Official Cavan GAA Thread

[Denn Forever]

Team for tomorrow.  Do us proud.


CAVAN (SF v Kildare): J Reilly; K Clarke, P O'Reilly, D Tighe; M McKeever, D Reilly, F Flanagan; D Givney, T Corr; N Smith, G McKiernan, R Flanagan; N McDermott, E Keating, J Brady.

[mylestheslasher]

All the best to our lads tomorrow. I believe we can win this game if we keep it close for 50/60 minutes. I think there are some goals in us and that could make the difference. What could also make a difference is a good strong support from the Cavan people. There has been a growing apathy towards our senior team of late which is very sad to see, especially when 10 years ago we were surely in the top 5 best supported teams in Ireland. Get off your holes Cavan people and get to this match. We should be aiming to make this a very uncomfortable athmosphere for Kildare and a 16th man for Cavan. If the whole of Ireland is behind us then surely to fu*k we should be able to mobilise a decent home support. Go out lads and play to your potential and hopefully that will be enough.

[BallyhaiseMan]

Lads that was a  f**king shambles out there today.

No game plan(Going man for man with a superior team is complete suicide)
Forwards can't shoot,
Backs can't tackle without fouling,
No ideas how to win breaks,
No hint of a defensive system.

Hyland,Forde and Tom Reily too have just went from having their 5 year plan to being on the hot seat if there is not a massive improvement next year.
Kildare i would estimate were about 50% fitter than we were,They were powering forward in groups near the end when Cavan players were standing with their heads in their hands on the half way line.
It was embarrassing.

There were few positives out there:

Josh Hayes,Declan McKiernan,Robert Maloney Derham and Mark McKeever all had a positive impact when they came on.

Niall Smith was the best Cavan player for me  whilst Keating tried hard and done terrifically well for the goal,but the shooting all round by the team was horrendous.

It was just a bad bad day.

[CC1]

To be honest I cannot blame anybody in the current Cavan set up for the result today. Fact was that Kildare's players were physically stronger than almost every Cavan player on the pitch (apart from Keating, Givney, McKiernan etc) that takes years and years of training together as a team to get right. This comes down to player turnover which is/was massive in Cavan. Not enough players have been training at inter county level for long enough to bulk themselves up.

If we can get these guys in top condition physique wise, we will be able to compete. At the moment, with the average age of the team being roughly 22-23, we are in a good position to get these lads into a condition whereby they are in the condition the Kildare lads are in for their prime then I think we will improve immensely. At the moment, we are years behind most counties in terms of development.

[tommysmith]

To be honest I cannot blame anybody in the current Cavan set up for the result today. Fact was that Kildare's players were physically stronger than almost every Cavan player on the pitch (apart from Keating, Givney, McKiernan etc) that takes years and years of training together as a team to get right. This comes down to player turnover which is/was massive in Cavan. Not enough players have been training at inter county level for long enough to bulk themselves up.

If we can get these guys in top condition physique wise, we will be able to compete. At the moment, with the average age of the team being roughly 22-23, we are in a good position to get these lads into a condition whereby they are in the condition the Kildare lads are in for their prime then I think we will improve immensely. At the moment, we are years behind most counties in terms of development.

We will be lucky to have 50% of those lads in 2-3 years time, when they finish college they will be off abroad to find work.

[mylestheslasher]

Very disappointing performance today. We were simply outplayed all over the field and I think tactically we were a mess with all sorts of players playing out of position. A combination of a Kildare backlash, their superior fitness and conditioning and us being poorly set-up is what lead to the horrible score. No point slagging our lads, they are probably 3 years from being at the level Kildare are and they are going to have to stick at it and try learn from today.

I was glad to see Seanie Johnston playing. Looking quite fat for a guy who supposedly is training so hard. I was glad as it gave the Cavan supporters a chance to tell him what they thought of him and they did so by loudly booing him as he came on. I will never fathom how he could do what he did today and his legacy is now firmly written in Cavan as a traitor. However, today draws a line under it and Seanie has chosen his path. I hope he gets nothing from his move but it done now, he is no longer a Cavan man - end of story.

Where now for Cavan. We really need to find some naturally athletic footballers. Smith has it but he needs to fill out. Without power and pace we will struggle against the big teams. Terry needs to get someone involved that can train the players fitness wise for this. I'd like to thank the player  for their efforts this year, there were some steps forward and we know its a long road. By all accounts they have worked hard and Cavan fans should be proud of their efforts.

[tommysmith]

I was glad to see Seanie Johnston playing. Looking quite fat for a guy who supposedly is training so hard. I was glad as it gave the Cavan supporters a chance to tell him what they thought of him and they did so by loudly booing him as he came on. I will never fathom how he could do what he did today and his legacy is now firmly written in Cavan as a traitor. However, today draws a line under it and Seanie has chosen his path. I hope he gets nothing from his move but it done now, he is no longer a Cavan man - end of story.

I dont know how he can walk the streets of Cavan after that, but it was his choice and he will have to live with it.

Edit: he is a fat wee fecker now he must be horsing into the mars bars driving up and down the road to training.

[cogito]

Lads the notion that Terry needs to go find some naturally athletic footballers is nonsense in my book. Kildare are currently 4 or 5 years into management set up who have gradually improved over time. There has been no meteoric rise.

Look at the conditioning of the Kildare players and you will find that not too many of them looked like that before McGeeney began his regime. We need to do something similar over the next few years and that work has already started but results take time.

Terry has clearly identified the core of the group he wants to work with moving forward. It's a project, it is as simple as that. We can't expect miracles and they simple wont happen. I'm quite positive that under Terry the Cavan senior team will gradually improve. Two u21 titles, and a junior Leinster title implies he is doing something right. The players clearly respect him so we are jsut going to have be patient and support a bunch of talented young lads as they try to grow into a group of players who can compete with the best at senior IC level.

O'Connor completely overpowered Clarke all day today and I am surprised his was left on him for the entire game. McDermott and Givney were quite poor also. Saying that the experience they will have picked up from playing a quality team like that should stand to them and its lets them see clear as day the work they need to do to compete with the best around.

On the Johnson thing I just found the whole thing sad. Not what the GAA is about and I will never agree with it. But as you said Myles, thats it now and time to draw a line under the whole thing. He turned his back on Cavan. We have a bunch of young lads who are used to being the best at their own age group. Now I'm looking forward to Terry trying to bring them to the next level. They want to wear the Blue jersey and once they continue to work hard and conduct themselves in the right manner they will have my support.

[tommysmith]

Lads the notion that Terry needs to go find some naturally athletic footballers is nonsense in my book. Kildare are currently 4 or 5 years into management set up who have gradually improved over time. There has been no meteoric rise.

5 years ago Kildare were not getting hammerings like that from anyone.

[Westside]

Completely overpowered and outplayed. Kildare are ahead in development line is being bandied about a lot.. Will a few years of conditioning really bridge that gap? I'm very skeptical that it will. Perhaps that's the pain of defeat speaking.

I feel sorry for the players, as a supporter turning up on match day that hurt, can't imagine what it must be like to bust yourself all year and go out and take that sort of a hammering.

[rodney trotter]

Where exactly would Terry Hyland find these athletic players? The present panel is probaly the best players we have available bar a few others but i wouldn't call them athletic. Maybe Turlogh Mooney when he gets back from the injury and Niall McKiernan could be options next year as athletic players. They would still need time to develop.

Kildare are a far more conditined side. That didn't happen over night, Hyland has only been in charge since April. It wasn't till  Mcgeenys  second third year with Kildare that the conditioning work came through. The first year in 2008 Kildare got a last minute goal in Newbridge to knock out Cavan. They are a better side know, the various different core and cardio work they did has paid off.

i'd like to see Rory Dunne at full back next year, Clarke is a good young player, but still alot to learn for senior football.

[Westside]

Niall McDermot and Feargal Flanagan at least let Johnston know what they thought of him..

[BallyhaiseMan]

The management after this overall dreadful Senior Intercounty campaign,need to come to the blatantly obvious conclusion that certain members of these Under 21 winning teams are not big enough/athletic enough or indeed good enough to play county senior football.
Now we talk about Size and Athleticism,
Anyone whom was at the Offaly debacle earlier on this year could not have failed to be impressed by Ciaran Galligan playing centre half back,where his athleticism and strong running ability shone through. He was basically the only bright spot in that game.
Now Ciaran is not the mast talented of footballers we have,however we have to get out of this whole idea of playing the best 15 footballers and going out playing man on man against far superior teams and and start picking players that can fit a certain system of play that can negate the opposition.
To compete with the likes of Kildare,we need players of the mold of  him,John McCutcheon,Maloney Derham,Thomas Reily(Killeshandra,if hes even in the country),guys with power and speed whom can cover ground and run with the likes of the Emmet Boltons,John Doyles and co.
If you can integrate guys that fit that criteria into a system alongside the Eugene Keatings,Givneys,Jack Brady's,Niall Smiths,then we will go places.

[Westside]

A guy that there has not been much talk about was sitting near me at the game today, Dermot Sheridan. He's a massive lump of a man and if Hyland thinks that he can get the best out of him and give him another chance then I sincerely hope he does so. Clarke is the only member of that starting back line today that has the potential to be physical enough to play top intercounty teams. Tighe, McLoughlin (hope I'm wrong as he is a very tidy footballer), Damien O'Reilly, Ronan Flanagan just don't have it.

If you could get Sheridan and McCutcheon back in there we'd be better able to contest physically in defence (something that Hyland disappointingly failed to address in his interview despite it being the most glaring difference between the sides) Hayes looked hungry when he came on, pacey and looked like a good man to put in a tackle. Hope to see more of him next year.

On a sidenote, Hyland said in an interview after the game that Givney was dealing with an accident in the family and that he was taken off because they felt he wasn't in a good place mentally. I hope it's nothing serious.

[Ollie]

[I was glad to see Seanie Johnston playing. Looking quite fat for a guy who supposedly is training so hard. I was glad as it gave the Cavan supporters a chance to tell him what they thought of him and they did so by loudly booing him as he came on. I will never fathom how he could do what he did today and his legacy is now firmly written in Cavan as a traitor. However, today draws a line under it and Seanie has chosen his path. I hope he gets nothing from his move but it done now, he is no longer a Cavan man - end of story. ]

I don't think Seanie is too bothered about what people think of him. I heard him receive far worse abuse from so called cavan supporters when he was playing for the Gaels. His skin is well thickened at this stage. He went into the lions den today, faced his critics and left with a score to his name and his head held high. Would have much rathered to see him wearing the blue of Cavan today but due to bad team manager, a clueless county board and the stubbornness of Johnston that wasn't to be. Still though the likes of Jack Brady, Keating & Niall Smith shows that we may have a few more stars that may come through the system collectively as a unit that may bring some Joy to Cavan supporters in the future. It's better to look ahead than to be stuck in the past.