Peter Canavan facts for kids
Canavan lifting the Sam Maguire Cup in 2003
|
|||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Gaelic football | ||
| Position | Forward | ||
| Born | 9 April 1971 Ballygawley, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland |
||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||
| Nickname | Peter 'The Great', 'Petrol Pete' |
||
| Occupation | Teacher | ||
| Club(s) | |||
| Years | Club | ||
|
1990–2007
|
Errigal Ciarán | ||
| Club titles | |||
| Tyrone titles | 6 | ||
| Ulster titles | 2 | ||
| Inter-county(ies)** | |||
| Years | County | Apps (scores) | |
|
1989–2005
|
Tyrone | 49 (9–191 (218)) | |
| Inter-county titles | |||
| Ulster titles | 5 | ||
| All-Irelands | 2 | ||
| NFL | 2 | ||
| All Stars | 6 | ||
| **Inter County team apps and scores correct as of (22:03, 21 December 2006 (UTC)). | |||
Peter Canavan (born 9 April 1971) is a famous former Gaelic football player from Ireland. He also worked as a manager and a sports commentator.
Peter played for the Tyrone county team. He is known as one of the most successful players in Gaelic football history. He won many important awards and championships during his career. These include two All-Ireland Senior Football Championship medals and six All Star Awards. He also won four provincial titles and two National Leagues.
Commentators like John Haughey from the BBC call him one of the greatest players of the last twenty years. In 2009, he was even named in a list of the 125 Most Influential People in GAA History. After he stopped playing, Peter managed the Fermanagh county team from 2011 to 2013.
Contents
- Peter Canavan: Early Life and Family
- Peter Canavan's Under-Age Football Journey
- Peter Canavan's Early Senior Career: 1993–1998
- Peter Canavan on the International Stage
- Peter Canavan's Later Senior Career
- Other Inter-County Successes
- Peter Canavan's Club Career
- Peter Canavan's Management Career
- Peter Canavan's Media Career
- Peter Canavan's Individual Honours
Peter Canavan grew up in Glencull, near Ballygawley, in County Tyrone. He was the tenth of eleven children in his family. His older brother, Pascal, also played Gaelic football with him for Tyrone in the 1990s.
Peter is married to Finola, who is the sister of his former Tyrone teammate Ronan McGarrity. They have four children: Aine, Claire, Darragh, and Ruairí. For most of his playing career, Peter worked as a physical education teacher at Holy Trinity College in Cookstown. Gaelic games are amateur sports, so players often have other jobs. While teaching, he even helped Owen Mulligan improve his point-scoring skills.
In 2003, Peter faced a very sad time when his father, Seán, passed away. This happened just over a week before Tyrone was set to play in the Ulster final against Down. Despite his grief, Peter decided to play in the match. He felt his father would have wanted him to play.
Peter has had asthma since he was a child. He worked hard to manage his condition throughout his career. He once said, "I thought to myself, this is something that I am just going to have to put up with." But later, better medicine helped him have a "better quality of life."
To play for a county team, Peter had to get around a rule because of a problem in his local area, Errigal Ciarán. Two clubs in his parish were arguing over who represented the area. Players from the newer club, Errigal Ciaran Naomh Malachai, were not officially recognized by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).
To be able to play for Tyrone's minors (under-18 team), Peter signed up with a hurling club called Killyclogher. He didn't actually play hurling, but this made him eligible. Before this, he had mostly played football at school. The two clubs in his parish later joined together as Errigal Ciaran.
In 1988, Peter won the Ulster Minor Championship with Tyrone. They lost in the All-Ireland semi-final to Kerry. Many players from this team, like Adrian Cush and Ciaran Corr, later played for the senior team in the 1990s.
Peter was the captain when Tyrone won two All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship titles in 1991 and 1992. He had also been on the team that lost the 1990 final, again to Kerry. As an Under 21 player for four years, Peter scored an amazing 13 goals and 53 points for Tyrone. By the time he was twenty, he was already a regular player for the senior team.
Peter Canavan was already well-known in Tyrone because of his success with the Under 21 team. He started to make a big impact in the Ulster Senior Football Championship in 1994. Tyrone lost to Down, who went on to win the All-Ireland that year. Peter was the top scorer in Ulster and earned his first All Star award at just 23 years old.
The 1995 All-Ireland Final
In the 1995 championship, Peter led Tyrone to the final with many high-scoring games. He scored 0–8 against Derry in the Ulster Semi-final. Then, he scored 1–7 against Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Tyrone reached their second All-Ireland Final in 1995, playing against Dublin. Dublin had not won the Championship since the 1980s. In a tough match, Peter scored eleven of Tyrone's twelve points. But Tyrone still lost the game. Many Tyrone fans remember this game for a controversial moment. A point that would have tied the game at the very end was not allowed. The referee said Peter had touched the ball on the ground. Peter disagreed, saying he managed to hit the ball in the air.
Peter was the top scorer in Ireland that year, with a total of 1 goal and 38 points. This earned him the first ever GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year award. Because Peter scored so much more than his teammates, some people thought Tyrone relied too much on him.
1996: Facing Injury Challenges
For the 1996 championship, Peter was made captain of the Tyrone team. He was the top scorer in Ulster for the third year in a row and won his third All Star award. Tyrone reached the All-Ireland semi-final against Meath. However, Peter was one of six Tyrone players who got injured in that game. Some Tyrone fans felt Meath played too roughly. Peter's injury was so bad that he felt its effects for over a year. People wondered if he had been playing with a broken foot.
When the Tyrone senior team was going through a weaker period in the late 1990s, Peter represented Ireland. He played in the first ever International Rules Series in 1998 against Australia.
In 1999, he was named vice-captain for the team's trip to Australia. Ireland won convincingly, with Peter scoring eleven points in the first game in Adelaide, South Australia. In 2000, during the first game, Australia's Jason Akermanis gave Peter a bloody nose just 20 seconds into the match. Peter was sent off in the second game after a fight with Akermanis. He was banned for one match, which meant he missed the next series.
In five international games, Peter scored 37 points. He became one of the few Irish players who really impressed the Australian fans.
Tyrone was a favorite to win the 2002 All-Ireland. They had won their first National Football League that spring. But they lost a qualifying match to Sligo, even though Peter scored six points. This loss shocked him so much that he thought about retiring from county football.
Despite that, he won his fourth All Star award that year. He was the only Tyrone player to do so, making him Tyrone's most awarded player on the All Star list.
2003: Achieving Championship Glory
In 2003, Peter finally won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, leading Tyrone to their first ever title. This removed his unofficial title of 'the greatest player never to win an All-Ireland'. When he went up to get the trophy at Croke Park, he looked nervous. After getting the trophy, he gave an emotional speech. He talked about how he used to watch other Ulster teams win the Sam Maguire Cup with envy. He said, "to eventually win it is something else."
His performance in the final was amazing because he was the top scorer with five points. This was despite having an ankle injury from the previous match. He was not expected to play, and doctors advised against it. He started the final but was taken off before half-time. During the break and even into the second half, he received treatment for his ankle, including pain-killing injections.
With ten minutes left in the game, manager Mickey Harte brought him back onto the field. Peter was the only player on the team who had played in an All-Ireland final before, so his experience was very important. This moment, when he came back into the game, is seen as one of the greatest moments in GAA history over the last forty years.
In the drawn Ulster final against Down, Peter played just a week after his father's death. He wrote in his autobiography that he feared Tyrone would lose by a huge amount if they didn't stop Down's attacks. When Tyrone got a penalty, Peter stepped up to take it. The usual penalty-taker, Stephen O'Neill, was on the bench. Peter scored the goal, and later called it "the most important [kick] of my career." He said if Tyrone had lost badly, they might not have recovered for the 'back door' qualifier series.
Throughout the 2003 Championship, Peter scored a total of 1 goal and 48 points (51 points in total). He had also won the National League that spring. All these achievements earned him his fifth All Star award. Some of his best performances that year included scoring eight points in the replayed first round match against Derry. In the replayed Ulster Final, Peter scored eleven points.
Peter became the first GAA star to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Ulster. He was also voted BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year. This is a regional award of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Many people across Ireland sent emails to support him for the national award.
After the 2003 final, Peter gave the captaincy to Cormac McAnallen. But Cormac, who was only 24, sadly passed away shortly after becoming captain. This tragedy deeply affected the team, and they were not able to defend their All-Ireland title.
2005: A Champion's Farewell
In the 2005 Championship, Peter was mostly used as an 'impact substitute'. He would come on to either surprise the other team or encourage his teammates. This plan didn't always work. He was controversially sent off within a minute of coming on as a substitute in the Ulster Final replay.
In the All-Ireland semi-final against Armagh, Peter scored with the very last kick of the game, winning the match for Tyrone. Kevin McStay, a former Mayo player, called it the point of the season.
Mickey Harte chose Peter to start in the All-Ireland final. Peter went on to score Tyrone's only goal, helping them win with a score of 1–16 to 2–10.
After this amazing performance, Peter retired from inter-county football. He ended his sixteen-year career with a sixth All Star award. He said about his decision, "I have spent enough time on the treatment table." He was referring to the times he played with injuries that could have ended his career, like in 1996 and 2003. Peter's appearance in the 2005 final, his last game for Tyrone, was his forty-ninth Championship match.
Other Inter-County Successes
Peter was part of the Tyrone teams that won the National Football League title in two years in a row (2002 and 2003). He also played in the 1994 final against Derry. His successes in other competitions include five Railway Cups, two Vocational Schools titles, and one Dr. McKenna Cup.
After retiring from playing for his county, Peter continued to play for his club, Errigal Ciarán, until 2007. During his seventeen years playing for the club, he won six Tyrone Senior Club titles and two Ulster Club Championships. In 2006, he won his first Tyrone All Star award for his great performances in the club championship.
In December 2008, he started his management career by taking charge of Errigal Ciaran. He led them to win the Tyrone All County League final in 2009.
Peter Canavan was appointed manager of Fermanagh in November 2011. His first game against Antrim saw Fermanagh win by a score of 2 goals and 11 points to 1 goal and 6 points.
He stepped down as Fermanagh manager in September 2013.
However, Peter didn't stay out of management for long. He was appointed manager of Cavan Gaels in December 2013. He led them to win their first Senior Championship in three years in October 2014. They defeated Kingscourt Stars in the final by just one point. This was a huge success for Peter and the Cavan Gaels Club.
After bringing the Oliver Plunkett trophy back to the Cavan town club, he became a selector for the Tyrone under-21 panel in 2015. He was part of the management team that included Feargal Logan (manager) and Brian Dooher. They guided the under-21s to an Ulster Final victory against Donegal. Then, they went on to win the All-Ireland title, defeating Tipperary in the final.
When Mickey Harte left as Tyrone senior manager in 2020, Peter decided not to take the job because of his family commitments. He did not join Logan and Dooher, who later became Mickey Harte's successors.
Peter Canavan has written a column for the Gaelic games magazine, Hogan Stand. He also wrote for the Northern Ireland edition of The Daily Mirror. In 2008, he joined TV3 as a football pundit for their first year of showing live GAA matches.
He is now a Gaelic football analyst for the BBC and RTÉ. He also worked for Sky Sports before.
- In May 2020, a public poll by RTÉ.ie named Peter Canavan in the half-forward line of a special team. This team included footballers who had won All Stars during the time of The Sunday Game TV show.
- Also in May 2020, the Irish Independent newspaper named Peter Canavan as number three in its list of "Top 20 footballers in Ireland over the past 50 years."
