Cavanagh misses the minor details

ON the media circuit to promote his book, The Obsession, Seán Cavanagh told RTE’s Sean O’Rourke this week that he sees his future in the punditry business. There is no surprise in that but Cavanagh (left) could have picked a better week to declare his suitability for a more prominent role in future. After all, he was part of the Electric Ireland ‘panel’ to pick this year’s minor team of the year.

Now, we are slow in this parish to hammer anyone for picking a team which we don’t agree with because it is an exercise in subjectivity.

However, the omission of Kerry midfielder Paul O’Shea, who looked the best Under 17 player all summer was strange.

This view was also expressed by Monaghan manager Seamus ‘Banty’ McEneaney when expressing his amazement at the team selected.

By our count, three of the four Kerry players selected were picked in positons in which they did not play.

And more than Kerry have reason for complaint, given it was hard to fathom how Galway’s excellent Cathal Sweeney – the stand-out half-back that this column witnessed in the AllIreland series – did not make the cut.

The selection smacked of a box-ticking exercise designed to give the sponsors their promotional pound of flesh.

They got that alright, but surely not in the way they might have imagined.