Cavan V Donegal Quarter-Final USFC June 12th 3.30pm

[ck]

Cavan may well be weak in defence but sure they will be up against a forward playing as defenders!

[mylestheslasher]

Will be interesting to see who picks up Murphy and mcfadden. There will be a kit of high ball in in Murphy since Cavan are recognised to be weak at fb. But Murphy will also go out the field. Tom corr might be tge best option, decent under high ball and used to playing in the middle. I reckon Carroll will get mcfadden but is he good enough to mark him? Givney will be critical in the middle but there is a big doubt on is fitness. I think we will need a physical presence up at ff. Management have been grooming Eugene keating for ff but for me he is better coming from deep. How about gearoid mckiernan at ff instead? I reckon donegal will win handy enough unless mcguinness hasn't learnt anything from the u21 semi.

[tommysmith]

Talk of McCutheon playing full-back.

[Westside]

Corr at full back would be a brave(foolish?) decision. Roasted against Fermanagh and then sent off against Wicklow in his last 2 Championship outings.. You'd have to think that putting him alone on Murphy would be suicide.

Anyone else think Donegal might open up a bit in this game? They've got over the first hurdle which they haven't done in a few years and after all the bad press they got and the fact that they would surely be confident of beating Cavan man for man..

[mylestheslasher]

I don't think they know any other way to play. Only difference is I expect Murphy to stand on the edge of the square and not be tracking back. I expect a lot of high ball. Corr might be ok under those but if donegal manage to leave space around Murphy corr would be in bother. However, I expect our half backs to sit deep to prevent that happening. Mccutcheon is an option a few on here talked about last yr for fb but he has never been tried there once so it is hard to know how that would work out.

[Blowitupref]

Joint managers Val Andrews and Terry Hyland have named eight Championship debutants in the Cavan side to face Donegal in the Ulster GAA Football Championship on Sunday.

Cavan go into the quarter-final clash at Kingspan Breffni Park with an untested full-back line of James McEnroe, Patrick Carroll and Dane O'Dowd, all of whom are newcomers to Ulster Championship football.

In the half-back line, Niall Murray and Damien Reilly line out at this level for the first time, meaning five of Cavan's six defenders will debut on Sunday.

In attack, U21 captain Gearóid McKiernan, Fergal Flanagan and Niall McDermott are also handed first Championship starts.

Murray, McKiernan, McDermott and Flanagan are all promoted from the U21 side that lost the All-Ireland final against Galway last month.

Ronan Flanagan and Pádraic Reilly both miss out through injury.

Cavan (SF v Donegal): J Reilly; J McEnroe, P Carroll, D O'Dowd; N Murray, J McCutcheon, D Reilly, R Cullivan, D Givney, G McKiernan, M Lyng, F Flanagan, N McDermott, E Keating, S Johnston.

[Westside]

Only Givney and Johnston out of that 15 started against Fermanagh last year by my reckoning. Which is a serious turnover of players. Looks likely that Fergal Flanagan is going to be given the man marking job again as he was in the Ulster Final on Coney. Lyng being preferred to Nesty presumably for work rate and tackling ability. While I'd rather see Sheridan in the full back line for physicality it's probably the best team we could put out.

[mylestheslasher]

Its a fair enough team. They are very young and probably not ready for this level yet but we might as well play the lads that are working for the year instead of anyone else. Dermot Shierdan got injured in the challenge against Down and then got knocked out in a league game against Killeshandra so maybe he is injured. McKeever is the only odd decision for me, I would've thought his strength would have been required. Its a big ask for Cavan but you never know on the day what might happen and I'm pretty sure Donegal won't really know an awful lot about this team which will hopefully make them nervous anyway.

[Blowitupref]

Is Murphy,McHugh fit enough to start on Sunday they didn't play any part in the recent challenge games.

[James91]

Yea both Murphy and McHugh are meant to be fit to play, was swelling on a knock that Murphy had and McHugh had shin splints. Both needed rest more than anyting for those injuries.

I think Donegal will win by 4 or 5 points but the first 20 minutes will be where the game could be decided. Cavans young players will be on a high from the U21 run they had and also will be busting a gut to try and impress in front of a big home support on their championship debut.

But Donegal will likely keep Murphy, McFadden and Molloy close to the square and try and unsettle the young defenders as early as possible.

I dont think Donegal will be as "negative" as against Antrim. they needed to win in front of a home crowd where they hadnt won an ulster game in 3 years. And the conditions were terrible! They showed in the league they can attack well and the criticism is a bit harsh in my opinion! They will open up a bit in this game hopefully.
They defend in droves but also attack in droves when they want to.

After half time I think Hegarty and McBrearty will come on and really kill the game off for Donegal.

I honestly think if Donegal can see off Cavan, a win over Tyrone would set them up for a very good run this summer!!! (Hopefully!)

[RMDrive]

Donegal:
P Durcan,
K Lacey, E McGee, P McGrath,
M Boyle, A Thompson, K Cassidy,
R Kavanagh, K Rafferty,
M McElhinney, M Hegarty, R Bradley,
C McFadden, M Murphy, M McHugh.

Brick loses out with Raff coming into MF and McElhinney moving to the half forwards. Would have like to see him in there but Rafferty is supposed to be going well in training. He'll get a run out at some stage.

[donegal lad]

suprised at brick getting dropped because its giving cavan a much easier task at stopping the ball getting into our danger men because mchugh is gonna play his natural game which is drifting out the ptch leaving the 2 inside but all cavan have to do is leave mchughs man in there as well as a sweeper stop the ball getting in.on a more positive note leo mcloone named amoung the subs althought dont see him getting any game time

[Westside]

If indeed Murphy stays on the edge of the square I think Donegal will win comfortably.. Unless we put David Givney at full back nobody else on the Cavan team is capable of competing with him in the air.. Our expected man marker isn't even 6 foot tall.. As we saw in the 2010 Ulster Final all it takes is one mistake and you're chasing the game and chasing the game is not where you want to be against Donegal..

[ck]

Heard Jimmy McGuinness of MWR radio this morning talking about the fact that he intends to go all out attack on Sunday and no more of his blanket defence stuff. I'll believe it when I see it Jimmy.

I saw Cavan earlier in the year and full back looked a problem, will be interesting to see who has to pick up big Murphy.

[J70]

Heard Jimmy McGuinness of MWR radio this morning talking about the fact that he intends to go all out attack on Sunday and no more of his blanket defence stuff. I'll believe it when I see it Jimmy.

I saw Cavan earlier in the year and full back looked a problem, will be interesting to see who has to pick up big Murphy.

They put up big scores in league games against the likes of Derry and Meath, so it's not completely out of the question. Plus, one would expect Cavan to be a bit more adventurous than Antrim were, especially should Donegal go a few points up, unless this is merely going to be a damage limitation exercise for Cavan as well, which I seriously doubt.

As for Murphy, I would expect a bit of defense flooding on Cavan's part too! If you cut off the supply, there's not much him or McFadden can do. That's pretty much what Antrim did, although that was basically the extent of their game plan.