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Another vital win in what's turning out to be a pleasantly surprising campaign so far. Sounds from the radio Cavan  kind of fell over the line but saw it home on the back of a big first half effort.

If you can't win throw something - Meath motto.

You were spot on itchy! Delighted with that I must say. It's a far cry from the doomsday/death knell stuff of January and we look to be going in the right direction again. One more big result and we're in the mix for promotion. It's going to be a very interesting finish.

Where does all this hype about Meath come from? Like what have they done at any level in recent times to warrant it. They've been a div 2 team for ages and couldn't get out. They are the 3rd best team in a poor province.  I hope their players believe this auld shite and as you say we tear into them. All any cavan man should need is to see that green jersey to get the blood pumping.

You'd hope the derby nature of it would level it out and as you say if we tear into them we might pinch it, but they tanked Clare and were very competitive against a Roscommon team likely to go up, and that formline makes their confidence justified I think. We've a very new look team sprinkled with experience but we're not far enough down the road for this test I think. But you never know and here's hoping!

I dunno Itchy, you'd have to imagine they're a wee bit more seasoned and settled than us all the same. This could be the first of a few games that offer us a yardstick to measure where we're at currently. It being Meath you'd dearly love to bate the hoors out the gate but I've a feeling midtable is the extent of our capability and we might have to suck this one up and put it down to experience.

Would love a nice feed of humble pie after that prediction though, and leave the sour grapes to d'ryals - grapes with stones in them, naturally.

Whatever about what may or may not have gone on behind the scenes pre-season, it seems McGleenan now, at least, has a panel of motivated players working together and pride in the jersey seems to be there.
Much tougher tests in the coming weeks will test the solidity of those foundations and McGleenan's credentials too, but for the moment it's good to see some green shoots poking above the ground in spring.

Are we not being a bit pessimistic? Usually we have the opposite tendency at this time of the year and although I'm not expecting much either, if we can't scrape 5/6 points out of games against Louth, Meath, Down and Tipperary - all home games - and maybe pick up another win on the road, then the arse must have fallen out of the thing entirely! Or is the word on the ground truly that bleak?

[benefit]

My points are nothing to do with our ability to beat the Australians in a made-up sport, it's about contributing to  promoting another sport which has robbed us of some of our best talent. More importantly exposing amateur GAA players to increased risk of injury in an unfamiliar, highly attritional contact sport against heavier ,presumably better conditioned full time top professionals. Even junior club GAA pre-seasons are at least 6-8 weeks long , progressively exposing Players to equip them for the rigours and risks of a game they are familiar with , against fellow amateurs with a similar level of conditioning. Yet with the rules concept , with minimal prep, we are exposing them to the unfamiliar rigours and risks of this sport against full timers, who are usually much heavier and more cynical.  it's indefensible and we need to wise up!

Some people just hate this concept and that's fair enough, I used to really enjoy it whereas now I watch it and forget about it quick enough without getting too exercised, but I think you're running away with yourself a wee bit in the rhetoric stakes above.

Your alluding to 'highly attritional' and the 'rigours' and the 'risks' might have had a shred of truth about ten years ago when Aussie pole-axing was defintely de rigeur, but these days the series is largely sanitised. So much so that another chief argument of some detractors, only partly tongue-in-cheek, is that there's never any fighting any more. This in itself is used as a further stick by other detractors, tongue-not-in-cheek, to beat the concept a little more, because if people only watched it for the rows that don't happen any more, then surely we should get rid of it to hell.

The hit on Barrett aside (which was nasty, yes, but occurred in isolation, the forearm by Fyfe near the sideline looked worse than it was I think), there's seldom anything happens these days to start jumping up and down about, and anything that does happen frequently has equivalents occurring on our own playing fields anyway. You'll probably argue the toss about that but before you do, ask yourself simply and calmly whether our own players would genuinely play this game so willingly and as earnestly as we saw at the weekend if they felt they were risking life and limb or a career-ending injury every time they step on the field? Or are they all raving lunatics with barely a scrap of cop on at all at all?

The other notion, that we're promoting another sport and denuding ourselves of our best talent is flat-out farcical, jaded cliche. There's a very limited pool of Grade A, marquee talent in GAA to begin with, and only a further subset of that would be identified by AFL clubs as raw material for their game (Cavanagh yes, Gooch no etc.), and a further subset of that again that actually wants to go over there (Cavanagh no etc.). It's far from the lines shuffling off of coffin ships that you'd have us believe. What's more, what about all the guys who went out and then came home later (there are quite a few) to the actual - heavens above - benefit of their counties and clubs because of the enhanced conditioning and professional environment they had a chance to taste? There are plenty of other positives associated with the series too but they too are well worn at this stage, so I'll spare you, but whatever your read on it, the quality and competitiveness of this year's contests shows that it's a live prospect for the years ahead, the players like it, the brass are behind it so people need to dry their eyes and move on a small bit because it's here to stay.

These doomsday scenarios and dystopian rants every year over a bit of a jolly in the sun over two weekends get on my nerves a bit. There are much bigger and uglier boils much closer to home doing more damage to our game and our players and our efforts would be better directed to addressing those I think.

Seems to be following the pattern of most tests most years, we're being equalled if not outperformed with the round ball by players who did not pick one up until two days ago. Of course fitness and familiarity with the tackle and winning aerial duels in forests of players are all big factors (aussies score most from marks close to goal) but Gaelic football's handpassing fetish really exposes us here.

They hand passed a lot more than us.

The buy Fyfe was superb

They did yes, but my point was that when they were forced to kick, they did so more accurately than us, particularly when picking out marks close to goal, from which most of their scores came. You can see how their game requires a much more judicious mix of hand and foot whereas ours is largely just lamentable throwball as someone else aptly termed it. Of course, we must also bear in mind that a 'good' kickpass in gaelic usually means a ball bouncing into the chest of the target player, in this game that's suicidal so it's another thing the Irish lads have to get their heads around under pressure, whereas it's part and parcel of the Aussie approach.

Really enjoyed watching big Fyfe as well. Loyalties aside there's always one or two aussies that you have to take your hat off to. What a beast. Little Betts won a few balls he looked second best for and their goalie did well too.

Our lads didn't give up and despite being very inferior overall only a sloppy 4th quarter goal prevented us from going into the second test just 4 behind. Looked to me like maybe the Aussies went easy on us in the final quarter and we won a tonne more possession around the middle but tended not to make it count on the scoreboard - Tuohy on that 45 was ridiculous. Anyway at least it's not totally dead the second game might be a laugh but there's no way Ireland will beat Australia by 10+ next week based on that showing.

Seems to be following the pattern of most tests most years, we're being equalled if not outperformed with the round ball by players who did not pick one up until two days ago. Of course fitness and familiarity with the tackle and winning aerial duels in forests of players are all big factors (aussies score most from marks close to goal) but Gaelic football's handpassing fetish really exposes us here.

I think it's hilarious how much some people get so worked up over this.

+ 1
It's fair enough not liking something, each to their own etc., but for me, the annual cavalcade of embittered detractors getting their knickers in a twist and trying to hound everyone into their worldview by practically flash-mobbing every thread on the subject in their rush to let us all know how much more sportingly sophisticated they are than the rest of us because they hate it, that's possibly more entertaining than the game itself. It's almost evangelical in its zealousness.

I seldom watch it these days as it's kinda like sanitised choreography with a modicum of aggression and a football, but I don't spend my time picketing threads like an anti-abortion protester either.

Castlerahan are the Mayo of the Cavan SFC, always there or thereabouts but contrive to find a way to lose finals repeatedly.

I've always advised giving him time to settle, but that's a first full league and championship done and the initial question marks that became concerns are now alarm bells. This was a matchup that provided an ideal platform for this manager and players at this stage of development. Now it looks like we tried to shake things up managerially and made an appointment that regressed us. He's unlikely to be jettisoned so quickly, so is there any flicker of hope he'll get it together over the coming months? I think none of us have any confidence.