Tyrone vs Cavan All-Ireland SFC: Five Talking Points

A golden opportunity

THIS is the third – and apparently final – year of the All-Ireland group stage format. In 2023 and 2024, Tyrone failed to finish top of the table, meaning they had to field in an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final. In 2023 Tyrone overcame Donegal in the preliminaries before having to play a fresh Kerry team a week later in the last-eight and they slumped to a heavy defeat. Finishing the top of the table is a big deal and if Tyrone overcome Cavan and Donegal do us a favour against Mayo, we’re in business.

Brian’s back

TYRONE captain Brian Kennedy was sorely missed in the round two defeat to Mayo – and not just for his leadership. He’s a massively important player in the middle sector, perhaps more so than ever with the new rules around restarts, and his return can’t come a moment too soon. The responsibility to fetch the ball out of the skies can’t solely rest on his shoulders and fans will be hoping to see a really strong showing from his teammates in the middle of the park.

Still striving for consistency

INCONSISTENCY has been one of the hallmarks of recent seasons unfortunately. What seemed like a seismic victory over Donegal was followed by a patch display against Mayo. It’s a bit of a conundrum and Sunday’s game against Cavan mightn’t really tell us much about Tyrone’s overall prospects in this year’s All-Ireland. That said, supporters will still want to see improvements from the last day out. And if things go to plan, we’ll be three steps away from Sam…

Making assumptions

IT’S difficult not to make assumptions about Sunday. Cavan’s record against Tyrone is frankly dreadful, and they were dismantled by Donegal on their last day out. Complacency can’t seep in though – Cavan aren’t a bad team, were a kick of the ball away from achieving promotion to Division One back in the spring, overcame Mayo a few short weeks ago, and they put up a good showing against Donegal in the opening 45 minutes before it all went terribly wrong.

It’s all happening

It should be one hell of a weekend. Eight group stage matches down for decision, and there’s plenty at stake. Dublin and Derry is certainly worth a watch (we are entirely neutral, of course), Monaghan and Down should be another cracker with top spot at stake, and that’s without mentioning our very own group, which is going right down to the wire. It’s a pity the group stages are getting binned because they seem to work about as well as is possible.