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Cavan and Roscommon seem to be in stasis over the past year, they can play well the odd time, but the pair of them don't seem like they are on the up.

What would be the idea of a positive season there?

I had lads from Cavan tell me there were agin McCabe but it all seemed to be fairly frictionless. What would be the expectations there?

Stasis is the word. The pall of inertia hanging over the county teams in Cavan, and total lack of any sense of emergency or organised plan to rectify it - can't fix the problem without first acknowledging there is one - is incredible to witness. Attendances falling off, public losing interest and instead of a root and branch inquiry and fresh plan of attack, we get a coronation instead of an appointment process. Whatever your opinion on McCabe, nobody should waltz into the job like they're doing that job a favour rather than the other way around, and if there's a sub committee in place (supposedly) overseeing it all, ought they not to have debated and pinpointed the current problems, researched extensively and come up with a definitive list of names and cast a wide net for a person best suited and qualified to tackle those problems? What was the process here? Was there one at all? "Ah sure we wanted a Cavan person and only one was nominated" is amateur hour stuff given the evident lack of direction, and absence of heart and guts in our supine county players, laid bare any time we so much as smell any Tyrone team within ten miles of us. And a good number of them are approaching retirement anyway. Genuinely, Division 3/4 is beckoning as there's damn all coming through but it's a case of "all good, nothing to see here".
The current state of affairs would make you pine for the early 90s because dreadful as our results were the whole county was still full square behind our team and somehow we had a county board with the vision to appoint Martin McHugh. The current crop? Too busy trying to build a stadium to host big games Cavan will never appear in. If you think I'm exaggerating, ask yourself how any "serious" football county can still profess to be as much, having gone since 1952 without appearing in an All-Ireland final, and win two Ulster seniors in 56 years? There should be alarm bells ringing all over the place but the leadership is absent and asleep at the wheel.

I don't know the ins and outs. It's a weird setup as he's employed by Cavan County board already as a Games Development Officer. Maybe he was hedging his bets to stay in Westmeath if he didn't get the Cavan gig, or didn't want to appear presumptuous by stepping down in anticipation of what now looks like a coronation rather than an appointment.

Managerial appointment processes in Cavan are seldom too cerebral. These are the same people that appointed Mattie McGleenan, remember, and a whole host of others subsequently pursued by absolutely no other county board afterwards. They're seldom too considered, but now that the whole focus is on the shiny new stadium it'll be given even less thought than usual. Fwiw, McCabe has a decent enough reputation locally in managerial know-how terms, but he's inheriting a bit of a dog's dinner of older guys reaching the end and players without a winning mindset/weak mentality. We could and should be doing better, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Not surprised Raymond Galligan has stepped down. He gave it his best, no doubts there, but his best achievements were in the league and he failed to land a punch in championship at all. Despite a heavy contingent of very seasoned players, Cavan remained embarrassingly fragile on his watch, and given the lack of mental fortitude it's probably for the best that there's a total clearing of the decks and a return to the drawing board. I wouldn't hold out too much hope for our county board approaching the task in too cerebral a fashion, but would love to be proved wrong, obviously. Our county team is on its knees currently, and largely abandoned by its own people, but others have shown how quickly the ship can be turned around with the right people in the right positions.

Some move. On the time thing I don't understand why the clock goes on before the ref blows the whistle to allow the free to be hit.

It's pure daft and introduces a needless flaw that's so easily avoided: If the clock is stopped while a player addresses a free, it should only go back on the moment he kicks the ball.

Galway fucked around and found out. Meath full value for it but thought the ref sided with them overall.

I wish Tyrone would play that poorly against Cavan. They'd only beat us every year by 6 points instead of 12.

Jim might need to manufacture an ould flashpoint on the sideline, that usually lights the fires for them!

Just feels like Cork haven't held their nerve, which you need to close out big tight games like this. Dublin don't look any great shakes either tbh, any of the 4 teams waiting will fancy a crack at them I'd say

If Cork had a proper leader they'd be contending.

Absolutely littered with quality athleticism and physicality.

No kickout strategy killing them

They're such an enigma. They're seriously impressive athletes and have a sprinkling of top class talent but they massively underachieve. There's this curious tentativeness about them every year and a lack of identity or sense of mission. They're crying out for a manager that can really get inside their heads.

Is the interest in Cork County Board to appoint that man?

And do Cavan need a figure like that?

As far as I can see, Cavan first need a huge clearout and reset, administratively and strategically. Two Ulster SFC titles in 56 years, no All-Ireland final appearance since 1952, no underage All-Ireland titles since God knows when? All this should raise massive questions about the possibly overly political and clerical outlook of the people charged with stewardship of on-the-field matters in our county board, but we always and forever only focus on a narrow subset of the manager and the current crop of players, while the real hard questions go unasked time and again. We don't lack for resources or passion or hunger but you'd think even by accident, in all that time, we'd get it right even occasionally, so given the embarrassing cycle of failure you'd think there'd be some self-examination going on? But, not a squeak and as far as I can see, it's just one big circle-jerk at Cavan HQ where all the focus is on spending millions redeveloping the stadium, likely for other counties to come play their neutral ground championship matches in. Our one-time fellow strugglers show us how to get your house on order; Duignan shakes things up in Offaly, Louth pass us out, Meath exit the wilderness years, Down look somewhat resurgent and Monaghan routinely outperform us with a lower population. Donegal and Armagh have waxed and waned considerably over the more recent years too but Cavan's only consistency has been to prove resolutely allergic to any sort of lasting advancement. We're going nowhere until someone grasps the nettle and calls it out.

Just feels like Cork haven't held their nerve, which you need to close out big tight games like this. Dublin don't look any great shakes either tbh, any of the 4 teams waiting will fancy a crack at them I'd say

If Cork had a proper leader they'd be contending.

Absolutely littered with quality athleticism and physicality.

No kickout strategy killing them

They're such an enigma. They're seriously impressive athletes and have a sprinkling of top class talent but they massively underachieve. There's this curious tentativeness about them every year and a lack of identity or sense of mission. They're crying out for a manager that can really get inside their heads.

Was there a rule change for this game, banning defending? It's very chivalrous stuff so far, lads knocking over points at their ease without so much as a puff of wind off an opponent a lot of the time.

Brian O'Driscoll is such a calm, efficient, economical footballer. In the league, at Breffni this year, he absolutely ran the game and he's very prominent here too.

I like a lot of Damien's tactical analysis, and he showed promise as our u20 boss by turning out a side with a lot more resilience and mental fortitude than the usual appalling Cavan contemporary standard, but in media analysis he's a cult of positivity type when it comes to Cavan seniors. Too much negativity is no use either, of course, but it's delusional ould soft-soaping shite like this that stops Cavan football acknowledging the various elephants in various rooms, and we remain stuck where we are, blowing smoke up our own arses and resolutely going nowhere - unless you count backwards as a sporting direction.

Stupid nonsense by Carolan although in general Cavan suffer from being naive and too nice most of the time. It's nice to see a bit of the dog in a few lads in blue for a change, at least it signals a bit of blood in their veins.

I stand by my comments about this ref too, typical big stick for the weak man mentality about him.

Bit of dog is grand like, but when the lad has rinsed you for 3-07, screaming in his face because you won a free off him ain't a great look.

Wasn't defending him, to be fair. But I wouldn't dislike the attitude in general if channeled with a bit of common sense.

Well done, Kerry. Far from a vintage Kingdom team though, and I can't see them winning Sam.

Cavan briefly threatened a comeback but Kerry were never in serious trouble there, although getting back to within a score or two will be seized on as a comfort blanket now, and used to mask the litany of systemic issues and rank lack of vision infecting all levels of the game in our county. Our coaching ticket is out of its depth also and can't generate any momentum outside league football, so as loyal and passionate as Ray Galligan has been, it's time for a clean slate and some sort of inspirational manager with a longer-term plan for what's threatening to be a horrendous four or five years ahead.

Special word for David Clifford - got a lot of old yap and verbal bullshit off Cavan players today and it all slid off him, and he sportingly shook everyone's hand at the end. A role model for all.