Official Cavan GAA Thread

[tommysmith]

I have a feeling there might be a lot of changes on that team for Sunday. When did James Reilly re-appear?

He was always there he never left panel.

JMC is apparently injured so Podge will probably go centre back.

[mylestheslasher]

I have a feeling there might be a lot of changes on that team for Sunday. When did James Reilly re-appear?

He was always there he never left panel.

JMC is apparently injured so Podge will probably go centre back.

Oh right. I thought he had left when he lost his place to fannin.

[PhilsJemmysField]

JMC is injured as far as I know and not playing

Killian Clarke may be getting the nod. Watched TNG last night (sad life) they had Corcoran on. In his first senior game for Cork he played on Fox who was hurler of the year at the time at corner back and made bits of him. If he had to have played in the other corner would have played on Nicky English. So Clarke may as well start now as well and get on with it

Podge centre half then is the possible assumption.


BELIEVE

[Westside]

Maloney Derham's interview extract on the Hoganstand is funny. Saying that they can't go out on a Saturday night and have to watch their diets. Culminating in the great line "Overall, you have to look after yourself and that's a big change"....
Just how far behind are we?!

[scoopmine]

Jellys transfer turned down. All over twitter.

[mylestheslasher]

It seems the great anglocelt, he of the rambling boring posts, is ignoring my posts. Hilarious since he came back from his self imposed exile to set me straight. He'll have to log out to see my posts now and I just know he can't resist. Don't let seanies latest set back put you in bad form anglo

[mylestheslasher]

Maloney Derham's interview extract on the Hoganstand is funny. Saying that they can't go out on a Saturday night and have to watch their diets. Culminating in the great line "Overall, you have to look after yourself and that's a big change"....
Just how far behind are we?!

I imagine being on u21 team of the last 2 years they would be subject to the same. Maybe he was just drawing comparison to the life of his mates?

[boojangles]

Ok, long time reader, very infrequent poster. I am a recent ex-pat looking for info. Firstly, a frequent issue on HS, and on this board is the fact that the county board make decisions and they are not to the liking of the posters. Can I ask, is it still the situation that the chairman and secretary of each club, represents the club at Co board meetings? I was at the Co Board meeting, where this was brought in, and it was not a popular decision, yet it came in. Do posters think this is something that should change? and if so does each club have someone willing enough to represent their club at Co Board level? Secondly....could someone please enlighten me, factually, on the SJ situation? As far as I am aware Cavan Gaels signed the transfer, The Co Board did not. The Co Board asked for more info, and this was supplied (as far as I am aware). Has this now been resolved by GAA headquarters?? Lastly, could someone PM me with the panel members, I would love to know who is fit and available for next weekend....I will be relying on https://twitter.com/#!/moefitzpatrick and the bould Mickey Tynan next Sunday....here's hoping for an upset. loving the soap opera by the way folks!!!!

Not entirely sure about this Benny. I know it was brought in a few years ago but I know in my own club that the chairman and our delegate will go to most of the meetings. I think it was brought in for when votes were being passed or at convention that the Chairman and Secretary had to be there. In theory it might still be applicable but I don't think it's being adhered to. Maybe I'm wrong. Philjemmysfield may know more.
I for one would have been critical of the way the CB had carried out their business over the years but it's very easy to critcise behind a computer. The County Board have taken some very bold steps in trying to improve club football and they deserve time in trying to implement the changes. As the saying goes '' If you keep doing the same things over and over you will get the same results'' You will never please everybody but the main thing is that the people at the helm are doing it for the good of Cavan football. Over the past 5-6 years changes have been made as regards Coaching and Games Development and we are starting to see the fruits of that labour thank God.
For a long time now I had talked about how important St Pats is for Cavan football and how for far too long the CB had neglected it. God knows we could be a force at Senior level at the moment had their been some forward thinking. But better late than never I suppose. 

Best of Luck to our Seniors and Minors on Sunday.

[tommysmith]

It seems the great anglocelt, he of the rambling boring posts, is ignoring my posts. Hilarious since he came back from his self imposed exile to set me straight. He'll have to log out to see my posts now and I just know he can't resist. Don't let seanies latest set back put you in bad form anglo

He is a dickhead anyway.

[tommysmith]

JMC is injured as far as I know and not playing

Killian Clarke may be getting the nod. Watched TNG last night (sad life) they had Corcoran on. In his first senior game for Cork he played on Fox who was hurler of the year at the time at corner back and made bits of him. If he had to have played in the other corner would have played on Nicky English. So Clarke may as well start now as well and get on with it

Podge centre half then is the possible assumption.


BELIEVE

I heard Josh Hayes i starting.

[anglocelt39]

Very interesting article in today's paper. Have good time for Hannon



Not too far away. Getting there. Need a bit of luck. Few teams have been as sinned against in the championship over the past five years as Cavan, writes MALACHY CLERKIN

IN A way, nothing became the Val Andrews era in Cavan so much as the ending of it. A home defeat to Antrim last month during which they actually scored more times than the visitors, but still ended up losing by 0-12 to 4-6. A players' meeting two nights later in Virginia to clear the air at which there was plenty of grumbling about the set-up but not – repeat, not – a vote for regime change.

A phone call afterwards in which the team captain said one thing and the county chairman heard another. A subsequent phone call from the chairman to Andrews telling him the players had voted for his removal when it hadn't happened. Recrimination, angst, chaos. The end.

Oh, and in the middle of it all, the under-21s went out and beat Tyrone to take their second Ulster title in a row. They did so with a team that will still have 10 players underage next year. It wouldn't be Cavan if there wasn't some faint vestige of hope in the mix.

"There hasn't been much success the last few years so the Cavan public have had no choice but to be patient," says Michael Hannon, the shut-down corner-back who was a fixture in the side for much of the last decade. "We don't play a lot of hurling, we don't play rugby, we don't really play soccer, we play basketball only sporadically.

"Gaelic football is what everybody looks at and plays so there's expectation on the back of that. Everyone expects at least one good day every summer."

Hard to see where they'll find one this year.

As under-21 manager Terry Hyland has been promoted to the top job with a four-year mandate; the emphasis will have to be on walking before anyone runs.

Andrews was a faithful officer working an unforgiving beat and even though there was no vote in Virginia, the plausibility of the notion that there might have been was enough for him to take his leave. Like Tom Carr before him, he ran into a dressingroom where there was an obsession with icing even though the cake lacked a certain substance.

Players who could rhyme off their body-fat ratio struggled with a 30-yard foot pass and didn't very much appreciate it being pointed out. There was talent in the group, just not maybe as much as the group thought there was.

Relations were undeniably bad between players and management by the end of the league and even if Andrews had survived the championship, very few expected him to survive the year.

The Seanie Johnston wrangle wasn't the only one that ended with players gone off the panel. Cootehill's John McCutcheon is back in the side for tomorrow but only because Hyland recalled him after he quit the panel in early spring over a lack of game time.

James Reilly is in goal but only after Cavan played much of the league with a forward – last year's county intermediate player of the year Keith Fannin – between the sticks because the original substitute goalkeeper Fintan Reilly also walked out.

Thing is, there's always been flux and ferment in the Cavan panel in recent years. With five players being handed their championship debut tomorrow – including corner-forward Jack Brady who hasn't yet played a league game for the county – they're now up to a scarcely believable 72 championship debuts in 12 seasons. All teams regenerate year on year but not to the tune of six brand new faces every summer. It comes from a restlessness, a constant itch that's never scratched in a county with success in the family tree. Problem is, that success is in the distant outer rings at this stage.

"When Eamon Coleman was over us," says Hannon, "he had that mentality that we were going to win Ulster. You grew accustomed to it. Maybe as you got older, you became a wee bit more cynical. The benefit of being young is that you haven't developed that yet and you do believe you can get there.

"We played Tyrone in 2005 and we nearly had them beat off the park but they came back and got a draw against us and went on to win the All-Ireland that year. I definitely think Eamon getting sick in his second year was such a huge blow to us. He was building something there at that time. We weren't too far away from making a breakthrough."

It's a constant refrain. Not too far away. Getting there. In need of a bit of luck. Few teams have been as sinned against in the championship over the past five years as Cavan. In 2007, they had Down beaten but a late Ronan Murtagh point nabbed them and Down took the replay.

The following year, Kildare mugged them on the line in Newbridge with a James Kavanagh goal in the 72nd minute. Another late goal – this time from Fermanagh's Ryan Carson – knocked them out of Ulster in 2010 and last year they were the only team to score a goal against Donegal even after having Ray Cullivan sent off just eight minutes in.

It would make for grim reading all round if the underage success didn't provide a chink of light. Two Ulster Under-21 titles in a row plus last year's minor title points to a brighter dawn at some stage, they just don't know when. As far as Hannon is concerned, the worst thing that could happen is for the future to be insisted upon in the here and now.

"My own view would be that there's some outstanding players coming through but they're a good bit away yet. Looking at the minor and under-21 teams last year I actually would have thought there was more senior intercounty potential in the minor team than in the under-21 team. Last year's minor team has I'd say seven or eight players who have a real chance of making it at senior level whereas the under-21 team has probably five. People need to temper their expectations and hope they come through over the next three years or so rather than thinking it's going to happen straight away.

"It used to be that a good under-21 was well able to play intercounty football and well able to succeed. That's not the case anymore with the way strength and conditioning has gone. Tactics are more defensive and it's all about breaking tackles now. So the way the game has changed, you can't expect a good crop of under-21s to make their mark straight away.

"They need to be 23 or 24 before they can make an impact. Somebody like Gearóid McKiernan can fill out in just a year because he's a great athlete but in general they need a bit more time."

McKiernan has been out with ankle ligament trouble since a careless defeat against Offaly in the league and his return as the heartbeat of the Cavan side is vital if they're to find any traction against Donegal tomorrow.

The game between these two teams was bitty and niggly last year and yet even though Michael Murphy was sent off in the first half, Donegal still walked away with a nine-point victory, their biggest of the summer. Hyland's side have shown little to convince that a similar fate doesn't await them this time around.

The future may well be bright for Cavan.

But few would argue that the present has much to recommend it.

[cogito]

Always had a lot of time for Hannon and he makes some good points in that interview.

Surely if fit he would be worth having in and around the panel?

[mylestheslasher]

The very best of luck to our Seniors and Minors tomorrow.

I was very pessimistic for the Seniors earlier but the nearer the game gets the more I think we might give Donegal a game although I'm not sure has my heart took over from my head. We need to start turning Breffni into a ground that teams hate to come to again, like it used to be.

From my limited knowledge of the minors I expect that we should win that game but we must be aware of what happens to Ulster champions in round 1 when they get too complacent - they get turfed out.

[scoopmine]

Makes a couple of great points. Although I don't see why scoring a goal against Donegal is mentioned it was a rebound from a peno. Its a pity Hannon suffered from injury's he was a county standard player and a good influence on players round him. I expect a performance from the lads hard work but Donegal will have too much power and scoring ability.

[Celt_Man]

First time (bar that wee correction) in a while - this place has descended into a National School playground at times.... Without wanting to start a row (and I'm certainly not gonna get into a tit-for-tat exchange with anyone) but a few boyos here, take a chill pill relax and cop themselves on please for the betterment of all who post and/or read this...

Anyway back to the football, agree with scoopmine there, mention of us scoring a goal or scoring more against Donegal than any other team sickens me and is a load of shite in my humble opinion but in fairness that has never came from the players so it's journalists really...

Looking forward to tomorrow - if only to see how much we can improve from last year...

As with any of Terry's teams from the last few years, you can expect a few changes and reshuffling of positions from the one named on Tuesday night.

Really looking forward to the Minor game too - a win and hopefully setting another run in the competition although it is a brutally hard route ahead of them

On a personal note, great day for our club having 4 involved in the two games - makes it an extra special occasion