Quote from: Itchy on May 20, 2024, 03:21:42 PMQuote from: cavanmaniac on May 19, 2024, 01:44:05 PMIt was always going to come down to the game with Roscommon, for Cavan, and that hasn't and won't change, but the hope was we'd arrive there without too many scars and some confidence remaining. Who knows now what to expect from them on any given day? We're hideously inconsistent, often within games never mind from one to another, very mentally fragile and too content with moral victories, as shown by leaving a win behind us versus Tyrone. Any small degree of momentum from that is now in shreds. Mayo might not turn out to even be all that good, that's the scary thing, with Dublin waiting to annihilate us in second gear at Breffni - a game supporters will now understandably stay away from in droves? You try not to lapse into too much negativity and I know we've a new manager etc. but with all the gurus and back room geniuses we have, how in the hell did Cavan go out and turn in a dreadful display like that?
Cavan can put it up to a lot of teams but Mayo, Dublin, Kerry - big physical athletic teams, we will not compete with them. Most worrying for us is the total lack of quality coming through at underage (if you go by our results). One win for our U20s this year v Antrim (who were dire) and 2 wins for our Minors against Antrim and Fermanagh. When the Cillian Clarkes, Padraig Faulkners, Gerry Smiths hand up their boots we will be back slumming it in Div 3.
I hope you're wrong but couldn't make a convincing case right now. Underage has gone to shite altogether but isn't helped by honorary/name recognition appointments like Larry at U20, who anyone could see from his club management efforts would bring little bar an outdated, infuriating blanket defence and the usual robotic over-thinking. He'll be still there next year, I presume? If Damien Donohoe did reasonably well there the years before, why not leave him at it? Or at least make a considered choice instead of just lazily going for the ex-county legend.
Minors fared marginally better this year but as always the good news of a very commendable display against Tyrone is tainted by the age-old failing of not being able to take the win that was there to be taken, and losing composure when victory beckoned. It doesn't happen with such regularity to other counties; these moral victories all speak to ingrained mental fragility in our players but at least Seanie Smith seemed to be aware of as much in his post match comments - the first step to fixing a problem being awareness it exists and all that, which is not something you see a lot of acknowledgement of from other county board figures.