Mickey Harte claims Seán Cavanagh was a marked man

In defending Seán Cavanagh's sending off, Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has implicated the actions of Lee Keegan as the primary reason for the first yellow card, before the second half resumed, in this All-Ireland football quarter-final.

Harte conceded the loss of Cavanagh - his captain, a five-time All Star and Tyrone’s solitary link to their three All-Ireland titles - contributed to the lack of composure shown in the final moments of this 0-13 to 0-12 defeat to Mayo.

Tyrone kicked four wides in the last 10 minutes.

“I didn’t see it,” Harte began when asked about the scuffle which occurred when the players returned to the field after half-time.

Cavanagh ended up on the ground, very close to where he rugby tackled Monaghan’s Conor McManus at a decisive moment in the 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final.

“It’s unfortunate that it happened but I know this for sure - I know Seán Cavanagh doesn’t go looking for yellow cards.

“He never did in his whole career,” Harte claimed. “It seems a shame he is the victim of somebody else enticing him into that kind of arena. He doesn’t go looking for anything. That’s for sure. And I can say that with 100 per cent and have no fear of contradiction. He never went looking for a black card in his life or a yellow card in his life.”

Cavanagh’s incident with McManus three seasons ago, when the Monaghan forward was clean through on goal, played a significant part in the introduction of the black card as the GAA attempted to eradicate cynical play from Gaelic football.

“It seems a shame that a man at this stage of career, who has given so much to our games, should fall victim to that kind of stuff,” Harte continued.

It was put to Harte that Cavanagh had appealed for protection from linesman David Coldrick during the first half. "If a forward wants to go and attack and it ends up a wrestling match it's not likely the forward is going to instigate that."

Should Cavanagh have got more protection from the officials then?

“Well, you are always disappointed when someone doesn’t get what they deserve,” Harte replied.

Did Cavanagh’s second yellow card, when he tackled Aidan O’Shea around the neck in the 59th minute, prove the turning point in this match (it was 0-11 apiece)? “Obviously in a game of that nature, how tight it was, to lose a man like Seán; we didn’t just lose any player, we lost our captain, we lost the most experienced player we have. It put us under severe pressure. Credit to the boys for playing as long as they did and keeping us in the game but that was a huge loss to us. Not only his presence on the field but his ability to conjure up that winning score.

“You just can’t win games of this nature without a man like that on the field.”

So, Harte was asked, are the officials to blame? “Look, this thing about there is always two involved in something. There isn’t. There is somebody that starts it. They need to be more tuned in to who starts these things.”

Keegan also played a role in Diarmuid Connolly’s sending off during last season’s All-Ireland semi-final (Connolly’s automatic suspension was subsequently rescinded).

"I can categorically tell you there was no player targeted from the Mayo dressing room," said Mayo manager Stephen Rochford. "Was Diarmuid O'Connor targeted maybe in the first two or three minutes? If everybody wants to go down that line . . . Certainly Lee Keegan or any Mayo player wasn't under any instruction to target any player."

Keegan went on to kick two crucial scores in this one-point victory that sets up an All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary on August 21st.

“Vice-captain on the international rules team - you don’t get that for no reason,” added Rochford. “When the call came out to him to hit two serious points in a real pressure situation he hit them. Cometh the hour cometh the man.”