THAT familiar grin comes as readily off the field as it does when skipping past tackles and slinging over scores on it, but there will be a sadness behind the smile when Darragh Canavan watches Dublin take on Tyrone’s conquerors Kerry in Sunday’s All-Ireland final.
Three weeks down the line, the post-mortem rumbles on – what went wrong, and why, as Tyrone slid to a 12-point quarter-final humbling at the hands of their Munster rivals.
The future of management duo Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher, who led the county to All-Ireland glory in their first year at the helm, remains a major talking point. For Canavan, though, it remains difficult to digest how the wheels came off in that second half – the Kingdom exacting revenge for their delayed 2021 All-Ireland semi-final loss to the Red Hands.
“I’m still disappointed to be honest,” he said.
“I thought we did alright in the first half, then in the second half we just seemed to completely run out of legs, fell a bit flat or a bit dead.
“I don’t know what really went wrong… we would’ve hoped to have put up a better showing than we did. I’m not sure, it [the 2021 semi-final] might have been [a motivating factor]. I suppose that’s a question for the Kerry boys.
“At the end of the day we didn’t perform and they definitely deserved their win, so we couldn’t really have any complaints. They were more up for it and played better football. They deserved the win so no complaints from our side, definitely not.”
- Darragh Canavan: I don't belong with the big boys yet
Having watched the way in which Ulster champions Derry went for broke against Kerry in the semi-final, Canavan admits there was a tinge of regret that Tyrone hadn’t been bolder in their approach.
“Derry were very impressive in how they went at them and were able to pick off scores. Their shooting in the first half was unbelievable, they might’ve kicked one or two wides out of 10, 11 shots. There was a bit of regret watching it, a bit of jealousy too maybe.
“I think structurally they [Kerry] are better set up. They were very hard for us to break down – our decision-making at times probably didn’t help, but they were very impressive at the back, we struggled to get through them, especially at the start of the second half.”
And Canavan’s marker Tom O’Sullivan, as many have found out, is more than just a corner-back capable of taking eye-catching scores.
“Aw, he’s a quality footballer now - he definitely got the upper hand on me that day.
“He’s a very underrated man-marker as well, Tom. Everybody sees the points he gets going forward but he’s sticky and he’s fast. He’s complete as a footballer… I definitely struggled with him.
“It doesn’t look good on us corner-forwards when the man supposed to be marking you goes up and kicks two or three points. It’s not easy trying to keep up with him.”
For Tyrone, meanwhile, a period of reflection has already commenced. Not just about the Kerry game, but the year as a whole when any step forward seemed to be met with a further two back.
After an indifferent start to the League the Red Hands looked to have turned it around with consecutive League victories against the Kingdom, Monaghan and Armagh sending them into Ulster on a high – only to lose to the Farneymen at the death.
In the All-Ireland round-robin series, Tyrone came within seconds of bowing out before snatching a late draw with Westmeath, and then Canavan inspired their best Championship performance of the year as Donegal were dispatched in Ballybofey.
Perhaps that preliminary quarter-final, and playing three weeks in-a-row, took a toll when the Kerry game came around, even if there was a confident mood in the camp heading towards that clash.
“I don’t want to be making excuses because we weren’t good enough on the day, but it probably does have a bit of an impact playing three Championship games in three weeks.
“It’s different from League football, the intensity and everything about it. It might have had an impact, but then you look at Monaghan – it didn’t impact them too much, they were able to get through extra-time and penalties.
“It was a strange one [the year]. I don’t really know how to describe it because we played a lot of good games, then might have followed that with a really slack performance or something that we weren’t looking for. I don’t think we were too far off it… it’s hard to know.
“I’m as confused as anybody else about why we weren’t able to just take off. When we play good, we play good, but there were too many inconsistent performances through the year.”
