Canavan’s performance against Derry in 1995 may well be the greatest individual performance ever seen on a Gah pitch.
Had Canavan not been playing, Derry would have won by 15 points.
Tyrone won by 1.
I attended that match (I was towards the back wall on the terrace behind the goal on the left of the camera angle - nearer the Hill) and I consider it a lifetime privilege to have watched true greatness in action in the seething cauldron of Clones that day.
What about the 1995 final?
He scored something like 10 points out of Tyrone’s 11.
Ridiculous stuff at that level of competition.
You stupid moron. Caravans contribution was to take a blatant dive and get mccusker sent off. Tyrone disgraced themselves that day- even by tyrone standards
I think all of them were frees in 95 but he won the majority of them and set up what should have been the equalising point late on. He was a stunning player, a shame his peak did not align with the golden generation after him.
Charlatan
He was the free taker right enough - he had two simple opportunities to tie or win the game. He blew them both.
It was uncanny how the era of peak peak Canavan overlapped almost exactly with peak peak Oasis.
1984, the GAA’s centenary year, he was named on the GAA’s Football Team of the Century and the organisation’s Gaelic football Team of the Millennium in 1999. In 1984 the Sunday Independent invited readers to vote for their Team of the Century. Purcell won more votes than any other player. In 1991 he was inducted into the All-Stars All-Time Hall of Fame
Joe Brolly, the peasant’s Peter Canavan.
You don’t think Peter was a diver?
I wouldn’t have Meehan’s goal in the top five I’ve seen in All-Ireland football finals, probably not even top 10. Nice goal but there have been plenty better in finals.
I think he knew how to look after himself in the face of thuggery he met from the Derry wans.
So mccusker was a thug?
Well he played for Derry so he was probably a whingebag too.
When this thread started I could never have imagined that it would descend into a tedious debate over different facets of ulster football.
Were you expecting new insights into JOE CANNING?
I knew a man who regularly lined out against Purcell and couldn’t speak highly enough of him on and off the field. Different gravy. He also said that Dwyer was one of the greatest to ever take to the field.
I’d be agin all this sort of shite, its impossible to measure, but shur it keeps lads on the internet quiet for a bit and out of brexit and us threads, so its not all bad.
I first saw Dwyer in the 59 final when he was a half back. He was tough, aggressive and had a lethal burst of pace. He snuffed out Joe Young who was 4/5" taller in the era of catch and kick football. A mighty bit of stuff and could mind a pound if he found one…
Up there with the best of them, just a shade off the highest plateau.
Padraic Joyce scored ten points in the aif.