All-Ireland SFC: Tyrone 0-31 Cavan 0-18
There were a couple of passages of play early in the second half which told the story of this match. Cavan had cut the deficit to seven points, which seemed to spur Tyrone into life; magical points from Darragh Canavan and Darren McCurry followed, the next Cavan kickout went over the sideline and Canavan played a delightful pass to Ciaran Daly, who hooked over from the end-line without looking up. Game over.
The vagaries of the championship system are such that Cavan still go through despite losing rounds two and three by a combined 32 points, leaking 3-57 across the two matches. The Breffnimen’s conversion rate from open play here was 42 per cent. Tyrone, on 80 per cent, shot the lights out.
Cavan came into this one without a win over the Red Hands in championship football since 1983 and suffered a chastening loss to their northern rivals nine weeks ago in the quarter-final of the Ulster Championship at Healy Park.
In that match, Tyrone led by 10 at half-time, here it was nine, and the game followed a similar pattern, too. Cavan had to scrap for their lives to win possession on kickouts, while Niall Morgan was able to get his away easier and, up front, Tyrone were more inventive and accurate.
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Cavan started well, with Padraig Faulkner prominent and the sides were level at 0-2 apiece after 10 minutes, Darragh Canavan and Mattie Donnelly registering for Tyrone and Cormac O’Reilly, who was very sharp for Cavan, landing both for the Blues.
But in the blink of an eye, Tyrone had built up a useful lead.
A two-point free from Morgan nudged Tyrone, who had lost Michael McKernan to injury after two minutes, was followed by a terrific effort from Donnelly, who was excellent in the first 25 minutes, and a two-pointer from McKernan’s replacement, Peter Harte, made it 0-7 to 0-2.
Cavan, who missed five of their first seven efforts at the posts, needed to stop the bleeding but instead it was Tyrone who pushed on, Donnelly scoring twice and Niall Devlin adding another to make it 0-10 to 0-3 on 18 minutes, with Paddy Lynch scoring Cavan’s third from a 45.
Quickly, this was turning into a movie that both sets of supporters have seen too often before. Seanie O’Donnell and Cormac O’Reilly traded scores and Lynch added a free, but Tyrone were clinical, Canavan and Rory Brennan (two-pointer) extending the lead.
A left-footed point from the impressive Kieran McGeary after the hooter left it at 0-17 to 0-9 at the break, and although Lynch and O’Reilly ate into the deficit, Tyrone weren’t rattled and two missed frees drained the blue resistance.
Canavan, McGeary and Brennan added further scores and although subs Ryan O’Neill and Ruairi Curran belatedly injected some zip into the Cavan attack, Tyrone bagged five of the last six scores to win as they liked, recently-crowned U20 Footballer of the Year Eoin McElholm coming off the bench to kick the final score.
And one of the loudest cheers of the day from the Tyrone faithful was reserved for Conor Meyler, coming off the bench with 15 minutes to go to make his first appearance in two years.
TYRONE: N Morgan (0-1-0, 1tpf), C Quinn, P Teague, N Devlin (0-0-1), M McKernan, R Brennan (0-1-1), K McGeary (0-0-2), B Kennedy, C Kilpatrick, S O’Donnell (0-0-1), M Donnelly (0-0-4), C Daly (0-0-1), D McCurry (0-2-5, 2tpf, 4f), P Hampsey, D Canavan (0-0-5).
Subs: P Harte (0-1-0) for M McKernan (3 mins), A Clarke for N Devlin (30), E McElholm (0-0-1) for M Donnelly (48), Conor Meyler for K McGeary (55), Ben McDonnell for C Kilpatrick (61).
CAVAN: L Brady, N Carolan, K Brady, Cian Reilly, B O’Connell, Ciaran Brady, P Faulkner, O Kiernan, E Crowe, G Smith, D McVeety, O Brady (0-0-1), Cormac O’Reilly (0-0-4), P Lynch (0-2-5, 4f), Cian Madden.
Subs: S McEvoy (0-0-1) for K Brady (31 mins), Ryan O’Neill (0-1-0) for G Smith (50), Ruairi Curran (0-0-1) for O Kiernan (54), Killian Clarke for C Brady (60), Luke Fortune for C Reilly (65).
Referee: P Neilan (Roscommon).
