Official Cavan GAA Thread

[mylestheslasher]

I know down hammered us 0-13 to 0-5 at the weekend.

[cogito]

I know down hammered us 0-13 to 0-5 at the weekend.

At least we didn't let in any goals! Jaysus that doesn't bode well at all. 0-5 in the last game before championship does not bode well

[Ollie]

Any word on this years minor team?? How did they do in the ulster league? Is there many from last years team on the panel?

[Westside]

Are our Minors playing in Breffni before the Seniors? They lost the Ulster League Semi Final. From last year's team they have Conor Smith, Gerard Smith, Michael Argue, Liam Buchannan, Andy Graham. May be more that I don't know of. It would be wonderful to continue the underage dominance in Ulster.

[anglocelt39]

Sunday: hard to expect much after a pretty poor league campaign, who knows what difference the management team change will have. I would take a strong performance against Donegal and one win in the qualifiers as at least a steady the ship job to build on.

The future: We've had as much success at underage level in the last two years as there has been in my lifetime and that's a fantastic achievement on the part of all concerned and bodes well for the future.

Something to worry about: One of the reasons for our Under 21 success in Ulster has been that we have taken the competition very seriously relative to other counties with keeping lads away from the senior setup until Under 21 bit is done. This caused problems last year in the first Round V Donegal and I hope to jasus we don't repeat some of those mistakes on Sunday. I see we played Leitrim in a challenge a week ago and had Cillian Clarke and Jason McLoughlin in the full back line. I hope to christ Terry isn't thinking about handing these lads their inter county debut on Sunday. Great prospects for the future who could easily get destroyed if thrown in at the deep end too early.

Management team: Delighted that Hyland will be at the head of a management team after everything he has achieved over the past few years at underage. The only worry would be finding somebody to fill his shoes at under 21 level. He should be given at least 3 years and a mandate to develop certain lads into inter county footballers in that time frame. Constant chopping and changing of managers leads to chopping and changing of panels and the loss of people who could be developed in the longer term. I keep thinking back to a lad like Pierce McKenna, he was as raw as feck the first few years he wore the County jersey you'd love to have somebody like him now. You don't develop from an Under 21 player to a Senior overnight and I would like  to see lads like Barkey and McDermott, to name two, given a chance to build on the experience they have got in the past 12 months.

Inexperience: We need a few experienced heads in among the young lads but finding 10 or so battle hardened 25 to 30 year olds to be part of a 30 man panel might be easier said than done. Val was right in cleaning out a few lads but I think he could have been a bit cuter/pragmatic in how he went about it. We have plenty of lads coming through to replace Nesty, Lyng, Mackey and Jelly as far as I can see. Not sure he was as wise getting rid of a rarer species of Cavan footballer that actually has a bit of size/strength/presence whatever e.g. Alan Clarke, Dermot Sheridan, McCutcheon. From the little I saw of McGuigan of Belturbet I liked the cut of him. Add in the likes of Podge, Flanagan, Fannin (out the park please), Mckeever, Cullivan and you might have the makings of a bit of experience in a panel, only if they are totally willing to committ and toe the line mind. Big pity that Mickey Hannon has retired from Inter County I hear, great goer when he was injury free and supposed to have a future in coaching ahead of him. Another reason we need experience is that a few of the younger lads will be lost to the Country when college finishes, unfortunately.

Possible master stroke: For the longer term, Keating in the number 6 jersey could work, there's a slight touch of the Trevor Crowe there which might make waltzing through the Cavan defence from the opposition half back line a bit less of a picnic than it has been in the past.

Finally, hope the Minors can kick on. Good luck all. 

[cogito]

Sunday: hard to expect much after a pretty poor league campaign, who knows what difference the management team change will have. I would take a strong performance against Donegal and one win in the qualifiers as at least a steady the ship job to build on.

The future: We've had as much success at underage level in the last two years as there has been in my lifetime and that's a fantastic achievement on the part of all concerned and bodes well for the future.

Something to worry about: One of the reasons for our Under 21 success in Ulster has been that we have taken the competition very seriously relative to other counties with keeping lads away from the senior setup until Under 21 bit is done. This caused problems last year in the first Round V Donegal and I hope to jasus we don't repeat some of those mistakes on Sunday. I see we played Leitrim in a challenge a week ago and had Cillian Clarke and Jason McLoughlin in the full back line. I hope to christ Terry isn't thinking about handing these lads their inter county debut on Sunday. Great prospects for the future who could easily get destroyed if thrown in at the deep end too early.

Management team: Delighted that Hyland will be at the head of a management team after everything he has achieved over the past few years at underage. The only worry would be finding somebody to fill his shoes at under 21 level. He should be given at least 3 years and a mandate to develop certain lads into inter county footballers in that time frame. Constant chopping and changing of managers leads to chopping and changing of panels and the loss of people who could be developed in the longer term. I keep thinking back to a lad like Pierce McKenna, he was as raw as feck the first few years he wore the County jersey you'd love to have somebody like him now. You don't develop from an Under 21 player to a Senior overnight and I would like  to see lads like Barkey and McDermott, to name two, given a chance to build on the experience they have got in the past 12 months.

Inexperience: We need a few experienced heads in among the young lads but finding 10 or so battle hardened 25 to 30 year olds to be part of a 30 man panel might be easier said than done. Val was right in cleaning out a few lads but I think he could have been a bit cuter/pragmatic in how he went about it. We have plenty of lads coming through to replace Nesty, Lyng, Mackey and Jelly as far as I can see. Not sure he was as wise getting rid of a rarer species of Cavan footballer that actually has a bit of size/strength/presence whatever e.g. Alan Clarke, Dermot Sheridan, McCutcheon. From the little I saw of McGuigan of Belturbet I liked the cut of him. Add in the likes of Podge, Flanagan, Fannin (out the park please), Mckeever, Cullivan and you might have the makings of a bit of experience in a panel, only if they are totally willing to committ and toe the line mind. Big pity that Mickey Hannon has retired from Inter County I hear, great goer when he was injury free and supposed to have a future in coaching ahead of him. Another reason we need experience is that a few of the younger lads will be lost to the Country when college finishes, unfortunately.

Possible master stroke: For the longer term, Keating in the number 6 jersey could work, there's a slight touch of the Trevor Crowe there which might make waltzing through the Cavan defence from the opposition half back line a bit less of a picnic than it has been in the past.

Finally, hope the Minors can kick on. Good luck all.

Thanks AC, its for posts like this that I signed up to this board on the recommendation of a friend.

I know everyone on here has huge passion for Cavan football and I log on here occasional in hope to get some general insight into the team and fella's general opinion on how things are going. For too long this board has lost the plot.

I agree with alot of what you said in your post and indeed I am looking forward to the match on Sunday. I would just like to see our team look like they know what they are supposed to be doing.

I couldn't agree with you more on the likes of Clarke, McGuigan, McCutcheon etc. I think the young lads coming through can benefit massively from having the likes of them around. I have never heard a bad word said about any of their attitutudes around the county and they are the kind of fellas I want helping our new generation to find their feet at senior IC level. Would also like to see Fannin back out the field at some point. Hard to believe the Intermediate player of the year in 2011 is being consigned to stand in goals when we have a twice nominated All Star goalie still available for selection.

However I would strongly disagree with you about Keating at 6. From what I have seen of him although he is a big unit, he can't defend.

[mylestheslasher]

Why did mccutcheon leave the panel earlier in the year?

[cogito]

Why did mccutcheon leave the panel earlier in the year?

Apparently he was told he wasn't needed by Val Andrews. Remember reading that somewhere

[mylestheslasher]

Why did mccutcheon leave the panel earlier in the year?

Apparently he was told he wasn't needed by Val Andrews. Remember reading that somewhere

Heard that but then I heard a different story. 2nd hand so I won't repeat it. Maybe Celt man will tell us.

[cogito]

Why did mccutcheon leave the panel earlier in the year?

Apparently he was told he wasn't needed by Val Andrews. Remember reading that somewhere

Heard that but then I heard a different story. 2nd hand so I won't repeat it. Maybe Celt man will tell us.

Has anyone a notion of what the team will look like on Sunday?

[whats my name]

i heard down bet us at the weekend by 8 from what i heard we actually had a great first half going in a point down playing against a gale force wind alot of changes were made at half time to try different things so maybe if we could put two decent halves of football together we could get close to donegal im not expecting a win but a good close game that will show us we are moving in the right direction is all im looking for from the donegal game

[anglocelt39]

Why did mccutcheon leave the panel earlier in the year?

Apparently he was told he wasn't needed by Val Andrews. Remember reading that somewhere

Heard that but then I heard a different story. 2nd hand so I won't repeat it. Maybe Celt man will tell us.

I've a feeling Celt Man has more wit than to be sharing tit bits of gossip or idle speculation about one of his clubmen on a public forum like this.

[Westside]

From what I remember about the McCutcheon incident he wasn't impressed that he was getting a run and said as much to Val. Val told him that he wasn't the type of player he was looking for to have as a consistent member of the team (or something to that effect)

[scoopmine]

Reilly,
O'Reilly, R Flanagan,
Meehan, McCutch, Mal-Der,
Givney, McKiernan,
F Flanagan, McKeever, Smith,
Brady, Keating, Fitzpatrick.

BBC tweeted this their missing a corner back. No Podge either.

[anglocelt39]

The Cavan senior team selection which has just been announced after training tonight.

Cavan manager Terry Hyland has introduced a number of players whom he has been working with over the past three years through the U-21 competition series.

Ulster SFC starts have been handed to 5 players namely Kevin Meehan, Robert Maloney-Derham, Niall Smith, Jack Brady and Brendan Fitzpatrick. Meehan, Maloney Derham & Smith all play their club football with Cavan Gaels whilst Brady plays with Ramor Utd and Fitzpatrick with Belturbet.

All barring Jack Brady featured throughout the Allianz National Football League campaign with Maloney-Derham impressing in the backs whilst Meehan and Fitzpatrick showed glimpses of form in the Cavan attack. Brady has already this year secured a Sigerson Medal whilst helping Cavan U-21's retain the Hasting's cup and Ulster U-21 championship.

Cavan also welcome back Gearoid McKiernan who picked up a serious injury during the NFL and John McCutcheon who has rejoined the panel.

                                      James Reilly
           Padraic O'Reilly. Damien Reilly. Ronan Flanagan.
        Kevin Meehan. John McCutcheon. Robert Maloney-Derham.
                      David Givney. Gearoid McKiernan.
           Fergal Flanagan. Mark McKeever. Niall Smith.
               Jack Brady. Eugene Keating. Brendan Fitzpatrick.

Keith Fannin.
Killian Clarke.
Jason McLoughlin.
Darragh Tighe.
Fergal Slowey.
Thomas Corr.
Joshua Hayes.
Kevin Tierney.
Niall McDermott.
Ray Galligan.
Ray Cullivan.

Cavan play Donegal in Kingspan Breffni Park on this Sunday 20th May at 3.30pm