Official Cavan GAA Thread

[anglocelt39]

Just carrying on from the old board where AC39 was having another go at Keogan for bringing John McGinn on board as team co-ordinater.  Behind the times you are AC39(as you suggested yourself) as Eamon Coleman appointed Mickey Reilly as team 'liaison officer' 3 years ago when he took over.  Don't know if he continued this role in McElklennons time though. 

McGinn imo is an excellent administrator and will do a good job.  Keogans responsibility is to create a successful Cavan team and issues such as players expenses etc shouldn't be taking up his time.


Friday night and we should all be in a relaxed mood but I'll make an exception for the above pile...............wasn't having a go at Keogan, although so many people have been I don't blame you for getting confused. I was having a go at the County Board for going from an cart before horse management team to a managment by committee system (all care, no responsibility, loads of expense). Of other recent inter county appointments did we get the full monty of backup disclosed-in Wickla who is Micko's trainer, driver, personal fitness guru, selectors and petty cash clerk? I don't know, nobody on this board knows and most of the people in Wickla neither know nor care, wonder why. I agree with you that this bloke will be doing work that Keogan should not be doing. Can you tell me why the hell it is necessary to announce on national media with a bit of fanfare who the identity of our new petty cash clerk is?

So don't worry folks, we are in safe hands-ranked 26th in Ireland, all club champions fucked out of Ulster round one but look, our new clerical appointment to make sure the players expenses get paid. The only way is up. Seriously though, best of luck to Donal and his team of advisers, gurus, and indeed players


On much happier topics, Cavan Cola-welcome on board, I can only echo the sentiments of all posters to date. The most unique combination of bottled Guinness laced generously with highly concentrated cough mixture. I reckon the dentists of Cavan were coining it on many a youngster reared on a staple diet of Cavan Cola and liqurice allsorts. I agree that the decline in all social, moral and physiological standards that have been noted over the past 20 years can be traced back to the demise of Cavan Cola. Most importantly, I believe that the sad decline of our inter county team is directly linked to it's disappearance. Try telling any young fella under the age of 21 that there was a time when Cavan football was comprised of something other than a bunch of skittery arsed runts with short hair. Mad eddie would have been in his element back in the early 70's with Enda Mcgowan, Pat Tinnelly, Frankie Dolan, Texas Brady, Sean Leddy (RIP) and Pat Mcgill (ouch). Christ it makes the eyes water, all reared on the stuff and would eat Gaynors entrails on the 11 O clock break.

Great memories indeed.

[Blue06]

Ok AC39, I felt you were having another unwarranted attack on Keogan,(at least wait until the matches start).  You are correct this appointment didn't need any media attention.

Also welcome to CavanCola.  Used to love the stuff.  Never knew that Brussels banned it.  Just thought it stopped when CMW closed their own production.   

[cavanmaniac]

The Brussels rumour was the one I heard anyway. But sure maybe it just went out of production. But the nasty bureaucrats story is much more poignant so I'm sticking with that one.

[BallyhaiseMan]

Ballinagh beat Gowna in the ACFL Division 1 final 2-08 to 0-08 in a bit of a suprise...
Castlerahan beat Lurgan in a thriller in the Under 21 Division One semi final 3-09 to 2-10
Drumalee beat ourselves 3-08 to 0-13 in a thriller After Extra Time in the Div Two Semi...That hurts big time 
Shercock beat Lavey in the other Div Two semi final.

[CavanCola]

BH Man, very interesting that the U21 games over the weekend were of a high standard.
Could be that there is more talent right under Keoghan's nose than he thinks... maybe he's wasting his time building up a team of high Profile short-term stars when he is sitting on a wealth of uptapped talent already and U21 level. I saw alot of half that Lurgan team playing over the summer. There are at leat 2/3 of that team that should be given a go with the county.

[BallyhaiseMan]

The Lurgan and Castlerahan Under 21 teams are both supremely talented alright CavanCola and i would consider ourselves and Drumalee to be something similar albeit probably not just as good....Its too soon for alot of them to be thrown into County Senior action though...I think we will just ahve to stick with out "stars" for a year or two yet...and phase in the young lads slowly.

[CavanCola]

Immmm take your point BH man but then if you look at say the meath team of 1996...they had Mark O'Reilly, Darren Fay, Paddy Reynolds, Graham Geraghty, Barry Callaghan, Trevor Giles, Ollie Murphy... All were on the All Ireland winning team that year and would have been on the team that Cavan U21's beat after a replay in Roscommon in 1996... if I remember right! So there is arguments for putting these guys in and blooding them young and mix them with the best of the experienced generation.

[Rossi]

Cavan tried to intergrate the U 21's of 88 into the senior panel,and what happened,it took another 7 years to win an ulster championship match.Likewise the U21's of 96 granted the won the Ulster Championship in 97 but that was it.20 years on after having two teams in the U21 all Ireland finals and where are we,1 Ulster Title,surely there was potential in both these sets of players to do much better?Were they blodded too young,maybe maye not there egos just might have being the problem.

Back to the weekend games, how many of the top U21's playing at the weekend are eligible to play for the county U21's next year?Went to the Bhaise D'lee game and although it was a pretty good game , the only player to really stand out was Ray Cullivan.He was still a minor this year but has played a lot of football including a run out with the county seniors, where will he be in 5-6 years time? burnt out ? riddle with injuries? hope not.

[BallyhaiseMan]

It makes no sense having the Under 21 competition in November...It should be played bfore the Under 21 county team play so as to throw up a few players...but thats another story....
Rossi...
Ray Cullivan has played a lot of football..... club,County,Sigerson with the college now and International rules,But if theres one young player thats physically able to handle it all..It is Cullivan......
If you look at some of the great young hopes we had...
John Tierney...didnt look after himself physically
Cian Mackey...physically very light and needed to be bulked up
Ronan Flanagan....same as Mackey
I think Cullivan much like Nicholas Walsh has done has a better chance of avoiding burnout because of his physical conditioning

[BallyhaiseMan]

also Rossi
Some players at the game who will be in contention for the County under 21's next year include...
for Bhaise...
Sean McCormack who done a man marking job on Darragh Gaffney
Fergal Slowey
Ray Cullivan
and Ali Pickett
for Drumalee
Enda McCormick
I do believe Gerard Reily is underage aswell
Darragh Gaffney
amongst others...

[cavanmaniac]

Our U21 team for next year has an outstanding chance in Ulster if they can deal with Down I think, although alot of other teams will be strong as well I'd say, Fermanagh's Enniskillen college always do quite well in McRory for instance. U21 is where I'm really pinning my hopes for 2007.

It's absolutely vital that this U21 team is prepared to the absolute highest standard to make sure the near misses and moral victories of previous years don't perpetuate themselves for eternity - we might never have as talented a collection of U21s in the county again. Combine Keogan's minors with last year's U18 outfit, add in a few lads who always blossom after minor and it could be an oustanding team. I just hope bad management, bad preparation or just sheer bad luck doesn't put paid to our chances, it could either set up the seniors for years or alternatively, set them back an age.

[anglocelt39]

Always thought myself that Under 21 was a potential area for us, a small number of the nordie production line from Minor level seem to get lost along the way. Big problem is that Ulster is, as ever, seriously bloody competitive at the moment. Now I know Maniac is very impressed by the Minor team of last year-but look at what you have in Ulster coming through from that year alone. Down are All Ireland Champs. As I recall in the Ulster Championship minor of last year they ambushed Tyrone in injury time in the first round, beat us after a replay and lost to Armagh in an Ulster Final in Croker. As is typical with that minor team of ours it was a case of blood em young-can think of at least two under 16's who were mainstays of that team, one of whom is now doing the business with Celtic, the other being Barry Waters if I'm not mistaken.

In short, if we are to be competitive at Under 21 level next year I reckon we need:
Solid core of lads (at least 10) who are at their last year at under 21 level; and
The age old Cavan problem (well one of them anyway) four or five lads who can mix strength, aggression and football ability-seems ot be a tall order-young Clark from Kingscourt could be one of them if he is available.

[cavanmaniac]

He picked up a significant thug element when he was in Australia in my humble opinion.

I remember being gutted when he went to Oz such was the reputation he had garnered for himself and the corresponding hopes we had for him being a top class partner for a then still-dangerous Dermot McCabe in midfield.

I watched him play underage for the Gaels and he was incredibly classy. Never had much pace and is even slower now  but seemed to have the intelligence for this not to matter - good positional sense and an ability to do things in a measured, methodical way - almost casual but not quite - were what set him apart. He had a good catch, physical strength and a nice accurate kick pass.

Then he got a litany of injuries in Oz and since he's come back only seems to want to spoil and niggle. I think the Aussie hard man culture got to him and now he seems to go looking for fights/intimidation. It's a shame because he's still young enough to make an impact with his strength and if he could channel the aggression more legitimately he could be good for us. I saw him kick about three or four massive points for the Gaels against Castlerahan all from play in this year's SFC and thought to myself what a shame it is he never seems able to do that for the county.

As for the U21s, keep the faith anglocelt39! It's hard to be positive but it's too easy to be negative and fear the worst all the time. This mindset hasn't helped the players in recent years either. We all have to start believing in ourselves at some point or else throw the hat at it to hell and give up. I think we have every bit as good a footballer at this age group for 2007 as any other Ulster county, fact. Down couldn't believe they beat that minor team a few years ago (told our lads as much leaving the field) and that was the toughest game they got all year (apart from the loss to Armagh which was basically a blip against a vastly inferior side).
As on that day, and lamentably, too too many days in the last five years, our county underage sides have been beaten for the lack of something fundamental between their two ears and not necessarily something lacking in their boots.

[anglocelt39]

Oh sigh, here I go again Maniac. I know we both have the interests of Cavan football at heart. You reckon I'm too negative and yoiu are probably right, I reckon you are too optimistic and I am wrong, but we need to be realistic. For all the talking up we have done on our underage sides over the last several years the fact is we have won nothing, nor have we come near to winning anything. Now this reflects a lack of belief and some bad luck, unfortunately it also reflects something more fundamental at work-player development, club scene, backup facilities etc. etc. In short we ain't good enough and have  not been for several years. We congratulate ourselves on getting our set up to the level that other Ulster Counties were at four or five years ago and still there is no give-if we want to change this setup we have to start to admit that we need fundamental change and act accordingly-convince ourselves that it's all down to bad luck and belief and we go further backwards.

Anyway here's hoping. Like the first cuckoo of spring I am waiting in anticipation of the first pronouncement that next years minors are the ones to break the drought. We are nothing if not optimistic.

On a separate topic-as somebody with strong Aussie connections I read with interest the comments on the compromise rules debacle. Interesting that the weekend past had it's usual session of shenanigans in the GAA covering Casement and Wicklow (or was it Carlow), hear the Drumalee and Ballyhaise lads got into the spirit of things as well. As they RTE presenter said monday monring "and not an Australian in sight"-how dare that bastard Sheedy call us a bunch of con men

[cavanmaniac]

Yeah it's hypocrisy alright but it still doesn't mean we started it off in that second test. The Aussies had a premeditated agenda of violence, everyone knew it, they announced it in the paper even, our lads were determined to fight back if it happened - cue Armageddon. Sheedy calling us conmen while sniggering up his shirt sleeves and spinning his risible approach to the game by pinning the blame on us, that's the real disgrace.

If the debate is about IR violence there's only one to blame...Aussies.

If it's about violence in our native codes and poor attempts to clean it up, the AFL game is way ahead of ours.