Cavanagh's Ronaldo moment!

Apparently Mickey Harte's book suggests that the reason for Sean Cavanagh's non-start in the All Ireland semi final v Cork was down to pressure and stress. Seems to suggest he had a 1998 World Cup Final Ronaldo type moment!! Strange!

I still maintain he yellowed out.

i heard a rumor along the lines shortly after the match - the source was very reliable but still doubted the authenticity of this remark. doubting no more.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Apparently Mickey Harte's book suggests that the reason for Sean Cavanagh's non-start in the All Ireland semi final v Cork was down to pressure and stress. Seems to suggest he had a 1998 World Cup Final Ronaldo type moment!! Strange!

Why would he mention this is a book with Cavanagh possibly his best player. I haven't read the book so I do not know what context it was mentioned in

If it is true, its hardly fair of Mickey Harte to bring it up. Does he feel that Cavanagh let him (and the team) down? Has there been a bit of a backlash against Mickey Harte in Tyrone and he wanted to lay the blame elsewhere?
I dont understand why he would say it as it puts Cavanagh in a very unenviable position next year.

Shinners wrote:If it is true, its hardly fair of Mickey Harte to bring it up. Does he feel that Cavanagh let him (and the team) down? Has there been a bit of a backlash against Mickey Harte in Tyrone and he wanted to lay the blame elsewhere?
I dont understand why he would say it as it puts Cavanagh in a very unenviable position next year.

no problem in tyrone with mickey at all shinners surprised MH released it into the public domain but maybe the team felt he let them down ? dunno stranger things have happened!

haven't read the book yet - though i am awaiting the postman to drop it through the letter box any day now.

It does seem a bit strange that Mickey would include this in his book - i have often thought before that Mickey and Sean may not always have been the best of buddies - though i could be completely wrong about that. It sort of makes a c**t out of Cavanagh giving the impression that he wasn't up for it.

That said i did wonder the day of the Cork match that there did not appear to be a whole lot wrong with Cavanagh either during the warm up or when he came on. I also thought that if he was fit to play any at all then it may have been an idea to do a Canavan with him. That is start him from the throw-in let him go 20 minutes to see how he was and if need be bring him off and then send him on again. I think his non start that day had a serious effect on both teams for very contrasting reasons.

Looking forward to the book now mind you...............

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte could be on a minor collision course with his star player Sean Cavanagh over the reasons for his non-start in this year's All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Cork.

Cavanagh did not feature in the game until the last 20 minutes when Tyrone were chasing a lead Harte's charges just weren't going to overturn.

At the time, it was understood that the 2008 Footballer of the Year had withdrawn because of a stomach bug.

But in his autobiography, to be released this week, Harte offers a different perspective on that morning, suggesting "the roof simply caved in" on his player with the weight of the pressure on him.

In weekend extracts of the book, Harte admitted to being "puzzled" when Cavanagh came to him on the morning of the game and told him that he was "wrecked", wasn't "feeling good" and hadn't slept at all that night.

"I needed to try and see things from his perspective. Apart from a few isolated flashes of brilliance, his form hadn't been great all season.

"Why was that?" he asked.

"As a player Sean had always delivered. He was an icon for us and that greatness had been rewarded in 2008. Maybe the pressure was stemming from that recognition," he suggested.

Harte acknowledged there was a lot going on in his life from an impending marriage to his role as secretary of the GPA and media and commercial commitments. "Had we addressed all those pressures properly during the year? Had our support structure been strong enough to share his burden?

"This moment (his belief that he couldn't last 70 minutes) seemed the culmination of a year's worth of pressure and expectation leaning on him. In the end the roof simply caved in."

- Colm Keys

Irish Independent


Mickey what were you thinking - some things are better left untold, at least until after a player has retired. This is one reason i cant understand guys writing books while they are still actively involved

So one of the greatest players of this generation is a bottler! He must have Dub blood in him!!!

Mickey Harte is a control freak, what i think he is saying is that Cavanagh should concentrate on playing for Tyrone and that alone. Just suprised that he didnt mention being the captain of Ireland as one of the added pressures.

samin10 wrote:Mickey Harte is a control freak, what i think he is saying is that Cavanagh should concentrate on playing for Tyrone and that alone. Just suprised that he didnt mention being the captain of Ireland as one of the added pressures.

thats very harsh samin - if he was that sort of person no one would be able to work 13 years with him like brian mcguigan cairan gourley mugsy etc have from minor trials in winter 1996 to present. maybe this is mickeys way of tryin to "re-focus" sean cavanagh?

theres one thing for sure if MH thought it was going to hurt his team by releasing it he wouldnt have released it. although he is out to sell a few copies thats not the be all and end all with the man.

I think it is important to read what Harte has written in context. In the article that I read there were a lot of compliments to Cavanagh, but the headline glosses over that.

Redhandman could be right though, in that maybe he is trying to throw down the gauntlet to Cavanagh. Sean's form was awful last year, and not much better the year before (Yes, I know, he got player of the year, but he didn't deserve it. He did very little aside from a great all-ireland final performance).

Still, let's see it as it was written before jumping to conclusions.

Thomas Clarke wrote:I think it is important to read what Harte has written in context. In the article that I read there were a lot of compliments to Cavanagh, but the headline glosses over that.

Redhandman could be right though, in that maybe he is trying to throw down the gauntlet to Cavanagh. Sean's form was awful last year, and not much better the year before (Yes, I know, he got player of the year, but he didn't deserve it. He did very little aside from a great all-ireland final performance).

Still, let's see it as it was written before jumping to conclusions.

Thomas, he kicked points from all angles in nearly every match last year. Just my opinion but i watched nearly every Tyrone game last year and i thought he was unbelievable. I would say though that he is laying down a challenge to Sean, personally dont think putting it in a book and practically claiming that he crapped himself before the semi final is the way to do it. Quiet word in his ear might have been more appropriate.

samin10 wrote:Quiet word in his ear might have been more appropriate.

Quiet word = no extra sales! Cynical - moi ?

He did very little last year Samin. He was outstanding in the final, fairly good against Dublin, and absent in virtually every other game. McGinley or McMenamin should have got player of the year last year, but Cavanagh is the darling of the media, mainly as he never stops talking to journalists.

Cavanagh's form has definitely dipped from where is was 3-4 years ago. He is increasingly easily blotted out of games by a niggly marker in midfield, and he spends more and more time asking for protection from referees. Yes he kicks some great points, but he doesn't go looking for his own ball. Don't get me wrong, he has been outstanding for Tyrone on many occasions, but he is not playing to the level of which he is capable. His form needs to improve considerably in 2010 if Tyrone are to regain the all-ireland.

Thomas its all about opinions, i cant stand the fella but i thought he was the standout player last year. McGinley was the only one to come anywhere near getting the player of the year award. I could be wrong on this but i thought he was scoring 4 or 5 points a game last year, usually from play. Was he not very close to top scorer last year. In a year where ONeill played very little, Mulligan and Brian McGuigan the same i thought he was Tyrones saviour last year moving to full forward.

Last year Cavanagh I thought was excellent.

This year not so good, indeed poor. Imagine if someone had said to you in March that Hughes, Mugsy and O'Neill would all be back to near their best, or as good as they can be nowadays. You would have put the house on Tyrone, but they were let down by established players and some of the 2008 "stars".

Mind you I always argued that the 2008 team were mediocre, in comparison to other sides.

However why Mickey Harte is dissing Canvanagh in print is anyone's guess although the GPA might have something to do with it.

Thomas Clarke wrote:I think it is important to read what Harte has written in context. In the article that I read there were a lot of compliments to Cavanagh, but the headline glosses over that.

Redhandman could be right though, in that maybe he is trying to throw down the gauntlet to Cavanagh. Sean's form was awful last year, and not much better the year before (Yes, I know, he got player of the year, but he didn't deserve it. He did very little aside from a great all-ireland final performance).

Still, let's see it as it was written before jumping to conclusions.

TC, while i agree with you that its best to see the context in which this particular piece appeared. However how would you feel if you were Sean Cavanagh at the minute. Irrespective of what else Mickey said about him, compliments or not, the issue is that all the journalists have pounced on this particular section of the book and have printed it en masse in most of the papers, it is also being discussed the length and breadth of Ireland by every GAA fan who cares about football.

It does not paint Cavanagh in a good light at all and I'm sure he' far from impressed. Now i dont know what Cavanaghs relationship with the rest of the panel is like but i do know he is a big GPA man and at least one high profile member of the squad doesn't have much time for him due to this.

Cavanagh may well have had prior knowledge about the contents of the book but thats not to say he wont be angry with the way he has been portrayed. You only have to look at some of the difference of opinions on here to realise that what one man/woman writes is not always picked up the way it was intended.

well i have read the chapter in the book which all the controversy is about, to be honest it doesnt read that bad, and in fairness Mickey mentions a list of problems that Tyrone had leading up to the game including doubts over Joe Mc Mahon, Phillip Jordan and Dooher but according to Gaelic Life yesterday Cavanagh tells a very different story about the chain of events that lead to him not starting the game.

In an interview with Ulster's 'Gaelic Life' magazine, Cavanagh revealed that he told Harte on the morning of the match that he had been hit by a sudden bout of the 'flu and didn't feel up to playing.

Cavanagh said he did not get "a single minute" of sleep the night before the game due to the 'flu leaving him "zombified".

The Moy clubman managed to get some sleep in the three hours before a team meeting later that morning and was feeling better but before he could consult with Harte, was told by Tommy McGuigan that he would be starting instead of him.

"I got up at around 11.30am and went for the players' meeting" he explained.

"On the way I met Tommy McGuigan in the corridor and he told me that he was sorry to hear that I wasn't well, that he was starting for me that's how it was broken to me."

Explaining that he had felt fine until going to bed on the Saturday night, Cavanagh added: "When I went to bed things went downhill pretty quickly. I was having hot and cold flushes, really unsettled. I watched every minute pass by.

"When you lay there for that long, eight or nine hours zombified, you get really lonely and low. I was getting angry and frustrated, because I knew I wasn't going to be at full strength."

After discussing the situation with roommate Ryan Mellon, the 26-year-old decided to tell Harte what had happened. Cavanagh understood their discussion to have concluded with an opening for him still to play.

"I said that I had no problem playing the game but that I didn't feel 100 per cent and therefore wasn't going to be full strength. I told him I'd leave the decision completely up to him."

Harte's book tells nothing of McGuigan knowing he was to start, in fact the only people who knew were the management team and Brian Dooher prior to the team reaching Croke Park. Two very different stories so it looks like there may be trouble ahead.