Five key areas where Cavan can look to beat Tyrone

Michael Hannon
Football analyst

There are a number of key things Cavan are going to have to get right if they are to win this Ulster semi-final clash against Tyrone. In what seems like a defining moment for Terry Hyland’s reign in Cavan, his side are going into battle with an adversary they are well accustomed to playing.

Given how both these sides have played each other over the past number of seasons in McKenna Cup finals and twice this year in the league, both sets of teams are familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

However, since the middle of last year, Tyrone have developed a collective unity in defence and a counter-attacking game that is probbaly the best in the country.

From a defensive point of view, they are married to a sweeper system that uses Colm Cavanagh permanently in that role, with assisstance in sweeping duties from a rotating team-mate.

Given the scope for confusion in such a set-up, it is admirable how solid they remain. This is largely down to the organisational qualities of Cavanagh, and one or two of those around him.

Given how he has such a negative impact on the attacking play of the opposition, his role is probably a good place to start...

 

1: The Colm Cavanagh Conundrum

For a player who was seen as the poor relation to older brother Sean when he first came on the scene, Cavanagh has transformed himself into arguably the most influential player in the current Tyrone side.

Lining out at midfield, he drops back to sit in front of his full backs and essentially performs two roles. 

The first is to act as a deterrent so ball is not played into the full-forward line. An analysis of the scores from play of all the full-forward lines who played against Tyrone in the league would undoubetdly make for short reading.

Derry, last day out, managed one point from their full-forward line, a Mark Lynch effort from distance. Cavan, in the league final, managed one, a David Givney second-half score.

After drifiting out the field on a Tyrone kick-out he got on the end of the move after the ball was won and had been worked back in - so it was not your typical full-forward play that might yield a point.

The first thing you will have to accept is that your full-forward line is not going to rack up a huge score because you simply won’t be able to get the ball into them. So, give them a different role - but what might that be?

Well, let’s look at what Cavanagh’s second duty is. With teams unable to kick the ball they end up having to run it and often try to force it through a blanket of players which can result in turnovers. If anyone does break through that blanket Cavanagh steps up to become an extra man tackling.

The full-forward line have to make sure they don’t drift past Cavanagh out the field when they get frustrated at not receiving the ball. They must play as close to the end line as they can. Their role is to keep Cavanagh as busy as they can, keep him invovled in covering them so as to never be able to step up and tackle when team-mates make those breaks through.

If he does step up and a few balls get popped over his head, he’ll start playing clsoer to the full-back line which will allow anyone making those breakthroughs a little bit more time to pick off scores.

 

Accepting Cavanagh is going to influence how much ball your full-forward line will see should see positional changes to the Cavan side. There is no point having Johnston playing inside and not being able to get the ball to him.

In fairness, I believe Cavan lined out agaisnt Armagh with half an eye on this issue already as Johnston essentially played at centre-forward with McKiernan at midfield.

 

2: The Tyrone kick-out

Because Tyrone are so solid defensively from open play, Cavan are going to have to target their kick-out with better success than they managed in the league final. 

The kick-out is one time when Tyrone push players back up the field to make room for each other. They will drag four players into the full-back line but the preferred option is still to send the ball out to the wing-back positions.

Apart from five minutes in Croke Park, Cavan essentially were unable to put any squeeze at all on the Red Hands’ restarts. The frustrating thing is how they always seem to hit the wings. 

What is predictable should be easily stopped but players will need to man up in this regard and not let runners get away from them.

Mattie Donnelly is always looking for a kick-out he can run on to. Whoever has the role of picking him up should play in his face on the kick-out. Take the risk and turn their back to the goalkeeper. Give him something different to deal with.

Even if Cavan won four kickouts in each half it could result in three to four easy scores as the Tyrone defensive blanket will not be set up and in place.

 

3: Defensive match-ups

By now Hyland and his management team should be be able to work out who is best suited to picking up who with regard to his defenders.

Peter Harte ran the show the last day once Killian Brady was substituted in the first half and I would use it as an example of knowing your match-ups. 

Brady had turned over one or two balls when in posession but his strengths are his athleticism and aggression. Harte needs to be matched with someone like that to negate his influence on proceedings.

Once Brady was off the field, Harte played an integral part in five of the next seven Tyrone attacks. From being locked at 0-7 apiece, they went on to open a three-point half-time lead they never relinquished.

Over the course of the games played between these sides, Cavan have usually been at their best when Killian Clarke was out operating in the midfield sector. Lining the Shercock man up on Colm Cavanagh might just force Tyrone to change things up a little.

Clarke won’t be allowed to roam free from midfield so it might just cause a bit of early confusion on the Tyrone sideline.

McAliskey scored five points from play in Croke Park. That’s above the norm for the the corner-forward. Sean Cavanagh, Mattie Donnelly, Ronan O’Neill and the aforementioned Harte and McAliskey are the quintet who are responsible for the majority of Tyrone’s scores and working out the best five to stop their contribution is one of the issues facing Hyland this week.

 

4: Negative turnovers

Fifteen points were kicked the last day against Tyrone and that’s enough to win most games. The problem for Cavan was the 1-17 they conceded at the other end. Too many of those scores came from turnovers.

When Cavan attack they have to make sure the ball goes dead. Tyrone are a lot less likely to score from their own kick-out than they are if they win back posession on their own 45-metre line.

They are one of the best teams in Ireland at breaking from speed in numbers, and can transition the ball from one end of the field to the other at lightning pace.

Stop turning the ball over and you take away their ability to counter-attack. It might just knock a few scores off their attacking average.

 

5: Mackey's contribution

During the McKenna Cup finals between these two sides, Cian Mackey and Killian Clarke were the two players Tyrone struggled to deal with the most. Against Armagh we saw Mackey return to form.

However, he may need to alter his natural game. He likes to come out the field, get on some easy ball, face the forward line and try to orchestrate something from a deeper lying position. Against Armagh, however, he was at his best when he was moving forward when receiving posession.

Take the run he made for Johnston’s point after the Armagh penalty. He got ahead of the ball and was moving towards goals when it was played to him. If he tries to take it into contact from a standstill position Mackey (above) will struggle to exert the influence Cavan need if they’re to win.

He must make those runs without the ball ahead of the play - powerful runs - and accept that he won’t always get the ball, but because of his threat he will attract more than one defender to him, and such play will open up opportunites for others around him.