Official Cavan GAA Thread

[boojangles]

The question about amalgamations is a simple enough one. Is the GAA about getting all players from your local area involved in playing in competition at a suitable level or is it about getting "elite" teams of players to challenge for the top honours in the game.

And that my friends is the crux of the matter....

It's not a cut and dry matter in my eyes. I would be fairly confident some lads from my own club who have quit the game would still be playing now or would have had prolonged careers had they been part of a team who had competed at Division One Minor championship level.
Drumalee competed at that level for 3 years on their own in 2002, 2003 and 2004 winning a Division One Minor League once. The nucleus of them teams formed the back bone of our 2 Intermediate Championship winning teams and our Senior team at the moment.
Killeshandra, Redhills, Butlersbridge, Arva, Shercock to name a few, are clubs who IMO have benefitted greatly from having their best underage players playing Division One football. The first three have all won Junior Championships in the last 6 years and the first two are playing Division One football.

I dont agree with that if players are good enough playing divison 1 or 2 championship isnt going to make or break them.

The facts don't lie Tommy. Clubs who consistently compete at Division One underage consistently compete at Division One at Senior level. Cavan Gaels, Kingscourt, Castlerahan.
Mullahoran and Gowna have been struggling at underage for a number of years and the future doesn't look good for them.
Redhills and Killeshandra had been struggling for years until they decided to amalgamate with other clubs. Now they are both in Division One.

So you honestly think that a club who is playing in Divsion 1 championship has a better chance of holding onto players than one who is in division 2?

Bit of a misunderstanding I think?
I was talking about clubs being successful due to them playing at a higher grade of football at underage.
No, Im not saying that a club playing Division 1 has a better chance of holding on to players.
If a club is successful at Divison 2 or 3 then that group has a better chance of staying together than if the same group were losing at Division 1.
However, speaking about my own club, my opinion is that if we had amalgamated at Minor level in the last few years we probably would have held on to a few more footballers.

[tommysmith]

Yeah booj this comment confused me.

I would be fairly confident some lads from my own club who have quit the game would still be playing now or would have had prolonged careers had they been part of a team who had competed at Division One Minor championship level.

[CC1]

Cavan Gaels( amalgamation of Cavan Harps and Cavan Slashers)
O'Raghallaigh Gaels (Kingscourt and Sherock)
Eire Og Celtic(C'hill and Goonies)
I reckon all amalgamations should be disqualified and Ballyhaise(with 10 Under 16's on the team), being the only registered club team left in the last 4 should  therefore be awarded the championship.Whose with me???

Precisely BHM 

Maybe if everybody saved the energy they've wasted on whinging about the O'RG amalgamation a team might have put up a better challenge to them. 

[Ollie]

Cavan Gaels( amalgamation of Cavan Harps and Cavan Slashers)
O'Raghallaigh Gaels (Kingscourt and Sherock)
Eire Og Celtic(C'hill and Goonies)
I reckon all amalgamations should be disqualified and Ballyhaise(with 10 Under 16's on the team), being the only registered club team left in the last 4 should  therefore be awarded the championship.Whose with me???

Precisely BHM 

Maybe if everybody saved the energy they've wasted on whinging about the O'RG amalgamation a team might have put up a better challenge to them. 

Do you think O'Raghallaigh Gaels will be back in the final next year?

[CC1]

Cavan Gaels( amalgamation of Cavan Harps and Cavan Slashers)
O'Raghallaigh Gaels (Kingscourt and Sherock)
Eire Og Celtic(C'hill and Goonies)
I reckon all amalgamations should be disqualified and Ballyhaise(with 10 Under 16's on the team), being the only registered club team left in the last 4 should  therefore be awarded the championship.Whose with me???

Precisely BHM 

Maybe if everybody saved the energy they've wasted on whinging about the O'RG amalgamation a team might have put up a better challenge to them. 

Do you think O'Raghallaigh Gaels will be back in the final next year?

I don't know to be honest, its a whole year away. I suppose it will depend on how they are playing and how other teams play against them. In a nutshell it is 15 vs 15 and anything can happen, some lads can play well, others might not in the heat of the championship. You can be the most super di-dooper team in the world and not perform on the day or you can be complete no hopers and surprise everybody by making it to the final.

[Ollie]

Cavan Gaels( amalgamation of Cavan Harps and Cavan Slashers)
O'Raghallaigh Gaels (Kingscourt and Sherock)
Eire Og Celtic(C'hill and Goonies)
I reckon all amalgamations should be disqualified and Ballyhaise(with 10 Under 16's on the team), being the only registered club team left in the last 4 should  therefore be awarded the championship.Whose with me???

Precisely BHM 

Maybe if everybody saved the energy they've wasted on whinging about the O'RG amalgamation a team might have put up a better challenge to them. 

Do you think O'Raghallaigh Gaels will be back in the final next year?

I don't know to be honest, its a whole year away. I suppose it will depend on how they are playing and how other teams play against them. In a nutshell it is 15 vs 15 and anything can happen, some lads can play well, others might not in the heat of the championship. You can be the most super di-dooper team in the world and not perform on the day or you can be complete no hopers and surprise everybody by making it to the final.

Would you be in favour of retaining this amalgamation at under 21 and possibly senior level in years to come?

[CC1]

Cavan Gaels( amalgamation of Cavan Harps and Cavan Slashers)
O'Raghallaigh Gaels (Kingscourt and Sherock)
Eire Og Celtic(C'hill and Goonies)
I reckon all amalgamations should be disqualified and Ballyhaise(with 10 Under 16's on the team), being the only registered club team left in the last 4 should  therefore be awarded the championship.Whose with me???

Precisely BHM 

Maybe if everybody saved the energy they've wasted on whinging about the O'RG amalgamation a team might have put up a better challenge to them. 

Do you think O'Raghallaigh Gaels will be back in the final next year?

I don't know to be honest, its a whole year away. I suppose it will depend on how they are playing and how other teams play against them. In a nutshell it is 15 vs 15 and anything can happen, some lads can play well, others might not in the heat of the championship. You can be the most super di-dooper team in the world and not perform on the day or you can be complete no hopers and surprise everybody by making it to the final.

Would you be in favour of retaining this amalgamation at under 21 and possibly senior level in years to come?

Absolutely, if one or both of us don't have enough players to compete in a competition then I wouldn't have a problem with it at all. We have a long history of amalgamating with Kingscourt so I can't see how that view would change in this part of the country unless there is a major disagreement between the two clubs.

Would you have a problem with it?

[Ollie]

Cavan Gaels( amalgamation of Cavan Harps and Cavan Slashers)
O'Raghallaigh Gaels (Kingscourt and Sherock)
Eire Og Celtic(C'hill and Goonies)
I reckon all amalgamations should be disqualified and Ballyhaise(with 10 Under 16's on the team), being the only registered club team left in the last 4 should  therefore be awarded the championship.Whose with me???

Precisely BHM 

Maybe if everybody saved the energy they've wasted on whinging about the O'RG amalgamation a team might have put up a better challenge to them. 

Do you think O'Raghallaigh Gaels will be back in the final next year?

I don't know to be honest, its a whole year away. I suppose it will depend on how they are playing and how other teams play against them. In a nutshell it is 15 vs 15 and anything can happen, some lads can play well, others might not in the heat of the championship. You can be the most super di-dooper team in the world and not perform on the day or you can be complete no hopers and surprise everybody by making it to the final.

Would you be in favour of retaining this amalgamation at under 21 and possibly senior level in years to come?

Absolutely, if one or both of us don't have enough players to compete in a competition then I wouldn't have a problem with it at all. We have a long history of amalgamating with Kingscourt so I can't see how that view would change in this part of the country unless there is a major disagreement between the two clubs.

Would you have a problem with it?

I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as it was benefiting the clubs involved and enhancing the league or championship. Sometimes amalgamations don't work out as hoped as we witnessed in the championship two years ago. I think problems can arise between the clubs amalgamating for an array of reasons. Also I'm told players sometimes don't have the same commitment to the amalgamation as they do to their club.

Amalgamations seem to work better at underage level than at senior level. I think you would have to give an amalgamating team 2-3 years to gel together and start playing as a unit before expecting any success out of it. Usually in Cavan if things don't work out after year one there scraped.

I maybe wrong on this but in Kerry don't they run A County Championship which is made up off Amalgamations and a club championship within the same year.. possible idea for the future.

[Celt_Man]

I maybe wrong on this but in Kerry don't they run A County Championship which is made up off Amalgamations and a club championship within the same year.. possible idea for the future.

Na it's a normal club championship as far as I know but contains Divisional Sides, think they could have been a club championship one year to determine who would represent Kerry in Munster Club Championship because they was only Divisional teams left at Quarter Final stage

Great and comprehensive interview with John Morrison in the Celt this week

[Denn Forever]

Its great to see Cavan football being discussed on the main board and not being afraid to look at whats being said.

It looks like we've got a "quality" man although people can't decide on what his quality is.  Hope the players/CB buy into it (even if it is wacky) because nothing else that we've done recently has worked.

[tommysmith]

I wouldnt say Cavan football is being discussed its more a case of how much a fruit cake this fellow is or isnt.

It will be interesting now to see what happens in the months ahead!

[Dougal]

the div 1 league could be very interesting today.any 2 of lacken killeshandra cucus drumlane and maybe even killygary can go down i think.is there any chance of cucus and killygary playing for a draw so both of them are safe?

[rodney trotter]

A draw would be no good for either team dougal.. they are both on 10 pts, drumlane are on 8 and killeshandra on 8. Lacken have castlerahan at home, castlerahan will be playing a weak team saving some of the keys players ahead of the championship final.. Lacken and Lavey are both on 11 points. Killeshandra have drumlane today, thats a game where whoever wins hope's for the best and get luck with other results..

[rodney trotter]

drumlane on 9pts i meant..

[Swadman]

...starting to see a few footballers that are getting used to the idea of beating Armagh, Tyrone etc. You'd like to think this might pay off at senior level sometime soon. Anyway great year so far hope it continues a bit longer.

Whats the odds on a third Cavan team playing in an All Ireland final in Croke Park in the one year?? (I had to get that in)

Well I thought it could be the Minors but it's going to be the Ladies. Go on girls, I'll be there to see ya. 3rd time lucky I hope.