By Alan Rodgers

A DOMINANT performance from Tyrone is being demanded to break the Cavan resolve as the Red Hands bid to reach the Sam Maguire knockout stages in Sunday’s third and final All-Ireland group stage encounter.

But the big question ahead of this Brewster Park clash centres on whether Malachy O’Rourke and the players can get back to the form which saw them sweep aside Donegal in round one.

There will be an expectation at least that the poor display which resulted in defeat to Mayo will have been firmly forgotten by the final whistle.

Tyrone, of course, have enjoyed championship supremacy over Cavan now for 42 years, ever since 1983. That run has included many memorable victories, including in the 1995 and 2001 Ulster finals. Perhaps the only one, though, that will have any bearing is the provincial quarter-final win on April 13 last when the Red Hands prevailed after extra-time.

Omagh’s Joe McMahon played in some of those wins. He believes that Tyrone will be targeting key improvements as they bid to secure the victory required to reach the preliminary quarter-final at least and potentially the quarter-final proper.

“There always tend to be a look back at previous meetings. It’s nice to have all those victories over Cavan, but that will count for little or nothing come the weekend,” said the All-Ireland winner in 2005 and 2008.

“Cavan are wounded from their heavy defeat to Donegal in the last round, while Tyrone off the back of a poor performance against Mayo, will be out to prove a point.

“This has the makings of being a great game. It will be a difficult tie for Tyrone after losing to Mayo and the hurt from that. But the challenge for Tyrone is to get the consistency in their performances and has been for the past number of years.

“We have seen flashes of brilliance, and the task is to start producing those on a more regular basis.

“It’s hard to know where Tyrone are currently at. We were relegated to Division Two and probably went into the championship with a real sense of anticipation that things were going to pick up.

“There were chances to win against Armagh and Tyrone competed brilliantly. But just in those final moments, Armagh got the winning score and I think Tyrone people were walking out of Clones not too despondent.

“The display against Donegal, combined with the semi-final against Armagh meant that there was optimism that we were on the right path. That was until the setback against Mayo a few weeks ago which nobody was really anticipating.”

It is against the background of those matches, then, that Tyrone enter this latest tie against Cavan. There is certainly a degree of apprehension, but also confidence that the lessons will be learned from the defeat to Mayo a fortnight ago.

There is no room for error either as each of the four teams in the group are tied on two points. So, a victory is absolutely essential to avoid the preliminary quarter-final and the prospect of a tiring schedule of three games in three weeks.

McMahon, though, believes that the signs are positive. Tyrone are poised to build on the impressive win over Donegal, and to set aside the disappointment of that frustrating loss to their Connacht rivals, he feels

“We know that possession is key with kick-outs and if you can win the primary ball then there will be a better chance of creating a shooting opportunity. All of that is something that Tyrone will have been looking at during the past few weeks,” said McMahon.

“We know the quality that Tyrone have in attack when they do win possession and hopefully that will be more apparent now on Sunday.

“The return of Padraig Hampsey is a boost. You’ll also have Eoin McElholm to come back in alongside a couple of the other u-20s. But it’s about the collective group and for all the players they will be out to prove a point.

“It’s a matter of delivering on Sunday. The beauty is that we’re still in a strong position, capable of qualifying still as top of the group.

“Cavan have a lot of quality. They are strong and physical and they will be looking to capitalise on where Tyrone struggle.

This week’s Gaelic Lives previews the final round of group games in the All-Ireland SFC with Michael Kennedy, a Tyrone man and part of Dublin’s All-Ireland winning management team under Pat Gilroy and Jim Gavin.