VETERAN Tyrone star Sean Cavanagh has admitted he's 'slightly jealous' of cash rich counties like back to back All-Ireland champions Dublin.
The former Footballer of the Year, who has confirmed that 2017 will be his last year with Tyrone, had a dig on Twitter last week at inter-county players who receive sponsored cars.
Dublin GAA recently signed a deal with Subaru to provide cars for their players while various other top county players have used social media outlets to show off their free vehicles.
Cavanagh reacted by Tweeting a picture of himself on a child's car, with his gear bag slung on his back, stating 'delighted to pick up my new wheels tonight'.
Speaking at yesterday's launch of the EirGrid All-Ireland U-21 football championship, the big Moy man, who turns 34 tomorrow, said he can be a little envious of others at times.
"There are times that you're slightly jealous of the likes of the Dublins," said Cavanagh, who acknowledged that Tyrone spend hundreds of thousands of pounds less on team expenses than the likes of Dublin or Mayo. "We get the basics right. I suppose as a player group, we don't probably see ourselves as that high maintenance. It's like anything, I think everyone looks at Dublin and raises an eyebrow when you see them with their cars and whatever else. At times you do feel that.
"Look, we're amateurs, we're football players. I think the best thing about our group is we're lads that are in it for the right reasons, to try and win games.
"The expenses, the commercial bit, we don't get too carried away with that, whether it comes or not. We're all focused on that common goal of trying to get silverware back in the county. Whatever happens outside of that is beyond our control."
The three-time All-Ireland medallist moved to clarify that Tyrone don't lack anything in their team preparations though indicated that they do, when necessary, pay for some things themselves.
"Like anything, you'd like that wee bit more, to get the best nutrition or the best whatever," continued Cavanagh.
"But the guys are equally willing, if the county's not spending it on us, the guys will spend on themselves. They don't really cause that much of a fuss about it."
Cavanagh stated last April that 2016 would almost certainly be his final season with Tyrone though made up his mind around a week after losing out to Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, a game he was sent off in, that he'd return.
"Something inside me said, 'no, you can't walk now'," he said.
"I wasn't sure how the body was going to feel but I knew inside me, and my wife could read me more than I could read myself, she knew that I couldn't walk away in the way that I left that Mayo game."
The versatile midfielder is '99 per cent sure' that he will definitely leave after the 2017 Championship, however, and said that setting that date has allowed him to enjoy every last bit of his final season.
"In my eyes, this is it and genuinely I do absolutely love every minute that I'm training," said Cavanagh. "It's absolutely Baltic in Garvaghy. But I do love going up and training. I love spending time with the guys.
"I know that you'll never be able to replace that camaraderie that you have with the team.
"We're lucky in Tyrone that we don't have any club rifts, we have everybody who turns up to train for Tyrone and play for Tyrone who is 100 per cent committed to try to do their best for Tyrone.
"That environment is a great environment to be in. I'm just living it, training by training, day by day and I'm really enjoying it because I know that this will be the end of it."
