Football

Sean Cavanagh has more to give to Tyrone

Sean Cavanagh says he still loves playing for Tyrone  
Sean Cavanagh says he still loves playing for Tyrone   Sean Cavanagh says he still loves playing for Tyrone  

WHEN it came to the crunch, Sean Cavanagh admits he was afraid to walk away from Tyrone and miss out on the possibility of winning a fourth All-Ireland.

Anyway, the Moy clubman is “still loving it” and has more to give to the Red Hand cause - in fitness tests he’s still well up the field chasing speedsters like Peter Harte, Tiarnan McCann and Mattie Donnelly.

Cavanagh was at Croke Park to launch the GAA’s new GRMA awards card yesterday and explained that, after mulling over retirement, he came to the conclusion that there was more in him at inter-county level.

“I took a couple of months to think about it and during those couple of months all I could think about was going back,” he said.

“I had a couple of niggly injuries and I wanted to see how they would fare out. I’m in reasonable condition injury-wise, so all those factors combined and then I had a chat with the family.

“The wife seemed to be happy enough to push me out to get fed somewhere else so there was nothing telling me not to go back. When I look and see the age profile of the Tyrone team at the moment, I remember guys that retired in 2002, 2004 or '07 and we went on and won All Irelands the following year or other titles in other years and I thought it would be too much of a risk almost. I have a long life to live and, if I can battle on for another year and get a bit of success out of it, I might as well do it when I’m still loving it.”

He knows what he’s letting himself in for - night after night of sprints and drills, weights and pool sessions: “During the season, you generally have one day off, which is the recovery day - six days on,” he said.

“If you compare it with the soccer guys or rugby guys are whatever, I’d say it compares right and favourably. I’m trying to work out how Rooney has the time to go on the rip because you don’t really have that many days to recover from a hangover.”

He acknowledges that - “the commitment is mental, completely mental” - but, for him, it’s a simple choice and he puts himself through the ringer because he enjoys it.

“If you didn’t want to do it you wouldn’t do it,” he said.

“You realise you have to do it to compete, but you do get hooked. You hear about people getting hooked on the gym, you get hooked on that feeling on trying to make yourself better.

“Good strength and conditioning coaches and good coaches with teams will always come up with different ways to keep you interested and keep you excited.

“It’s not hard to do when you know you are competing in a team like Tyrone because you can see the quality of the boys coming behind you and you know if you are not doing that work you’ll not be getting any game time next year. You sort of get caught up in that but look I love every minute of it.”

The prospect of having some success must make giving that commitment a little easier. Last year, Cavanagh won McKenna Cup, Division Two and Ulster Championship winners’ medals but defeat to Mayo ended their pursuit of the Sam Maguire at the quarter-final stage.

“We were disappointing against Mayo and Mayo probably could have easily won it [the All-Ireland] the first day against Dublin,” he said.

“We probably feel as if we can compete with the top teams. Every year is a new year. We are going to be well tested in the national league next year and that’s something the team will embrace and I will be surprised if we don’t compete at the top end of it.”