Canavan’s memories of 2005 glory

THERE were so many turning points to Tyrone’s heroic 2025 season. Too many to count. Replays, wrongful red cards, last-minute winners, melees, match ups. The career-defining Armagh trilogy. The ten-game run to Sam. So many stories.

But a meeting inside the dressing room after a league semi-final loss to Wexford jumps out at Peter Canavan. He wasn’t even there, having briefly stepped away from the panel to get himself ready for the year ahead.

The Tyrone legend described the impact of that discussion on the ‘Over The Bar’ podcast, hosted by Michael Foley and Ciaran O’Hara. “I’d love to know what went on because I wasn’t there myself,” the Errigal Ciaran man chuckled.

Mickey Harte’s men fielded that day without the likes of Canavan, Enda McGinley, Stephen O’Neill, Owen Mulligan, Brian Dooher, Brian McGuigan, Kevin Hughes and Ciaran Gourley but excuses weren’t going to be accepted. Training standards needed to increase.

Things didn’t spark straight away, but Tyrone had enough to see off Down and Cavan (after a replay) to set up an Ulster final with the old enemy, Armagh.

Another replay ensued with the Orchard County claiming the Anglo Celt eventually, but it wasn’t without it’s controversy. Canavan himself was wrongly red carded moments after entering the fray while Stephen O’Neill’s day ended in similar fashion.

While they’d lost the battle, the war was still to come. Tyrone felt they were wronged and heading into the All-Ireland series, they held an ‘us against the world’ mentality.

The legacy of ’86

“It was easy, put it like that, to motivate Tyrone after that game,” Canavan continued. “Any other year when you play Armagh twice and lose in a game that you felt you should have won, you would have been at a very low ebb.

“From a team point of view, everybody was back at training with a renewed sense of purpose and (we felt) everybody is against us, this is what was thought of Tyrone, what are we going to do about it?

“Mickey, behind it all, was probably rubbing his hands knowing that he had a group of angry men coming to training on Tuesday night.”

Monaghan were swept aside in the Qualifiers to set up a memorable showdown with Leinster champions Dublin, who were trying to make the breakthrough in terms of the Sam Maguire race, under Paul ‘Pillar’ Caffrey.

Again, another replay was needed to separate the two, with Owen Mulligan’s goal the first day out still hailed as one of the best ever witnessed at Croke Park. His major in the replay deflated the Dubs and Tyrone progressed to the last four.

Lying in wait were the Ulster champions, Armagh. The trilogy was on. “Unlike a lot of games today when you win a ball, things are more measured and there’s keep possession and more sideways passing, it was up and down the pitch.

“As soon as you won the ball, there was more kicking and at that time, Armagh in particular with (Ronan) Clarke and Stevie McDonnell inside, the long diagonal ball was a game plan they used a lot.

“There was no hanging about, and it was played at a serious pace and hence why it was such a good game to watch.”

Canavan was ultimately the deciding factor between the teams. With everything all square, Tyrone won a free in the final minute and there was only one man trusted to land the winning score.

“Owen Mulligan was our free taker and I’ve no doubt he would have kicked it over the bar. I was getting a breather and Sean Cavanagh and Brian McGuigan came over at different times and said that I had to hit it.

“If they hadn’t of said that I definitely wouldn’t have been hitting it. It would be easy to say that ‘Mugsy’ didn’t want to kick it, I would love to say that. He was prepared to, but I felt as the experienced player at that time that it was my job to do that.”

That left Tyrone one win away from a second All-Ireland title, but they had to scale the aristocrats of Gaelic football, Kerry, in the final, who were vying for revenge following their semi-final defeat to Tyrone two years previous.

Canavan hadn’t started a game all season but was lined out at corner-forward for the throw in on All-Ireland final day against the reigning champs.

He planted the ball into the corner of the net in the first half before being replaced at the interval, only to return for the last 15 minutes.

“Gambles, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t but thankfully for me, I was fresh and I wanted the ball in those last 10 or 15 minutes but the rest of the boys, the work was done and they were flying.”

Canavan’s last action in a Tyrone shirt was lifting the Sam Maguire. A perfect way to bow out. “It was a frustrating year for me in that I spent a lot of it on the treatment table. I loved every minute of the training but felt like a bit-part player,” he added.

“It was a relief to have won a second All-Ireland, I didn’t think it was going to get any better than that. I felt that I had done my bit and was able to walk away on my own terms and with my head held very high.”