Canavan Disappointed At Axing Of Inter County Vocational Schools

Saturday 10.12.2011

Club

Tyrone legend Peter Canavan has expressed his disappointment and regret that this is the last season that the Inter county Vocational Schools football championships will be played. Speaking at the launch of the Ulster Bank Ulster Vocational Schools 2012 championships in the Glenavon Hotel, Cookstown on Tuesday night the newly appointed Fermanagh manager admits to being surprised at Croke Park’s decision.

The Errigal Ciaran maestro won every honour in the game during an illustrious playing career including six All Ireland medals with his first Celtic Cross coming back in 1988 when Tyrone won the Vocational title, an honour that he still cherishes dearly.

“That was the first time that I wore a Tyrone jersey and I will never forget that final in Croke Park against Mayo. It was played as the curtain raiser to the National football league final between Dublin and Meath and for the last fifteen minutes of our game there were fifty thousand people in the ground.

It was a wonderful experience and we beat Mayo and also retained the title twelve months later when overcoming the same opponents in the final and to get to climb the Hogan Stand steps as an All Ireland champion at that age was very special.

It was important to play Vocational football for your county because it gave you the confidence to push on and you knew that if you did well at that level then you weren’t far away from the county minor squad. It was a good base to start and instilled self confidence to progress up through the ranks.

Players like Brian Gormley, Ciaran Loughran, Sean McLaughlin, Eamon McCaffrey and Paul Donnelly all progressed to senior level from those All Ireland winning Vocational teams and when you look at the Tyrone squad that won the Sam Maguire in 2003 the likes of Chris Lawn, Enda McGinley, Owen Mulligan, John Devine, Gerald Cavlan and Kevin Hughes all played vocational football and I feel that it’s a shame that future young players won’t get the chance to do so. It has deprived hundreds of young Gaels an opportunity to represent their county, something that they may not get a chance to do at other levels.”