With three All-Ireland medals, five Allstars, a Footballer of the Year award, and just about every other honour the game can offer, Sean Cavanagh wants more.
Now in his forties, he’s still playing with his club, and chasing a championship title to add to the trappings of a stellar career.
Cavanagh has guided Moy to the Tyrone IFC final as player-manager, and to within 60 minutes of a return to senior football following last year’s relegation.
“I always was a fairly ambitious person as a player, and now I have got the opportunity to try and get the lads back to where I believe they belong,” he said.
“I suppose we have yo-yoed a wee bit between senior and intermediate. But the first thing that I said to the lads was, look, I believe the likes of Moy should be competing at senior level.”
Cavanagh sprung himself from the bench with 20 minutes to play in Saturday’s semi-final clash with Clonoe, using his experience to help the team negotiate a safe path to the final whistle, after they had built up a five-point lead.
“I suppose when we got a bit of a lead up, there was a time to control and slow the game down, take a little bit of the tempo out of it.
“A man in his forties has seen that situation play out a few times, and as long as I’m still able to do something, I’m just happy to throw whatever lot I have in with it.”
Younger brother Colm, also a former Allstar, continues to perform to the highest standards, posting an imperious defensive performance as the Tir na nÓgs inflicted a first defeat of the season on Clonoe.
And Sean believes his sibling could have given another couple of years of valuable service to the county team, had he not decided to retire from Red Hand duty at the end of the 2020 season.
“Colm has been doing that for 15, 20 years, and there’s times when you watch him, you’re thinking he could still be doing that for Tyrone, had he stayed on a couple of years longer.
“He has his strengths, and thankfully we’re just so happy to have him right now.”
Moy’s final meeting with Pomeroy presents an opportunity to immediately regain senior status after suffering relegation last year.
“That’s what Tyrone does to you. There’s that many good teams in Division One, that sometimes if you don’t put a good year together, you get nipped, and Edendork nipped us last year.
“There’s very little between a lot of teams, and there was very little between ourselves and Clonoe, and there was very little between Pomeroy and Derrylaughan.
“And the final is not going to be very different. It’s going to be a big game, and good luck to anyone who can call it.”
And if Moy succeed in winning the championship title and promotion, it will be hard-earned in a fiercely competitive environment.
“As a person who has bounced up and down through senior and intermediate, sometimes you can have as difficult games in intermediate as there is in senior.
“And I have no doubt that Pomeroy or Clonoe or Derrylaughan, if you threw them into the senior championship this year, they would do okay.
“Look, Edendork beat us in the play-off last year, and they got a point in injury-time to draw the game.
“And we saw how Edendork put Trillick to the pin of their collar, and could be sitting in a county final themselves if they had won that one.That’s Tyrone.’’
