Football

Harte happy to hear Cavanagh will think over future

Mickey Harte doesn't want Cavanagh to make any rash decisions
Mickey Harte doesn't want Cavanagh to make any rash decisions Mickey Harte doesn't want Cavanagh to make any rash decisions

TYRONE manager Mickey Harte has welcomed Sean Cavanagh’s decision to put immediate retirement plans on hold.

Cavanagh has revealed he is to reconsider his decision to end his inter-county career at the end of the 2016 season, and could be back in the county colours next year. “I’d be delighted, because that’s what I would hope too, and I intimated after the game that he shouldn’t be making any rash decisions,” said Harte.

“We’ll have to sit down and have a good chat about what’s the best formula for him to still be in there booting for Tyrone next year.” In the wake of last weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Mayo, Cavanagh, who was sent off in the second half, said: “At this stage, there’s that many different factors that come into it, that I’m definitely not in the mind-frame to make any rash decisions at this stage. I don’t think it needs to be made right now.

“I had promised myself and I had promised everyone that 2016 would be my last year, but by the same token, I was fully expecting to be in an All-Ireland semi-final and possibly an All-Ireland final,” he said.

“So whenever these things don’t work out as you’ve planned, you do have to rethink these things, so that’s exactly what I’ll be doing.” Speculation remains over the futures of other experienced members of the squad, but Harte (above) is not expecting any of his senior players to call time on their careers.

“Everybody will be called together then and we’ll get a good feel for that (retirements).” The Red Hand boss feels that his entire squad are consumed by a sense of deep disappointment, coupled with a desire to attend to unfinished business, following a heart-breaking end to their All-Ireland challenge at the hands of Mayo last weekend. “I suppose the truth of the matter is it really shouldn’t have ended on Saturday.

We had enough chances to at least get another go at it. “We didn’t intend to go out at this stage of the competition, we prepared very well all year, and we had a great run, and we didn’t see it ending on Saturday. “But we missed the vital chances at the end, and indeed we missed some early on.

“I think just our ratio of scores to shots taken wasn’t good enough to win the game, and that’s the big pity for us. “Even though we weren’t as creative as we often are, we did create enough chances to win the game.”