Former Tyrone star Colm Cavanagh says he sees “an awful lot more intensity and work-rate” from the Red Hands this year.

The Ulster champions are currently preparing for their first All-Ireland SFC final in three years after toppling Kerry last Sunday at Croke Park after extra time.

Speaking to GAA.ie, Cavanagh said he sees a much different brand of football being played under Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher in their first year in charge.

“There's a lot more emphasis now on keeping people up the pitch than there was before and trying to stop things high up the pitch. There's an awful lot more intensity and work-rate from what I can see,” said the 2008 All-Ireland winner.

“Again, that's more around the system and style they're playing. They're trying to take more risks and be more adventurous. The teams I played on, we did try to do that, but we did revert back to trying to get men behind the ball and shuffling left to right.

“I just think when you're trained to play that type of football it can be very difficult to break that cycle where you're playing a certain way. Without a change in management and change of players happening, it's very hard to do that.

“They've definitely changed even if there's obviously some glimpses there of what they've been working on for the last five or six years. There's definitely a freshness to what they're doing and they're definitely taking more risks and they seem to be given the licence to go out and play football and be a bit freer. Whereas in the years gone past it hasn't really been the case."

Tweet

Most Read Stories