAVAN has warned against expecting the recent All-Ireland Under 21 success to usher in another golden era for Tyrone football. While he admitted that victory has brought the ‘feel-good factor’ back, he said it will take time to impact at senior level. ‘If these fellas are on a high thinking they are just going to go and win Ulster senior championships, it just doesn’t work like that. It’s not that straightforward. ‘Serious work lies ahead. As a group, if they’re willing to make those sacrifices and work hard, then I think the future should be sound. ‘I think it’s inevitable that a number of those fellas are going to be brought through. That’s not to say Tyrone are going to be successful in a year or two. ‘I recall back to the first two years we won the All-Ireland Under 21, in 1991 and 1992. My first four years on the Tyrone senior team we didn’t win a game in the Championship.’ Despite his caution, Canavan (below) says winning the U21 title will fuel the belief that Tyrone can dethrone reigning Ulster champions Donegal this Sunday in Ballybofey after a turbulent spring which saw Mickey Harte’s team relegated from Division 1. ‘A number of our more senior players have moved on and there is a younger brigade coming through. ‘What this will do is give a serious boost to morale and to the senior players. There is now a feel-good factor in the county again. In the short term it’s going to be very hard to evaluate the input. Very few of those players are going to be involved. There are three involved at the minute, there may be more brought in but that will be more with a view to the longer term — they’re not going to have a direct impact on the Donegal game. ‘Tyrone are going into this game in a position they haven’t been in too often, going into a first round of the Championship being written off. ‘Donegal are hot favourites. They gave Tyrone a mauling in the League, they completely overpowered them. So Tyrone know what to expect.’ Never has the pressure been greater on manager Harte than in what is his 13th season in charge. But Canavan played down the idea that it could be the end of an era if Tyrone lose to Donegal for the fourth time in five seasons in the Ulster Championship. ‘There have been eras ending this past two or three years. Stevie O’Neill retiring, Conor Gormley, the likes of Philip Jordan — it’s inevitable those players were going to leave. It was inevitable that Tyrone were going to have to face a few difficult years. ‘Go back to why the Tyrone team was successful in 2003, ’05, ’08 — the majority of players on those teams had won either All-Ireland minor or U21 medals, they came up together. ‘Very few counties can make that transition without success. Kerry appear to be the only one. Their transition is seamless.’ While he acknowledges that ‘the role of the manager has never been more crucial in Gaelic games’, he doesn’t agree with the ‘death of football’ phrase coined by new playing rules chairman Jarlath Burns in the wake of Derry’s ultra-defensive approach against Dublin in the spring League encounter at Croke Park. ‘I would disagree with his belief. I’ll take him back to the ’70s and the ’80s and show him plenty of poor games of football. That didn’t mean we changed the rules because of one poor game. ‘You don’t want to see the fare that was on offer that night too many times, and I don’t think you will. There are teams who are deploying this so-called blanket defence and they don’t know how to do it. ‘There are teams who do know what they’re at so I think there is going to be a contrast of styles.’ Rather than criticising the dog-eat-dog nature of the Ulster Championship, he puts it ahead of any other provincial prize. ‘Ulster is going to be competitive — you’d question the other provinces. But there are still five or six teams in with a chance of winning the All-Ireland.’ A KILDARE minor footballer is understood to have been hit with a three-match ban for his part in the brawl that marred the end of last week’s Leinster MFC clash in Tullamore. It is also believed the Leinster Competitions Control Committee have proposed that Kildare and Offaly are to forfeit home advantage for their next two championship matches in the grade. Friday’s clash against Laois in Portlaoise will not count as one of those games for Kildare as the fixture had been made prior to the disciplinary hearing.