Official Cavan GAA Thread

[descartes]

The Ref should have sent off the Dublin midfielder but stopped when he realised he had booked him already.The chances are if it was Eddie or Gaynor they would have walked.

he should have sent off sherlock too.

[Celt_Man]

Why what did Sherlock do? Didn't catch him at anything?

[descartes]

Why what did Sherlock do? Didn't catch him at anything?Huh

he was throwing punches in the 2nd half. ref gave him a yellow, when he should've given him a red.

[BallyhaiseMan]

Sherlock hit Michael Hannon off the ball, should have walked,
disgraceful decision only to give a yellow card.

[Mr. Pain]

The chances are if it was Eddie or Gaynor they would have walked.

Yeah, that would be because they are stupidly obvious when they do it, right in front of the ref or another official.

[cavanmaniac]

I don't know what some people expect. If there were better players around that wanted to play for Cavan they would be out there.We have to play with what we have

It's not so much the players I'm down on, it's the county board first, then the manager they appointed and finally, the whole apparent lack of genuine belief in the team - which is a totally different issue to mere playing personnel on board. We're just running to stand still every year and only a true visionary or messiah type figure such as McHugh can rise the tide for us.

All things considered, I think we're going nowhere at the moment. I see nothing to suggest at present that, barring a huge turnaround or upsurge, we're going to have a better championship this year than last. I take no pleasure in saying it, it's just my opinion.

[gortnaleck]

McHugh probably had a better panel of players in 97 and I don't think he managed them that great against Kerry in Croke Park.Do you not think he would have came back if he thought he could get them to progress any further.There would have been another hard luck story that year only an umpire had visions.Still he is the Messiah for leading them to an Ulster Championship

[cavanmaniac]

You're missing my point. I'm not contesting that McHugh may have had a better panel of players or subjective stuff like that, the point is that this was the last time we made a genuinely good managerial appointment.

Cast your mind back to those days and the buzz there was about the team. There was a real sense that we were going places, building towards something, and we went from no-hopers to competitive inside two or three years on the back of a commitment to basics like excellence and discipline in training and crucially, true hardened belief in ourselves. McHugh gave us that and you can't buy it, if you could we'd not have been bumbling along like we have since. It's why we hung in against Fermanagh in 1997 and gubbed them again in 1998 - we believed.

The Cavan team of the present would accept their fate and lose both those games in 97 and 98, possibly be content to say "Ah we were unlucky," as usual and that's the difference. If we don't get real ambition and leadership and belief back in the county side, we'll always be just mid-ranking also rans, maybe worse. We'll talk the talk, we'll try new players, the supporters club will throw money at it, we'll go close in big games and lose by a point and that will comfort us in our ignorance, the Breffni Blue annual will churn out the same shit every year, but we'll just be running about with one foot nailed to the floor.

You can draw a good comparison between Cavan then and Monaghan now. They've got all the components in place like commitment, good manager, sprinkling of good players - and are clearly going places, we have bits and bobs and are clearly going nowhere. If something doesn't get the ball rolling in a real way, and it certainly isn't going to be Keogan to do it, then it'll just go on and on.

[gortnaleck]

If we had Paddy Bradley and Freeman in the forward line there would be a good buzz to the team and I could stand on the line and manage them

[DirtyDozen12]

Any Mullahorn posters on the board??  Just want to know your thoughts on the new Tyrone management in charge??  It is Pascal Canavans first time managing any senior team, dont know if he would actually take any tranining though?  Did he bring a back-room staff with him by any chance??

[cavanmaniac]

If we had Paddy Bradley and Freeman in the forward line there would be a good buzz to the team and I could stand on the line and manage them

If we had Paddy Bradley and Freeman in our forward line they'd likely be kicking their heels, in and out of the panel, not training properly, boozing on the sly and gallantly underachieving to a massive degree the same as Pierson, Jason and Larry did for years, and just like Jelly probably will do as well. I'm afraid your view of things doesn't really scratch the surface if you think adding a one or two good players will solve the problems, that's somewhat simplistic in fairness.

[BallyhaiseMan]

Any Mullahorn posters on the board??  Just want to know your thoughts on the new Tyrone management in charge??  It is Pascal Canavans first time managing any senior team, dont know if he would actually take any tranining though?  Did he bring a back-room staff with him by any chance??

dont know the particulars of this case DD,

but with every manager even at junior level getting enlarged travelling expenses, someone of Canavans stature would command even more,
You dont pay people these  types of money if they dont get involved with the training.

[anglocelt39]

You're missing my point. I'm not contesting that McHugh may have had a better panel of players or subjective stuff like that, the point is that this was the last time we made a genuinely good managerial appointment.


Know a lot of people didn't rate him too much but I thought Val Andrews wasn't the worst. Did ok with us in championship and league, not too bad with TIT (Tralee IT) or Louth either. The late Eamon Coleman was ok.

[anglocelt39]

Thanks for that TTB, think we are sort of in agreement so

[cavanmaniac]

Ok, I think I'm slightly confusing "good" managerial appointment with "manager who won something," fair enough on that score.

Coleman I think was a very decent manager for sure but the main point I'm making that everyone's missing is that no manager since McHugh has really, root and branch, truly and genuinely addressed the problems we face. McHugh went at the psychology, he went at the fitness, he went at the attitude, he went at the discipline, and the results followed. Andrews was alright to an extent but he did preside over some lamentable hidings from Derry and despite deserving more support before he got pissed off and left, I don't think he'd have got us back to an Ulster-winning level and nothing I've seen from him since would change my mind there.

Coleman was more old-school but in hindsight was a real opportunity missed as I've opined before, he also seemed to be in the process of addressing the above and as if to prove my point, it's the last time we went toe-to-toe with the best around and didn't look out of place. McElkennon only achieved what the residue left over from Coleman allowed; on his own steam, he was lost, because he let the tail wag the dog.

If we're not hiring with all the above as priorities, then my point still stands, we're going nowhere and it's just lazy and hackeyed thinking - clap trap if that's your bag - to offer up the old "we don't have the players" chestnut. We don't have All-Ireland winning quality but we should be and could be doing much better than we are. A similar bounce back to respectability and competitiveness could be achieved with a proper manager, like happened when Coleman took over from Mattie Kerrigan, another farcical reign (NFL final included), when equally alot of people would have been saying we didn't have the players then either.