TYRONE stalwart Colm Cavanagh feels that they have evolved since last year – and admitted that continuing to do as they had been in the past and expecting a different return would be “the definition of insanity”.
The Red Hands made their return to the Super 8s through the qualifiers for the second straight summer, thumping Cavan on Saturday to take their run of wins in the qualifiers to 11-in-a-row.
It was the third big win and the third big score they’d put up on the bounce, hitting 2-15, 2-22 and 1-20 since they reverted back to a running game.
But it’s a style which Dublin – who will visit Omagh for the second year running at the beginning of August – have had a handle on in recent years.
Cavanagh admits that what Tyrone have done in the past will not bring them to All-Ireland glory, but feels that they’re heading in the right direction.
“I've been reading this the last couple of weeks and people talk about type and that, we've sort of reverted back a wee bit.
“We're not naive enough to think...what we've done the last couple of years hasn't been enough to get where we want to go.
“We've reverted back a wee bit, I think the Donegal game, we probably went the complete opposite way to what we're used to so it's probably a fair comment but we know we still have a lot of things to work on to get back to where we were last year.
“The game is evolving and changing so we have to change with it and adapt with it. The definition of insanity is that if you keep doing the same thing, expect the same results so we know that we have to tweak and amend things as we go and see what works for us.
“The Qualifiers has allowed us to do a wee bit on that but the Super 8s is obviously going to be a lot tougher. There's tougher days ahead and we're really going to need to be on point to win games.”
Tyrone have proven far too strong for Longford, Kildare and Cavan, the latter whom were in Division One and an Ulster final this year.
Mickey Harte’s side were out the gate by half-time in Clones at the weekend, but Cavanagh admitted a bit of concern over Cavan’s ability to win all their own possession despite Tyrone pressing up on their kickouts.
“We went in at half time, obviously we were happy with what we were doing.
“I think we looked at the stats and Cavan had won nearly all of their kick outs, maybe barring one or two, but we were still able to get the scores and keep that cushion and that was important in the second half, not to let Cavan get any momentum.
“If they had come out and scored three or four on the trot and got a bit of momentum behind them, that would have been difficult so that was our aim in the second half.
“To manage the game, pick off the scores when we needed to and then obviously the game would open up as it wore on and it did.
“Ben (McDonnell) got the goal and we were able to manage it out. It's a nice place to be in a game like that but we still kind of have work to do.”
