Oz-bound Canavan wants big performance against Louth

DARRAGH Canavan wants to sign off with another big performance before he departs for Australia.

Sunday's clash with Louth at Ardee will be the Tyrone ace's final league appearance this season, but he'll be back in time for the championship following a month spent down under.

He was the inspiration for the first Red Hand victory of the season, hitting nine points to shoot down Cavan, and now has his sights on a Louth side that was denied by a late Meath winner at Croke Park.

"Nearly every game is like a championship game at this stage if we want to get to where we need to go," he said.

"It's a big one next week, and we're looking forward to it."

Despite Tyrone's faltering start to the Division Two campaign, Canavan believes promotion is still attainable for a side that finally found form against the Breffni men at O'Neills Healy Park.

But there's no room for error ahead of this weekend's trip to Dunleer, ahead of a home tie against struggling Offaly at Dungannon, before the season is wrapped up with two testing ties against the sides that occupy the top two places in the league table, Meath at Croke Park and Cork at Omagh.

"We probably need to be winning all of them to give ourselves any chance, but we'll not look to far ahead.

"We'll focus on Louth this week and hopefully put in another performance.

"We definitely have a lot of work to do, but we'll look to keep trying to put in decent performances, and hopefully we get another couple of wins."

The two-week break ahead of round three gave manager Malachy O'Rourke and his coaching team ana opportunity to focus on problem areas, and it was time well spent by a group of players determined to turn the corner following a disappointing draw with Kildare and a stinging defeat to Ulster rivals Derry.

"We put in a good shift the last couple of weeks in training after the Derry game.

"We weren't happy with it at all, or the Kildare game, so it's good to see a couple of things that we worked on paying off, especially in the second half, when we started to get going a bit.

"It was much better compared to the first two weeks, so we'll keep working and hopefully we'll be able to put in another couple of performances."

And a thumping 12 points victory lifted the gloom and provided a much-needed morale-boost for the squad.

"That's what winning does, it gets everybody back onside, so hopefully we can keep doing it.

"We know it wasn't an ideal start the last couple of weeks, so we definitely felt the pressure to put in a half decent performance, but it was about getting two points.

"We were definitely needing two points, so I suppose there was a bit of pressure, and we were just happy to get over the line.

"We weren't too bothered about how we played, as long as we got over the line, but it was nice to get a good second half in."

Canavan's absence for the final three games against Offaly, Meath and Cork is a significant blow for Tyrone, but they'll take heart from the spread of scorers last weekend, with twelve different players raising flags of various hues in the 2-23 to 1-14 success.

"I was probably lucky enough to get on the end of a few, it could have been anybody. But I'm happy."

Manager Malachy O'Rourke confirmed the impending departure of his star attacker, but feels the break will be of benefit to a player who has been in constant action over the past couple of seasons, picking up a number of injuries, including an ankle problem that required surgery late last year.

"He is going away. This is something that was planned way back before the season, so he is going to Australia for a month," said O'Rourke.

"A lot of inter-county players are going away at different times."

"When he's in form like that, we'd rather see him staying about, but Darragh, in fairness to hm, he has been on the treadmill for a good while, he has picked up a few injuries along the way.

"We have often played him maybe when we shouldn't have, so hopefully the wee bit of a break will do him good, he'll come back refreshed and ready to go."

The manager is confident that Canavan will return refreshed and ready to add his special talents to the Tyrone attack once again in a few weeks time.

"You could see that it means an awful lot to him to pull on that Tyrone jersey.

"He will be gone for a wee while, but he'll be back for championship."

Tyrone will require another high quality display this weekend if they are to overcome the reigning Leinster champions.

Louth have also made an uncertain start to the league, losing two of their three games, but their battling comeback against unbeaten Meath at Croke Park at the weekend demonstrated that they are not to be taken lightly.

And the Red Hands will be hoping that a big ravelling support will make the trip to Dunleer for a crunch tie, after just over two thousand turned up for the home clash with Cavan.

NFL Division Two

P W D L Dif Pts

Cork 3 3 0 0 11 6

Meath 3 3 0 0 6 6

Derry 3 2 0 1 3 4

Tyrone 3 1 1 1 9 3

Kildare 3 1 1 1 6 3

Louth 3 1 0 2 -1 2

Cavan 3 0 0 3 -15 0

Offaly 3 0 0 3 -19 0