Official Cavan GAA Thread

[Westside]

McKiernan and Martin both missing this weekend. Really need a big performance from the likes of Lynch and Madden.

[rodney trotter]

New Inter County referees for 2022

Maggie Farrelly (Cavan)
Kieran Eannetta (Tyrone)
Chris Maguire (Clare)
Thomas Murphy (Galway)
Jonathan Hayes (Limerick)

Gone from last year
Ciaran Branagan (Down, mandatory retirement)
Padraig Hughes (Armagh)
Fergal Smyth
Seamus Mulvihill
James Bermingham

[Look-Up!]

 As strong a team as we could put out named. Of course we're still experimenting forwards wise but you'd hope to see some considerable promise there today. I think it's a positive we have no Gearoid. We know what he can do and will be huge for us later on in the year. It's other lads that need to put their hands up and no better day than today.
 Strong defence (at least we hope so) named. You'd be expecting to see good tracking/tackling, clean sheet, fast transition and our forwards to ask serious questions of the Leitrim defence.

[Westside]

Conditions are a bit worrying. They could be a good leveller. Great to be back going to league games though!

[Itchy]

A tough game today in extremely difficult conditions. We had to dig deep to get the win. Ray Galligan showed me what do I know with 5 frees, 4 into the wind in the 1st half. Paddy lynch hit 4 pts, 2 outrageous ones. That James Smith and faulkner very good. Thomas Galligan not at the races, looks unfit. Anyway without gerry Smith or gearoid and in those conditions any win was a good win.

[full moon]

Same old story though with the forwards, Gearoid out and nobody stood up bar Lynch who scored a few. We seriously lack a goal threat. At this level we should be putting away goals or we're going to be in a scrap half the time.

On a positive note looking at other results, perhaps Leitrim are one of the better teams in this division. Poor results for Wexford, Tipp and Carlow. It's a low standard though so hard to read too much into it.

[full moon]

Worth noting Antrim had another impressive result against Fermanagh comfortably beating them away from.

If anyone thinks that's an easy game in the Championship they are mistaken, they are an improved side under Enda McGinley and playing a higher level in Division 3 now.

[Look-Up!]

As the wee man says a won's a won. Nothing pretty about us but hard to be pretty in those conditions I suppose. Very modest return again up front which is a worry going forward. You'd hope when the ground dries up a bit and they get a consistent run in the team we'll see major improvements. 

[Westside]

Lynch's scores were excellent. Cormac Reillys workrate was impressive. Ray has a wand of a boot.
Can't read too much into it because of the weather.

Still think it will be ourselves and Sligo for promotion.

[Itchy]

Lynch's scores were excellent. Cormac Reillys workrate was impressive. Ray has a wand of a boot.
Can't read too much into it because of the weather.

Still think it will be ourselves and Sligo for promotion.

You can breathe easy now westside that Leitrim have been put to the sword.

In fairness a 4 pt win on a day like that is like a 8 pt win on a good day

[Dreadnought]

As ye have said, a win is a win. Especially without Gearoid, and losing Gerry Smith just before throw in. That was a brutal day of weather, that wind swirled, and was hard to gauge, and sapped the energy out of lads. That pitch was in poor state too, and that added in to making the going tough, while Leitrim looked good and were well up for this derby - they'll get a nice few wins this year. We judged the 1st half well, playing into that wind. We wasted a lot of time to kill the clock, took a lot out of them, and picked off a few nice points. Galligan took a few frees to figure out that wind, but when he did he was fit to put over a few lovely ones. One free in particular looked well wide before making a sudden sharp turn and to glide inside the post. Great going.

It is a pity we didn't drive on the 2nd half, even if we did enough to win decently. We let them back in there in spurts, and they were level at one point 10 mins into the 2nd half before we pushed on. Had a goal chance when Conor Smith fisted over the bar. But that was it. We need to create more goal chances, especially in this division. It should be an opportunity we look at to get more goals so we get experience to certain lads as it's something we've been poor on. As someone said above, we'll be caught some day if we don't get ahead with goals and kill games.

Paddy Lynch looks to be the real deal. He's growing into himself, and gaining the confidence he needs. He scored some lovely points for those conditions yesterday. Hope he just keeps pushing on and becomes the scoring forward we need him to be. Cormac O'Reilly was busy and did well too. Jason McLoughlin, what can you say about him that hasn't been said already. Such energy, and always there to attack forward and be an option. There were some below par performances from some experienced heads too though. Some a little off fitness (that'll come) and some just made a few too many mistakes. The conditions didn't help, and the pitch was very heavy, but we still dropped a lot of balls, couldn't get the ball off the ground, poor passes, and ran into trouble a few times. Hopefully that's just the first day out in those conditions, and when we get back to Breffni next week we'll nudge it up again.

Anyway, overall good to see out that win with all taken into account. Even playing below par we had more than enough. Get a few more lads back next week and move on from there.

[Westside]

I thought McLoughlin had a great first half but he had a nightmare marking O'Rourke in the second half. He made a few bad handling errors that coughed up the ball to Leitrim.

Gunner was excellent. That break he made at the end when Leitrim had us under pressure in our full back line was brilliant.

Management made a bad mistake leaving Cormac Reilly on the field so long. He had a yellow and was throwing himself around and tackling on the edge. It was blatantly obvious he was about to be sent off and should have been but the ref bottled the decision. He has that tendency and it needs to be watched because it could cost us one day.

Midfield was a worry, Leitrim got more clean ball than us and were quicker to the breaks. The wind made it very difficult so can't judge Smith and Galligan too harshly. Hopefully if we get better conditions next week they can impose themselves more.

[Dreadnought]

I thought McLoughlin had a great first half but he had a nightmare marking O'Rourke in the second half. He made a few bad handling errors that coughed up the ball to Leitrim.

Gunner was excellent. That break he made at the end when Leitrim had us under pressure in our full back line was brilliant.

Management made a bad mistake leaving Cormac Reilly on the field so long. He had a yellow and was throwing himself around and tackling on the edge. It was blatantly obvious he was about to be sent off and should have been but the ref bottled the decision. He has that tendency and it needs to be watched because it could cost us one day.

Midfield was a worry, Leitrim got more clean ball than us and were quicker to the breaks. The wind made it very difficult so can't judge Smith and Galligan too harshly. Hopefully if we get better conditions next week they can impose themselves more.

With respect, I think you're quite wrong there on Cormac O'Reilly. He was targeted a fair few times yesterday. And that was clearly a case of a man recognising that he's marking a man with a yellow, and he did everything he could to get him another yellow. He dragged him to the ground, and held him down on top of himself, making it look like they were tussling and that it was Cormac on top of him. You could see Cormac had his arms out, so it wasn't him who was grappling or tussling. It was trying to get the man sent off. The linesman didn't buy it, he told the ref exactly what happened, and it's why the Leitrim man got a yellow, and Cormac didn't. Was time to take him off at that stage though, no point leaving him on after that

[Westside]

He may have been targeted, but he was throwing himself into tackles and could easily have had a yellow card for persistent fouling. At one point during that incident when they hit the ground Cormac was on top of the Leitrim player pushing his head down. Most times the ref gives two yellows.

I'm not criticising Cormac, I was impressed with his performance and work rate. He nailed down his starting spot. I just thought it was poor management from Mickey.

[Itchy]

I think ye are both right! I think Cormac should have been pulled off as it was clear to me he was going to get a 2nd yellow at some point as he was tackling on the edge. However on the incident that Leitrim were going mad about, 99/100 both players get a yellow card so I can only presume that the linesman, who was talking furiously into his mic after the incident, must have seen exactly what happened and informed the ref accordingly. I was a bit diappointed in performances of Thomas Galligan and Killian Clarke who really didnt influence the game, two big athletic men who should stand out on a day like that. Walking along the stand side and looking out at the pitch after it looked like the old pitch up in Corlough back in the day (minus the hill) so I can only imagine what it was like to play on.