Cavan v Roscommon - AIQ Round 2 (12/07/14)

[mylestheslasher]

Well that was as bad as it gets from a Cavan perspective. It is hard to know what to say but a few things are fairly clear to me now and it pains me to say it.
Roscommon are a better team than Cavan but are they 20 points better (that's how much they should've won by)? I don't think so. Cavan tactics have been found out but more worrying is the fact that football is being coached out of of going players. The sight of Fergal Flanagan, Josh Hayes and Gearoid McKiernan refusing to shoot for fear of missing. Countless turnovers resulted in Cavan breaking but our backs too afraid to get up and support in case they get caught out and not one player for Cavan in 70 minutes of football attempted to take on their opposite number in case they lost the ball. Shocking is all I can say. The Cavan management needed to make radical changes in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half when it was obvious we were in big trouble but they waited until the game was effectively over. This leads me to the following conclusions...

1. All the players we were missing would have made very little difference. They would have played to the same system with the same results.
2. Gearoid McKernan will not make a top level midfielder in the modern game. He is just not athletic enough or hard working enough. He may have a place as a wing forward but I'd have my doubts. He did nothing  yesterday for the 3rd championship game in a row. Injury cannot be blamed for that.
3. Too many work horses being selected instead of footballers. The balance is just wrong and a blind man see it.
4. There are a few lads on that team in their mid twenties that need to start producing as they seem happy to live of their so called potential. Givney, Keating etc need to buck up their ideas as what they produced this year was piss poor.
5. This is the one I did not think I would say but I am now really wondering is Hyland capable of bring this team on further. He has done superb service to Cavan and we will always be grateful for it but it looks to me like we are totally out of ideas and our brightest hopes are regressing. It may be time for change as we cannot allow the gains we have made to slip away.

Yesterday is as low as I've been supporting Cavan in a long time.

[Old yeller]

Well that was as bad as it gets from a Cavan perspective. It is hard to know what to say but a few things are fairly clear to me now and it pains me to say it.
Roscommon are a better team than Cavan but are they 20 points better (that's how much they should've won by)? I don't think so. Cavan tactics have been found out but more worrying is the fact that football is being coached out of of going players. The sight of Fergal Flanagan, Josh Hayes and Gearoid McKiernan refusing to shoot for fear of missing. Countless turnovers resulted in Cavan breaking but our backs too afraid to get up and support in case they get caught out and not one player for Cavan in 70 minutes of football attempted to take on their opposite number in case they lost the ball. Shocking is all I can say. The Cavan management needed to make radical changes in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half when it was obvious we were in big trouble but they waited until the game was effectively over. This leads me to the following conclusions...

1. All the players we were missing would have made very little difference. They would have played to the same system with the same results.
2. Gearoid McKernan will not make a top level midfielder in the modern game. He is just not athletic enough or hard working enough. He may have a place as a wing forward but I'd have my doubts. He did nothing  yesterday for the 3rd championship game in a row. Injury cannot be blamed for that.
3. Too many work horses being selected instead of footballers. The balance is just wrong and a blind man see it.
4. There are a few lads on that team in their mid twenties that need to start producing as they seem happy to live of their so called potential. Givney, Keating etc need to buck up their ideas as what they produced this year was piss poor.
5. This is the one I did not think I would say but I am now really wondering is Hyland capable of bring this team on further. He has done superb service to Cavan and we will always be grateful for it but it looks to me like we are totally out of ideas and our brightest hopes are regressing. It may be time for change as we cannot allow the gains we have made to slip away.

Yesterday is as low as I've been supporting Cavan in a long time.

Id have to agree with you on a lot of that Myles, particularly the lads living off their potential. It now time for those few lads to be dominating matches a bit, they are all in their mid twenties now.
Nobody gave a shit about our style last year, winning ugly was still winning. This year however we have been more negative and it is pure crap. Losing ugly must be the worst feeling of all. We know we have the players to at least put it up to Roscommon but, as you say, any bit of adventure they had seems to have been coached out of them. Its crap to watch and it must be hard on the players too.
Everybody has been saying since the league final/u21 final that our style had been found out, but no changes have been made. Hyland has earned the right to continue on with these lads, rushing to sack managers hasnt done us much good in the past. But I do think he needs to throw off the shackles a bit, let them play fuckin football. We'll get some hammerings in division 2 playing like we did yesterday

[samwin08]

No  point in complaining about injuries to players when Cavan ditched players like Seanie J.
Clearly the defender who went to the USA for the summer saw the writing on the wall long before the  Cavan supporters.

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

From an overall perspective in Gaelic Football, this was one of the most disappointing games of the weekend.

I'm not intimately familiar with Cavan football, but I've seen enough good football and good footballers at under 21 and Sigerson level in recent seasons to know they are better, a lot better, than that.

If, it is a case, as myles mentioned above, of players being afraid to do certain things or to express themselves then a change of management is needed, simple as. If you want an example of where this leads, look at Cork 2009 to 2014. Went from being a powerful, attacking team to a team afraid to kick the ball for fear of being dropped and subsequently got to where they are now..an All time low.
Players cannot operate in such an environment. Expressive, natural footballers coming into the setup will be irreparably stunted if left in such a system. I've seen it first hand.
If Cavan were just red raw useless and had nothing coming through I would make no comment, but for the good of the game, would like to see them change tack now and stop trying to win games 9 points to 7 or whatever. In fairness, the players missing at the moment are huge losses, but even still would like to see a change of style.

[Blue in hope]

Saturdays performance from Cavan was a shambles. I had heard talk of a bust up in the squad during the week and it certainly looked like something was wrong from the body language.I saw Killian Clarke on the Gaa programme on RTE2 on Friday night and he came across to me and to others I spoke to who saw it as not been very happy and enjoying his football in Cavan at present.  Watching John Evans and his backroom team up on the side line encouraging their team on,Cavan had one selector standing on the line quieter that he usually is and the rest of the management team lying back up against the dugout just watching on. I noticed at one stage in the middle of the first half one of our forward who was moved back to be a sweeper getting roared at for going forward. Every time we went forward in the first half we had our two forwards tightly marked with a another wall of three defenders in front of them. They had a hope of getting ball. Roscommon copped on in second half and pushed forward and we saw what happened they left us behind. After the game Cavan squad players (some who would have been playing except for injury all took to the road out of Breffni not going back to be with the team. Terry has done well with them for the last two year and division 2 was always his target for this year. I think we do need a change of management so he can bring them on to the next stage. A fresh voice and a new outlook on the how the team plays will bring them on.

[joemamas]

For disclosure purposes, I know absolutley nothing about Cavan football. I was at q/final last year v Kerry, they seemed to have no self belief, game was over at half time. Watched u21 semi V Dublin on TV, way too much arseing around with ball, relying on one or two forwards to win game.

I believe they have won three or four ulster u21 ?. If this is the case surely the must have at least 10 or 12 footballers who could match up favourable one on one with an opponent and and have the confidence and self belief to win a ball, kick pass a ball and score.

What gives ??.

[Old yeller]

No  point in complaining about injuries to players when Cavan ditched players like Seanie J.
Clearly the defender who went to the USA for the summer saw the writing on the wall long before the  Cavan supporters.

The same Seanie J who couldn't get a kick for Kildare??

[Rossfan]

Due to travel and work only getting to reflect on this excellent victory now.
While Cavan may have been poor and playing a stupid defensive orientated inflexible system we played some great football in the 10 minutes or so after half time.
We dominated the forst half too but a cautious approach, slow build up, lack of a game since 8th June, conditions and some poor free taking meant we didn't make our domination tell on the scoreboard.
We went for it straight from the throw in in the second and had it won over 20 minutes from home. Reminds me of when I was a gasúinín in 1979 and 80 when you could relax knowing that most games were won by the 3 quarter stage.
Not that we're at that yet but we have the potential.
O'Malley dealt with a few dodgy high greasy balls, FB Line excellent as was HB Line and once more Ronan Stack esp proved he should be a starter ( I know it's all about the anel and horses for courses but he's agreat lad).
Midfield was good and KH worked hard as usual.
Forwards - Enda and Diarmuid 2 special lads, Cregg was abused from start to finish and I can only hope that a non Ulster Ref the next day will take some action against any repeats .
Senan was asked to play a different role which doesn't suit a lazy oul lad like him but he stuck at it. OGara works hard but doesn't achieve a lot.
Conor Daly's lack of playing time showed for a while but he got well into it and scored two lovely points.
Donie Smith showed well and on a dry day might have scored 2-2. Hard luck with his last effort just skimming tha bar.

I know we've been operating at a low level but Jasus it's hard not to be feeling good looking back at the last 5 months.
Onwards and upwards.