Tyrone captain Sean Cavanagh acknowledged the critical influence of his brother Colm in the overall system which Mickey Harte has developed. The younger Cavanagh's fielding was one of the many tools Tyrone used to break Donegal down on their way to an overwhelming win.
“It’s amazing; I don’t know how he gets up that height. That’s been coming for the last number of years. He is the best defensive sweeper in the game and probably has been for the last three or four years. He is a crucial part of our system and the way we play football.”
Cavanagh has confirmed this will be his last inter-county season, and feels that Tyrone 2017 are beginning to touch the heights he was familiar with during the county’s All-Ireland years.
Waiting
“It felt in that 15, 20 minutes before half time like a performance that was close to what we expect – and what I have come to expect in Tyrone through the 2000s. I feel we’ve been waiting and waiting for that performance to come together, and it’s nice whenever it comes together like that.”
“We knew at half time it would be difficult for Donegal to impose their game plan, which is to play on the break. It was a matter of getting into the space and you could see the athleticism of the team after half time and the game was probably over at that stage. We haven’t always received kind plaudits for it but we always believed that we had the quality to play football that could do damage.”
