DARRAGH Canavan is the “pure ditto of his father” and will begin to make a significant difference to Tyrone’s attack in the coming years, believes Brian McGuigan.
The teenage son of McGuigan’s former team-mate Peter, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, has been attracting attention for his performances with Tyrone at underage grades.
He made his senior debut in the McKenna Cup but had been left with the U20s for their campaign, which saw Tyrone win Ulster before the All-Ireland series was postponed.
“I don’t think the Ulster people have seen anything of the potential that Darragh has. If you go and watch him in a club game, and I’ve seen him up through minor club football and stuff, he’s the pure ditto of his father.
“He’ll be good for Tyrone because he’s so unselfish, like his Da. He always seems to make the right call.
“You’ve a lot of inside men who maybe don’t take the right option because they’re going for the score themselves, but Darragh always seems to take the right option.
“Upstairs, he has it too. The quick hands are the same. He’s two-footed but so many times you see him, even for the club minors, it doesn’t matter who you were, if you were in a better position he played it to you.”
The only minor concern is that his lack of physical presence could county against him.
Canavan was due to rejoin the senior squad when the U20 campaign was over and having taken a year out of education to go working on a building site, McGuigan feels he is much closer to being ready for senior football.
“That was all probably based around football and feeling he had to build himself up, and toughen himself up. That was mature of him to do that,” says McGuigan.
“Even last year in the club championship, he’d a bit of an injury and was only playing a bit-part for Errigal Ciaran. He’s struggled with niggly injuries and this break has maybe come at a good time for him too.
“Was Peter Canavan too wee? All good players overcome any problem with their talent.
“If he’s the pure ditto of the father and plays the exact same way, then physicality shouldn’t really come into it.
“He’s that quick and that elusive that he avoids all the tackles.”
Having a bit of space to clear up injuries, even beyond the high-profile ones suffered by Mattie Donnelly (now recovered) and Cathal McShane, will be an aid to Tyrone as well, McGuigan believes.
Speaking in general terms, he gazes across at the way knocks and niggles are dealt with in professional sports and wonders what harm GAA players are bringing upon themselves by playing through the pain barrier.
“I know in our team, you did good rehab and you’re maybe four weeks away, but you’d a game in two weeks, you pushed yourself to the limit to get back in two weeks.
“Then you’re back in training and the next thing you could set yourself back weeks.
“You look at soccer players and unless they’re 100 per cent, they’ll not go out, whereas GAA players don’t seem to do that.
“They want to come back as quick as possible. It’s dangerous and it probably shortens your career later on.
“Sometimes you read things about soccer players, they maybe have a massive game on the Wednesday night and this player’s injured, and he’s not playing. Come the Saturday, he’s available to play, and you’re wondering if he’s able to play on the Saturday, how could he not play on the Wednesday night?
“They have to be 100 per cent.
“But then in my time, you’d men like Brian Dooher who would have played if he was even 50 per cent fit, he just would make no excuses for anything.
“The GAA just seems to have a different mentality than soccer.
“We’d look at soccer and if they don’t play, we’d say they’re soft, but they’re probably doing the professional thing and doing it right, whereas we’re doing the stupid thing.”
