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Former Tánaiste John Wilson played in the 1947 Polo Grounds final for Cavan...

That has changed under Benitez, numerous time.

It did initially and believe me nobody was more delighted with that one development than me, it totally illustrated a major shift in emphasis in the team.

But now I'm equally depressed because I think this season we've somehow regressed to be a carbon copy of Houllier's Liverpool and worryingly there's no change in sight just yet.

I agree we should all hold fast and not push the panic button for the reasons you expressed, but I am definitey very worried.

If we're adapting this as a policy already, scouring other counties for mercenaries, then I'm disgusted. Not only should we rise and fall on the talent or lack of available to us within our own borders, but to be engaging in this carry on smacks of the 'short-termism' that saw the careers of shitstirrers prolonged to land us in the mess we're in at the moment - live for the moment, the instant payoff, rush the minors through, make him play even if he's still a bit injured, and let the future take care of itself.

It's a major blot on Keogan's CV that he's doing this. As anglocelt39 rightly pointed out, it illustrates that he might not have his finger on the pulse as much as we thought when it comes to analysing the discipline and commitment problem in the Cavan dressing room.

I'd stomach Gallagher's arrival if he got turfed out at the first sign of problems, but if we're running about the country recruiting shapers and egotists of various shapes and hues, then I'll have a pink fit.

Posted this on another forum in response to yet ANOTHER article lazily suggesting that simply moving Gerrard to the centre will be the solution to all our woes. IMHO Liverpool are stuck right in a nasty rut and moving Gerrard about won't fix it:

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All this weeping and whining and moaning about Gerrard in the centre is just masking the real problem at Liverpool IMO, and that problem is Benitez himself and his strait-jacket negative approach.

It might seem sacrilege to question a man who took us to a Champions League, but am I the only one who can see all too many parallels between himself and Houllier? Just like GH in that summer when we were supposed to be going on to challenge for a title, he's made some signings that aren't working. Just like that season, title aspirations were rapidly revised downwards to battling for fourth place, but most of all, we're still playing like a Houllier team – functional, systematic, over burdened with 'tactics' and with no spark, life or fizz whatsoever.

We're robotic and seem to be playing to a rigid system. We have wingers who receive the ball, put their foot on it, and pass backwards into midfield who then pass it back to Hyppia or Carragher, who then hoof it back to the opposition. Our players seem petrified of taking a chance at attacking the opposition for fear of losing the ball so you get the shuffling huff and puff we got against Arsenal last week. If you didn't know the score and looked in you'd never have guessed Liverpool were trailing in the game such was their lack of urgency and forward momentum. All the spark and spontaneity seems to be coached out of our players. Look at Bellamy this season and compare him to last, look how Morientes has blossomed away from Benitez' over cautious approach and stultifying tactics, look how Pennant has regressed from last year even in a poor team like Birmingham.

As soon as we go 1-0 down I just know it's all over. Our turgid gameplan is totally predicated on not conceding first which might have been alright back when the defence was solid but it's far from it now and we're in major trouble any time we let a goal in. The loss of Hammann, who was one of the real heroes of Istanbul, is exposing our defence for what it is – porous when not shielded by an expert holding midfielder.

Forget about Gerrard on the right, that's just the press obsessing about a big name England player and missing the very real factors that are under their noses.

Well poor shooting is an issue in more championship matches every summer than it isn't and my point about kicking is that it's not a problem per se in gaelic football, because there's no need to kick direct into a guy's arms in gaelic. Hence, a lack of skill in executing this is never exposed.

And fair enough if it doesn't need to be done to prosper in gaelic then why bother perfecting it, but my point is we should be able to quickly become proficient at it in the few weeks of the International Rules, especially if the bloody Aussies can, that have never seen a round ball apart from 3 weeks of the year!

I think there's a certain case to be made about a decline in some areas of gaelic football.

Our kicking skills are always shown up in international rules games because what's a good pass in gaelic - dropping it in front of the forward to bounce into his hands - is criminal in International Rules as you're stting a guy up to get creamed. I accept our lads are not used to delivering this pass because they simply don't need to or advised not to use it at home but you would think with their round ball skills they'd adapt quicker to it than the Aussies who had absolutely no trouble popping passes onto each others chests from a variety of distances. Gaelic football passing is easier, but when asked to step up to the pressure of accurately landing the ball direct into a guy's arms, we're sorely lacking. I know this doesn't really matter for our own game but I still think it's sad to see that guys trained so hard cannot execute this basic skill, under pressure from a marker or not. The over dependence on the handpass in our own game doesn't help, but even the Aussies out-manoeuvred us here too - whereas we handed the ball to guys beside us, whereupon they ran into a thicket of Aussies and got creeled, they always always found a man in space and had us running about like headless chickens.

Tactically, and I don't know if this a reflection on Boylan alone or the game in general, the Aussies showed us a thing or too as well. Time and time again they engineered space and got men free to collect marks despite our best efforts to man mark them, whereas the Irish guys had to resort to passing backwards and sideways etc. every time we were in possession because we never had a man in space. We could learn alot from the Aussies there I think. The number of times we resorted to despairingly hoofing a 50-50 up the field was depressing and the lack of finesse in our approach was disconcerting, but like I said that might be down to Boylan and it could have been different had a different manager been on the sideline.

There was also the profligacy in front of the posts which for seasoned intercounty and international footballers was simply unforgiveable. The second test we had been physically rattled, I grant you, but in the tamer first test there was an orgy of shots dropped short or blazed wide for behinds or worse, no score at all. Year after year the Aussies take a round ball for three weeks and kick it over the bar and into the net better than us and anyone who thinks this doesn't show up certain deficiencies in our own game, even allowing for their professionalism/fitness/strength etc., needs to have a word with themsevles. You see this type of basic error at all levels of our native game as well.

Something else we should bear in mind as well is how sanitised gaelic football has become. Look around you, the big strong men have disappeared out of the game in favour of light, quick nippy lads with great engines. Players don't take the same hits in gaelic football that the used to because it's over-policed - some of the frees you see given now are ridiculous and more than one manager has remarked how it's turning into a very soft game - so it's no wonder that we could slug it out with the Aussies back in the 80s but feel like we've been shocked and awed and can't handle it when the same stuff starts today.

Yeah the Mullahoors didn't stand up to Cross like I thought they would. Sad reflection on Cavan club football etc. etc. we say the same every year!

Hope Drumalee did well anyway.

What is the word on Lyng anyway? Has he played anything for the Gaels at all, despite making himself available for the county final? That guy needs to be handled with absolute kid gloves if you ask me. I'd give him a few subs run outs against the weaker sides in the league and hopefully have him worked up a good level of fitness and durability by the championship in May. Don't risk him!

Especially now we've got 'our' Rory...

You can be sure the gaels have been brown nosing him already...

I'd share most of the concerns raised here. It smacks of mercenary type behaviour if these rumours are true, and possibly a bad move in the early days of management for Keogan to risk bringing in another bad attitude to a dressing room already infamous for bitchy overweight primadonnas who'll be only too glad of a new axe to grind over Gallagher.

There's no doubt if he was fit, trained hard and had his head right he'd be a great asset to a team that's always analysed as having 'great forwards' yet sometimes can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. But there's too many worrying aspects to this whole Gallagher thing. Sure it might turn out to be crap anyway.

How might Fermanagh feel if we met in Championship and he knocked over 0-8?

I can second that alright...early reports from Cavan sessions are that he's running rings all the other lad without breaking sweat...

Judging by this thread there must be an 80:20 ratio of Ulster folk to non-Ulster...

I see in Saturday's star that former Fermanagh ace Rory Gallagher, top scorer in Ulster a few seasons I think, is now training with Cavan and is apparently about to throw his lot in with the Breffni blues. He's living and working in Cavan town apparently although this begs the question, why not tip up the road to Fermanagh and start playing with his native county again? Wasn't he also linked with Dublin a few years ago? Seems to be touting himself about a wee bit, worryingly.

I've heard some malcontent/primadonna accusations levelled about this guy in the past and would worry about his influence in an already troublesome Cavan camp.

Seems you were right anglocelt39, he's defo at training anyway...

It's not rocket science but I hope there's hard and fast rules laid down, along with real punishments, firmly dictating the maximum number of weeks a county board can leave its club players idle for even if its county team is still active in the championship. Players should only be quarantined by a county manager in the week before a county championship game IMO.

Heavy penalties should be incurred by any county board stepping out of line, such as expulsion from competitions, whatever it takes.

This one change would do so much for the club players.

Could we end up with loads and loads of posts most of which aren't worth reading.

Ask Tony Fearon, he's an authority on such matters.