Sean Cavanagh expects Tyrone to revert to type as they embark on another qualifier run this weekend.
Tyrone’s status as one of the chief threats to Dublin’s five-in-a-row bid took a battering after their Ulster semi-final defeat to Donegal earlier this month, with a four-point deficit flattering last year’s All-Ireland finalists.
Having played a more expansive game in the League this year, Donegal blocked up the space in the Tyrone attack and Cavanagh expects that Mickey Harte will move back towards a lower risk possession-based game, starting with tomorrow’s trip to Longford.
He said: “Tyrone will not be able to play that kicking game the way they will want to, the way they have been playing in the League.
“So I suspect they will go back to playing an awful lot through the hands and playing that attacking through waves football that they've been good at in the last number of years.
“They'll just have to adjust but I think ultimately they'll probably have too much.”
Tyrone have a formidable qualifier record with two of the three All-Irelands that Cavanagh won with the Red Hands coming on the back of reversals in Ulster.
And the former captain reckons that training won’t have been for the faint-hearted since the Donegal reverse.
“We are what we are in Tyrone, there is a nastiness there, and we're the same to ourselves, we're the same in club football.
“It's not always at the level it's portrayed but certainly there'll be an awful lot of anger in the last couple of weeks.
“There'll be frustration there, they'll be mad looking to get out onto the field to put that right.
“It doesn't sit all that well the way in which we played in Breffni. It was the most disappointing performance that I can remember, probably outside of Derry in '06 when we were scoreless in the first half.
“That was probably the last time, when I thought back over the years, that we went into a game and we were shocked, like we were that day in Breffni Park.
“So I suspect a big backlash and I wouldn't be surprised if it comes.”
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