Official Cavan GAA Thread

[redzone]

https://www.offtheball.com/football/luke-keaney-retirement-936551

[Look-Up!]

https://www.offtheball.com/football/luke-keaney-retirement-936551

Thanks for the link Redzone. That's grim reading but unfortunately it's a thing. Our club have got young lads back from county in bits and have really struggled in the club championship to get any sort of clear run. Other clubs the same.
It crept into GAA with outside managers there to just absolutely flog players for a couple of years to boost their CV short term with no regards to the long term health of club/county panel. Unfortunately now it seems to be accepted practice and MO of most county setups.
Money you could argue is a big driving force. Alot of people getting paid by the session and refuse to budge on number of sessions cause they're milking it. Absolutely no regards for the long term health of our youth. The human body can take a lot but it needs conditioning long term. Dumping these type of workloads on 20 year olds first time out is going to end very badly for the majority.

[Itchy]

https://www.offtheball.com/football/luke-keaney-retirement-936551

Thanks for the link Redzone. That's grim reading but unfortunately it's a thing. Our club have got young lads back from county in bits and have really struggled in the club championship to get any sort of clear run. Other clubs the same.
It crept into GAA with outside managers there to just absolutely flog players for a couple of years to boost their CV short term with no regards to the long term health of club/county panel. Unfortunately now it seems to be accepted practice and MO of most county setups.
Money you could argue is a big driving force. Alot of people getting paid by the session and refuse to budge on number of sessions cause they're milking it. Absolutely no regards for the long term health of our youth. The human body can take a lot but it needs conditioning long term. Dumping these type of workloads on 20 year olds first time out is going to end very badly for the majority.

The manager has a part to play but I think the GAA top brass have a bigger part to play. Strict rules need to be put down regarding playing with multiple teams whether it be college teams, schools teams and county underage teams.

[Look-Up!]

https://www.offtheball.com/football/luke-keaney-retirement-936551

Thanks for the link Redzone. That's grim reading but unfortunately it's a thing. Our club have got young lads back from county in bits and have really struggled in the club championship to get any sort of clear run. Other clubs the same.
It crept into GAA with outside managers there to just absolutely flog players for a couple of years to boost their CV short term with no regards to the long term health of club/county panel. Unfortunately now it seems to be accepted practice and MO of most county setups.
Money you could argue is a big driving force. Alot of people getting paid by the session and refuse to budge on number of sessions cause they're milking it. Absolutely no regards for the long term health of our youth. The human body can take a lot but it needs conditioning long term. Dumping these type of workloads on 20 year olds first time out is going to end very badly for the majority.

The manager has a part to play but I think the GAA top brass have a bigger part to play. Strict rules need to be put down regarding playing with multiple teams whether it be college teams, schools teams and county underage teams.

Don't see how you can give the managers a pass. It's all down to management refusing to see anything beyond their immediate needs.
All this talk of strength and conditioning too and high player turnover. It's no coincidence players with 4/5 years under the belt look the best conditioned but if you don't look after players properly how can you expect to retain players and see long term goals achieved.
Why flog young lads just in the door for 2/3 months of the off season when you have absolutely no intention of keeping then on long term? Dump them in the new year with absolutely no follow through or feedback on what kind of development they need. No support given with regards to joint and stress injuries. Let the club's deal with it. Then invite them back again end of year to repeat the cycle. If they were serious about long term development of these lads over a 4/5 year term a more reasonable training regime would be implemented with player welfare and injury prevention high on the list of priorities. What's happening at the moment is absolutely nuts.

[Itchy]

I didnt give the manager a pass, I said they have a part to play.

If you read the article from the interview posted, its clear he was on too many teams and was therefore not able to get recovery. If you are managing an inter county team you have to have access to your players. In my opinion players need to pick one team or the other and not try to keep 5 balls in the air, 7 days a week. Its the multiple teams at same time of year that does the damage.

[Look-Up!]

I didnt give the manager a pass, I said they have a part to play.

If you read the article from the interview posted, its clear he was on too many teams and was therefore not able to get recovery. If you are managing an inter county team you have to have access to your players. In my opinion players need to pick one team or the other and not try to keep 5 balls in the air, 7 days a week. Its the multiple teams at same time of year that does the damage.

Managers have thee part to play. I fail to see how managing players individual training schedules, because that's what it is, should be under the remit of GAA top brass.
And how much access does an IC manager need to his players. Because at the moment is practically 24/7. Perhaps if there wasn't such an in your face attitude with IC managers then playing with different teams wouldn't bring up such conflicts. Education is important too for what are amateur players so if they get sports scholarships how the hell can they not honour playing commitments? The playing season ends early enough anyway. Stopping lads playing with clubs when they have zero intention of having them in the 26 is more BS.
There are a hell of a lot of leeways IC managers could give but they refuse to budge. Players have all their own individual GPS trackers anyway so keeping score of their workload is not an issue. But they ignore the science out of pure bullishness and just squeeze in extra sessions because "that's the why".

[Itchy]

Interesting from survey in todays times...

"Just over half of GAA players (51 per cent) believe that their life is better because of their status as an intercounty player and involvement in the game.

A further 19 per cent indicated that their life was a lot better because of playing senior intercounty. Some 27 per cent indicated that playing intercounty had no impact on their life, positive or negative, while 3 per cent believed that being involved had made their life worse."

So if you believe that, 97% of players (51% + 19% + 27%) believe being an intercounty player has at worst had no impact on their life. Seems very high to me.

[Look-Up!]

There's very much an unknown factor about our chances this year. We've named a small panel and even at that there's a lot of names in there that are treading new ground. Hopefully they pleasantly surprise us but scores could be very hard to come by.
I only see potential in there, no go to names up front that some of the other teams have. I think we'll be relying on a lot of team scores. It's a big ask to expect lads to hit the ground running in this department. Physically we'll struggle I'd imagine and will probably need a bit of time to adjust. How long is anyone's guess.
Management will be under scrutiny too. They've made a lot of big noises this winter and ruffled a few feathers. It will be interesting to see how the panel react to their voice during the campaign when adversity hits. And it will hit. Do they have the players' ears or are they viewed as a bunch of bullshitters? They've gambled on upping the ante in terms of commitment. Grand some might say but my huge worry would be is that sustainable long term or are we just turning away better quality footballers and cutting our nose off? 
I think the nature of the performances more so than results is very important this year because we're up against it big time. Dropping a level is a possibility but there's a big difference in dropping while still swinging and dropping without a whimper. At the other end I'd love to see us go and chase promotion but I'm struggling to imagine it.

[rodney trotter]

33 is probaly enough for a panel. Cavan had a large panel last year, they were carrying a lot of players who played no football all year, bar in the Mckenna Cup. The same players played very little League football with their clubs. No benefit just being on a County panel if not getting games. A good few panelists from last year weren't asked backed. It's also costly to have large panel. They might get a year of County training but they would become frustrated after a while.

[Look-Up!]

33 is probaly enough for a panel. Cavan had a large panel last year, they were carrying a lot of players who played no football all year, bar in the Mckenna Cup. The same players played very little League football with their clubs. No benefit just being on a County panel if not getting games. A good few panelists from last year weren't asked backed. It's also costly to have large panel. They might get a year of County training but they would become frustrated after a while.

Probably enough. 7 players not to make match day panel. Drop in a few injuries, opt outs or lads simply not at the required level and bench options could be limited. Hopefully some new names step up.

[rodney trotter]

They'll probaly call in a few if performing well with the Club. Maybe some of the U20 Squad will be added if they perform well in the championship.

Beyond the starting 15, there is lots of inexperience.  The likes of Mackey was a sub to bring on last year.

[Look-Up!]

                     Raymond Galligan
Paddy Meade    Padraig Faulkner    Luke Fortune
Ciaran Brady     Benjamin Kelly      Oisin Kiernan
               Killian Brady  Evan Fortune
Stephen Smith   Simon Cadden      Niall Murray
Martin Reilly   Gearoid McKiernan   Conor Madden

Subs: Liam Brady, Gerard Smith, Paul Gilcreest, Chris Conroy, Bryan Magee, Oisin Pierson, Conor Smith, Evan Doughty, James Smith, Liam Buchanan, Ryan Connolly.

Unnamed: Conor Brady, Thomas Galligan, Paul Graham, Jason McLoughlin, Kian Monahan, Stephen Murray, Cormac O'Reilly.

[Look-Up!]

So team named. A lot of low mileage sprinkled every throughout. You'd be hoping the two debutantes in defense come good. If so it's a big positive.
Good to see McKiernan there and as much as we'd like to see him upfront I think he'll be dragged back to midfield. That looks like it could be a problem area for us.
Forwards in general look like good honest footballers but don't know where the scores will come from. I assume McKiernan will be on free taking duty. We'll need big performances from Madden and some consistency this year to be any chance of a threat in this division.
The bench looks like carrying a bigger scoring threat however inexperienced. Maybe we'll see changes before throw in.
A little surprised at some of the unnamed. Maybe Sigerson or injury a factor.

Just an observation. Only three players I can make out in the entire panel from County finalists.

Anyway good luck to all in Armagh. Hopefully we get off to a good start.

[Look-Up!]

Very disappointing and worrying start to league. A struggle was expected but would have hoped we would have been more competitive.
We'll need to drastically improve on our discipline next time out. Tough introduction for the new lads but we need to move on and have some of the new players step up quick. No point pressing panic button yet but management need to sort this fast. Last few games are far from winnable at the best of times so our best chances of points are over the next few games.

[Itchy]

Read on a different forum that Dermot McCabe has left the management set up. Anyone able to confirm that? Heard some chat that he wasnt getting on with a lot of lads too.