Official Cavan GAA Thread

[anglocelt39]

Posting pattern on this thread does little to give lie to the fact that we are tight arsed gits. Hopefully you will get back to your employers/state sponsored internet links in the morning to post relentlessly about todays game. Happy new year one and all.

Anyway, ignoring all the reasons for taking todays game with a pinch of salt there is nothing negative that I could see, from my armchair mind you, apart from Rabbitte's injury, which hopefully is not serious. One week into the new year and a performance that beats anything that was put in last year, league or championship.

No doubt there will be major analysis/comment when we open for business tomorrow. Only one comment on my part and that's about a player that figured in nobodys predictions for the year ahead, it being our most troublesome position-Lorcan Mulvey. Has shed a fair few pounds, got around the park a lot, broke up attacks, set up a number of attacks, kicked a few lovely scores. Finally, on a few occasions betrayed an attitude of taking shit from NOBODY.

[BallyhaiseMan]

Il give my analysis of the game(From TV btw i didnt take the trip down to CP)

1.Colm Anderson.....massive kickouts....good shot stopping displayed in the second half.....
Only mishap was coming and failing to get a ball,Micky Brennan almost put into his own net...
But overall good.

2.Martin Cahill.........he was marking Conleth Gilligan Derrys cheif playmaker...Gilligan didnt score from play,Cahill pulled ragged,and put himself out for every ball...a great defensive performance by the Denn Man.

3.Darren Rabbitte......................Him going off was a blow...as Paddy Bradley ran rings around Chesty from that time up until just before half time when Fannin was switched over....i Hope its not serious...Rabbitte is key to us doing well this year.

4.Keith Fannin.......moved onto Bradley just before half time...and whilst he struggled at first,soon came into his own and done well on the Derry Star in the seconf half..

5.Eamon Reily.........Not Chesty's best game,but he stuck at it.. and battled away....he got skinned by Bradley,but hes not alone in having that done to him.

6.Nicholas Walsh... a new position for Walshe and in my opinion he done very well.....Could be the big stopper we need for CHB....

7.Jonathan Crowe...The Crosserlough man a more renowned Centre Forward had a quiet enough game,yet looked good on the ball and helped set up a few scores in the second half...id like to see him get a go at CHF.

8.Dermot McCabe....outstanding...covered alot of ground...much lighter at this time of year than he was for the championship last year!!!! if he can be kept injury free and can keep the weight off...hes going to once again be our key man this year....

9.Donal Thomas...done alot of the hard work  in midfield in the first half........battled for everything...will not doubt get another shot against Queens...

10.Michael Cunningham... what  a find...the swad man named man of the match on TG4 was outstanding...kicked 3 or 4 awesome scores from play and his workrate was amazing......could be our first find of the year.

11.Mark McKeever.......outstanding as well....made some great blocks...kicked some good frees,he was involved in everything good Cavan done.

12.Michael Brennan......moved back to Wing back when Rabbite went off...done well i thought...I think it would have made more sense for him to have switched with Johnny Crowe at the start but what do i know?

13.Gerard Pierson.....kicked some good points...But for such a great footballer...he wrecks my head by being behind his man so many times when the ball is played in....was slipping and sliding alot as well....Betters things to come from the Gowna star as the year progresses me thinks...

14.Sean Brady...the UCD star seemed to be playing a withdrawn role...and was in the thick of the action throughout...theres definetely a place for Brady on this Cavan team...whether thats at Full Forward of in the Half forward line i dont know...Kicked a great score.

15.Cian Mackay....Kicked two outstanding points...seems to have bulked up alot from his minor days which is great to see...can overplay the ball at times...But that will leave his game in time...

Subs
Lorcan Mulvey.....Absolutely immense...would have been my choice for man of the match....as you said Anglocelt hes in better condition this year.....Very mobile for such a big man,great workrate,outstanding kicker of a score...and an ignorant f**ker to add
i enjoyed watching him run straight through the derry boys leaving them flat on their asses.

Jayo........kicked a marvelous point when he came on,missed two goal scoring chances...but we will forgive him for that......

Not sure if any subs came on,Thought i seen a number 19 or so warming up...didnt recognise him suprisingly...as id have proclaimed myself beforehand as being able to tell who all the panel members were.....


One word of warning of course... we looked far sharper than Derry...id imagine we have 3/4 weeks more hard training done than them,but all in all im alot more optimistic than i was Last night.

anyone agree/disagree with any of my points...

[cavanmaniac]

I'm breaking open the piggy bank anglocelt39!

Was very happy after today's game. You probably have to allow for the fact that we were way fitter and sharper than Derry at this stage of the season but there were some very encouraging signs:

1. I have never, and I mean never, witnessed such an accurate display of shooting from any Cavan team. Management have obviously worked hard on confidence etc. to the point that we could kick about 0-13 from play in atrocious conditions with new faces aboard. Extremely encouraging.

2. Heart. We never buckled when Derry came back at us before half time and won pulling up. Spirit in the camp seems good judging by the togetherness after final whistle.

3. Work rate. Keogan said it afterwards. We ran ourselves silly on a very tough day. It looks like the guys have really pulled their socks up and are already a world away from the disaffected rabble we watched last year.

4. New players like Cunningham doing well, and Mackey, Sean Brady, McKeever, McCabe, Jayo, Cahill etc. - but hats off to Lorcan Mulvey. f**k me. He was brushing men out of his way like he was swiping cobwebs. Brilliant to see someone with a bit of brute force and ignorance, we've been too f**king nice for too long and someone needed to let that hallion Doherty that he wasn't going to get away with the rough suff. Kicked some nice scores, handled a lot of ball, was a close runner for my man of the match in the end.

Anyway, it's only January and at this stage you couldn't look for much more. With Gaynor, Forde, Gunner to come back into the defence we have the nucleus of a side that at least will give its all and give value if it keeps the attitude right - and that's all we can ask. Rabbitte's injury was a low point but I think it's a hamstring and not the knee thank God, he's an important player for us this year as someone already said. I'd be very worried about the defence if he's not there, we were creaking a bit at times there today especially chesty on Bradley and Fannin struggled at times too - but then again, Bradley does that to all kinds of defenders.
Sure we're off and running anyway and there's encouraging signs. Nothing to get carried away with but at least it looks like we'll be supporting a tuned-in team giving their all and sure that's something anyway. Bigger tests against fitter teams await but if they're busting a gut for the blue shirt then I don't think any of us are going to be too hard on the lads if the results aren't all like today's.

[mylestheslasher]

Alright lads, it was a good performance but lets not get too excited. We were much fitter than Derry on the day and maybe a good bit hungrier too. On the positive side the shooting was good, the work rate was good and we won midfield comfortably. McCabe looking fit was a bit of a shock and good to see, his passing was brilliant today. Also, nice to see a new face doing so well in Michael Cunningham. On the negative Rabbitte going off injured was a blow. It looked like a hamstring so your probably talking 4-6 weeks for that to heal. For me mackey is still too light and is easily bottled up, also he made some poor decisions and held onto the ball a bit too much. Maybe in the good weather he will excel.  Mckeever played well but missed three scorable frees and so we are still struggling for a free taker on the rh side. I know we are also looking for a bit more aggression but don't mistake disent for trying to play the hard man. We were lucky on a few occassions that frees weren't turned against us for silly pushing and messing after the ref has blown. Aggression needs to be channeled correctly and 'after the whistle' aggression just undos good work. All in all a good day and i even had a tenner on cavan at 12-5 on paddy powers.

[Homer]

Not a bad weekends football for the boys in blue. The u21s beat Roscommon on Saturday 0-13 to 0-08 didn't make it myself but heard it was a convining performance.

Team that started was

1.   ?
2.   Declan Gallen
3.   Padraic O'Reilly
4.   Fergal Slowey
5.   Finbar Jordan
6.   Dermot Sheridan
7.   Cormac Geoghan
8.   John Cunningham
9.   Micheal McDonald
10. Raymond Cullivan
11. Alan Clarke
12. Paraic Smith
13. Martin Reilly
14. Anton Reilly
15. Killian Lynch

Apparently in defense Podge and Slowey cleaned up, McDonald lorded it at midfield (will push for a place on the senior team this year). Martin Reilly looked sharp up front, Clarke played clever but Anton was his usual lazy self (Although he does put it in on the big day).

As regards the senior boys, a fantastic display in bad conditions and as we heard from reports on the Laois challenge match Cavan look a big and physical outfit this year. I think I counted 7 lads today that would usually feature as midfielders.

Walsh
McCabe
Crowe
Thomas
Brennan
S Brady
Mulvey

As mentioned Cunnigham and Mulvey immense. But I would have put my house on Jayo bagging one of those chances. All in all very encouraging stuff.

[cavanmaniac]

Is that a much altered U21 team, there must be a few other first choices to come back on to it?

I must admit I've never heard of this McDonald lad but he has a big reputation alright, can anyone tell me a bit more about him?

[The Bottom Brick]

The McDonald lad is huge, all the way up in underage he was as awkward a footballer as you'd ever see.

Seems to have come on a lot, always had great hands but was very raw. Has he matured enough for the seniors? Time will tell....

On today's match, I'd say the lads are fitter now than they were at championship time last year, which is fantastic.

We still have Johnston, Gunner, Gaynor, Larry (?), Gallagher (?) to come into the team among others... Given that we've avoided the big guns in Ulster, could be an interesting year yet!

[Homer]

I've have watched McDonald from county u16 up and as Bottom Brick said he use to be very awkward (steering wheel to turn job), We don't play Drumgoon much at club level so I hadn't seen him since minor but he has came on a huge amount and is definite for u21 midfield. He's about 6'4" maybe 5" and well built, I don't know will he make it at senior level this year but if he continues to progress he'll be a fine introduction to the side in the near future.

He kinda reminds me of Ciaran Galligan of Drung who also converted from an awkward lanky lad to a fine footballer two years ago on the u21 team 2 years that lost the Ulster final to Down (but he did drop one short to level it  ). Anyone know why this guy fell of the map?

Geroid Collins is still well off the fitness (Lyng a similar story for the seniors) don't know will he get it back in time. Darragh Gaffeney hasn't turned up this year, pity a very lazy but talented footballer.

Of the team that started on saturday Mackey, Flanagan and Enda McCormack were the bigger names missing.

[Maximus Marillius]

Lads dont get carried away, ye beat a division one side last year in the first game of the Mc kenna cup, Fermanagh. Mc Cabe played well in the first half, but he hardly was involved the second half apart from frees, which he ran over to take all the time. Yer fitness was very evident in comparsion to Derry, so the posts on this thread about the work they were doing was accurate. Someone was a bit sore on Pearson, thought he gave Mc Guckian a difficult hour. Cavan really wanted to win this game.

[lynchbhoy]

from a Cavan perspective the new faces (to me anyhow) and talent they displayed augurs well.
Certainly the attitude has changed. McCabes diet and obv desire to knuckle down speaks volumes in itself.
Mulvey certainly looked good from what I saw of him, might be a touch on the heavy side for a full game on hard ground, but he certainly can contribute.
I think a lot of the old guard can be discarded now. Keoghan's appointment seems to have galvanised Cavan.
That keeper has some kick out ! All over the pitch the workrate, the desire to show for and then win the ball set Cavan apart from previous years (I watched it on telly). New men stepping up and being counted. Thats all that could have been asked of cavan yesterday.
Best of luck this year.

[cavan4ever]

it was great to see players putting the ball over the bar from out the field for a change!!!

[lynchbhoy]

when you see Jason reilly scoring from outside the 21 from the left hand side with such a beautiful score, you know its your day !

[never kickt a ball]

Gallagher on brink of Breffni switch

Monday, January 8

Cavan Senior football manager Donal Keoghan has revealed that it is a matter of days before former Fermanagh footballer Rory Gallagher is an official member of the Breffni panel.

Gallagher is currently training with the Breffni Blues following a number of years living and working in the county.

The 28-year-old's transfer application is being processed by Headquarters at present.

http://www.gaa.ie/plugins/newsfeed.cgi?rm=content&plugin_data_id=17002

[Homer]

Anyone know why Sean Brady was playing for Cavan yesterday and not UCD?

Also was Hannon playing for DIT in the win over Longford (I think he's still in college there) if so how did he get on?

Does anyone know of any other Cavan players that may have been involved with colleges other than Jelly, Flanagan, Cullivan (DCU) and Podge (NUIG)?

[BallyhaiseMan]

I dont know how many of you were at the McKenna Cup game with Fermanagh last year.... but McCabe was in very good physical condition like he is now...and lorded it at Midfield that day...Then he got injured for most of the league and put the weight on that hampered him last year
I hope to God he can stay injury free this year.....
The Cunningham family from swad will be well represented on the county this year...
Michael on the seniors
John on the under 21's
and Mark on the minors...
i wonder has that been done before in Cavan...
Homer
Ciaran Galligan as his fellow Drungman Cavan4ever can tell you has had an awful time with injuries.