Official Cavan GAA Thread

[anglocelt39]

Ahem, just by way of cheering Myles up a bit more I was on to one of my more reliable contacts in the County today, well when it comes to GAA matters at any rate. Regarding Jasons article in the local paper he reckons it is a possible first move behind the scenes to replace TC with one of our very own home grown heroes from Myles home club. Now there's a prospect

[mylestheslasher]

Ahem, just by way of cheering Myles up a bit more I was on to one of my more reliable contacts in the County today, well when it comes to GAA matters at any rate. Regarding Jasons article in the local paper he reckons it is a possible first move behind the scenes to replace TC with one of our very own home grown heroes from Myles home club. Now there's a prospect

Oh great. The man who probably single handedly started all this half arsed county footballer waster era comes full circle and takes over the team. If that happens I think I will join miller and resign as a fan.

[BallyhaiseMan]

If theres a Cavan man that is going to replace Tommy Carr i think it should be either Ciaran Brady or Mickey Graham.
i dont know an awful lot about Stephen King,
Is he good tactically?
Good Man management skills?
Does he have any idea about Coaching/Fitness/Style of play.
His own clubmate on here doesnt think much of him ,so i wouldnt be too optimistic.

[Drung]

Graham struggled to win a junior with the Bridge (took replays in the semi-final and final that year) and struggled to win an Intermediate with Drumalee (replay in final).
Both clubs bombed in Ulster.
He then took over an excellent minor side and they choked against Tyrone. This year, minus their best forward through injury, they threw away a lead in the dying seconds and lost.
The Drumalee win was a very good one, but until he does something at inter-county or senior level, I'll reserve judgement.
Ciaran Brady did well in Longford but, again, the standard wasn't the best.
Stephen King didn't make a great job of Belturbet and while the Leaguers are going well and won the junior, it's common knowledge that the main man there isn't King.
I don't think there is anyone in the county that can do the job any better than Carr, unfortunately.

[Drung]

No offence to Drumalee or Butlersbridge by the way.
Drumalee were excellent the year they won it and beat a very good Ballinagh team. However, Graham is no messiah. Both teams got across the line but the point is that it wasn't like they steamrolled their way to the title like say the Gaels or Redhills or Drung last year.

[Celt_Man]

No offence to Drumalee or Butlersbridge by the way.
Drumalee were excellent the year they won it and beat a very good Ballinagh team. However, Graham is no messiah. Both teams got across the line but the point is that it wasn't like they steamrolled their way to the title like say the Gaels or Redhills or Drung last year.

Couldn't agree more... We seem to have gone on a roll with Mickey Graham and one would nearly think that success is guaranteed once he is given the job.
Look it there are 3 teams that win championships every year in Cavan and 3 different managers so there are going to be 3 successful club managers every year but that doesn't mean they should be in the running for county jobs etc if you follow my thinking... some one has to win and some one has to be over the teams who win

[BallyhaiseMan]

Graham struggled to win a junior with the Bridge (took replays in the semi-final and final that year) and struggled to win an Intermediate with Drumalee (replay in final).
Both clubs bombed in Ulster.
He then took over an excellent minor side and they choked against Tyrone. This year, minus their best forward through injury, they threw away a lead in the dying seconds and lost.
The Drumalee win was a very good one, but until he does something at inter-county or senior level, I'll reserve judgement.
Ciaran Brady did well in Longford but, again, the standard wasn't the best.
Stephen King didn't make a great job of Belturbet and while the Leaguers are going well and won the junior, it's common knowledge that the main man there isn't King.
I don't think there is anyone in the county that can do the job any better than Carr, unfortunately.

Got to disgree with you on Graham Drung
The team which lost to Tyrone were An excellant minor side which lost to the eventual all ireland champions who were Probably the best minor team of the last 15 years.
He won an Junior with Buttlersbridge,doesnt matter how many replays or how they struggled.He still won it.
The same with the intermediate with Drumalee,
As for not doing well in Ulster, I Know Drumalee spent the whole week drinking(Boojangles will confirm this  ) after the intermediate final replay and they were in no fit way when they played Ballymacnab
I wasnt at this years Minor game so i cant comment on that.
Graham is a terrific coach and his man management skills are top notch and he is very tactically aware. I think if theres any Cavan man that should get the job its Mickey Graham.  Personally id prefer Micko to get the job  

[put-it-up]

Any Killeshandra players I know, were glad to get rid of him this season. They dont rate him at all.
I know Carr is obviously not doing the job for free and prob hasn't earned his money this year but I think he needs one more year or we will always be wondering, what if, you know?
Any that has worked under Mickey has nothign but good things to say to him and in Paul McCorry he has a great sidekick. IMO definite future management team.

What is the consensus now, will TC be ousted?
[/quote]


As regards the point about the 2008 Minor team being the future of Cavan- I would have certain reservations about a few from that team already.From what I came across from a few on that team on and off the field, they would want to be got at fairly lively or they will end up the same as so many good Minors that have gone before them.

[/quote]

I don't really understand what you mean by that mate?
The problem, IMO, with pinning your hopes on a group from minor is that for the next, what, 3 years they will do f**k all together. Personally I would use the Junior team, to keep lads like that playing together around a few older boys.
The U21's barely trained this year and that is another area that needs to be addressed. Iv mentioned it before, but I like the idea of a local man doing the u21s and strongly communicating with TC on how players are progressing. Takes that bit of pressure of TC and lets him focus solely on the League. And lets be honest he has his hands full. A

[BallyhaiseMan]

Put it up
Is Paul McCorry a Coach/Trainer?
I know hes highly rated,But i dont know much about him.

[Drung]

Maybe I didn't make my point well enough. What I'm trying to say about Graham is that, yes, he's got a decent pedigree but he hasn't set the world alight and has been over-hyped IN MY OPINION. It shows how short of options we are that we are touting a fella who has

- scraped through a junior with a replay in semi and final
- scraped through an Intermediate with a replay in final
- done nothing at Ulster club level with either side
- stepped up to county minor level and failed to reach an Ulster final with a very, very talented team the first year, then lost in the first round the second year

The facts, then, are that Graham is coming along well and won two lesser championships from two attempts but his two years over the minors have to be seen as a complete failure, whatever way they are looked at. If he brings a team to end the Gaels' stranglehold at senior, or even reaches an Ulster minor final, that would change things.
He may be the best of the current bunch within club circles in Cavan but no other county would have him over their senior team on what he has done so far, that's for sure.

PS: On your point about the Tyrone minors being the best minor team of the last 15 years, that's simply not true and stands up to no scrutiny. They were taken to a replay in the final for a start, they didn't walk the All Ireland by any means and were reliant on a couple of outstanding individuals eg Donnelly, Coney rather than an all-round sensational team.

[BallyhaiseMan]

Maybe I didn't make my point well enough. What I'm trying to say about Graham is that, yes, he's got a decent pedigree but he hasn't set the world alight and has been over-hyped IN MY OPINION. It shows how short of options we are that we are touting a fella who has

- scraped through a junior with a replay in semi and final
- scraped through an Intermediate with a replay in final
- done nothing at Ulster club level with either side
- stepped up to county minor level and failed to reach an Ulster final with a very, very talented team the first year, then lost in the first round the second year

The facts, then, are that Graham is coming along well and won two lesser championships from two attempts but his two years over the minors have to be seen as a complete failure, whatever way they are looked at. If he brings a team to end the Gaels' stranglehold at senior, or even reaches an Ulster minor final, that would change things.
He may be the best of the current bunch within club circles in Cavan but no other county would have him over their senior team on what he has done so far, that's for sure.

PS: On your point about the Tyrone minors being the best minor team of the last 15 years, that's simply not true and stands up to no scrutiny. They were taken to a replay in the final for a start, they didn't walk the All Ireland by any means and were reliant on a couple of outstanding individuals eg Donnelly, Coney rather than an all-round sensational team.

That Tyrone team was a magnificant one, with terrific players throughout the team like Ronan McNab,Peter Harte,Niall McKenna,Ryan Pickering,Matthew Donnelly and Coney.It was the best minor team ive seen in a long time.

Im not saying we should appoint Mickey, i think he probably needs a couple more years at club level,Id say he will manage the Gaels within the next couple of years.
He is a future Cavan manager for me,and at this moment in my opinion is the best Candidate within the county.
I think all of us here would favour an outside man though due to the limited options within the county.

[put-it-up]

Put it up
Is Paul McCorry a Coach/Trainer?
I know hes highly rated,But i dont know much about him.

He is a bit of both BHM.
A trainer in my opinion , is someone who sets up drills and lads the lads run around and shout at them for not doing it quick enough.Nobody really learns that way. 4
McCorry is a coach, he develops players. Helps them improve, actuallly pointing out how things can be improved etc. Couldnt say enough good things about him.

Our club had him in for a couple of sessions two or so years ago and the lads sung his praises.

Drung I really disagree with you about Graham. At the start of his first year, everybody wrote that minor team off. There were no Eugene Keatings, Conor Smiths or Martin Dunne. But what MG did was build a genuine team. Where 15 lads worked for one another. That team had a game plan, a system for kicouts. naivety probably did cost them a spot in an Ulster final but at least they went down fighting. Any lad that was involved in the game against Tyrone will have learned more from that experience than 100 sessions.

You say he scraped through replays? Well to me that say's he instilled belief and bottle in his teams to come back and do it the second day.

[put-it-up]

Maybe I didn't make my point well enough. What I'm trying to say about Graham is that, yes, he's got a decent pedigree but he hasn't set the world alight and has been over-hyped IN MY OPINION. It shows how short of options we are that we are touting a fella who has

- scraped through a junior with a replay in semi and final
- scraped through an Intermediate with a replay in final
- done nothing at Ulster club level with either side
- stepped up to county minor level and failed to reach an Ulster final with a very, very talented team the first year, then lost in the first round the second year

The facts, then, are that Graham is coming along well and won two lesser championships from two attempts but his two years over the minors have to be seen as a complete failure, whatever way they are looked at. If he brings a team to end the Gaels' stranglehold at senior, or even reaches an Ulster minor final, that would change things.
He may be the best of the current bunch within club circles in Cavan but no other county would have him over their senior team on what he has done so far, that's for sure.

PS: On your point about the Tyrone minors being the best minor team of the last 15 years, that's simply not true and stands up to no scrutiny. They were taken to a replay in the final for a start, they didn't walk the All Ireland by any means and were reliant on a couple of outstanding individuals eg Donnelly, Coney rather than an all-round sensational team.

That Tyrone team was a magnificant one, with terrific players throughout the team like Ronan McNab,Peter Harte,Niall McKenna,Ryan Pickering,Matthew Donnelly and Coney.It was the best minor team ive seen in a long time.

Im not saying we should appoint Mickey, i think he probably needs a couple more years at club level,Id say he will manage the Gaels within the next couple of years.
He is a future Cavan manager for me,and at this moment in my opinion is the best Candidate within the county.
I think all of us here would favour an outside man though due to the limited options within the county.

Agree entirely about Mickey BHM.

I doubt he would take the job now though. He will wait until players he has brought through are ready for the step up. He is abit young too..dont forget how friendly he would be with a lot of the players.

From the tone of the last few posts, its like you all presume Carr is going, am I right?

[Drung]

I remember the hype about the minor team put-it-up, they weren't written off, there was a lot expected of them and they played well but choked, unfortunately. They had about half a dozen of a superb Gaels minor team, the lieks of McClarey, Murray, Smith, Meehan, Maloney-Derham etc, a few of whom were on the Gaels senior team.
And this year's minor team were the best in Ulster at the Under 16 tournament in Buncrana two years ago, yet couldn't win the first round at minor.

On the Tyrone minors '08 thing, all you have done BHMan is listed a few outstanding individuals, which I agreed that Tyrone team had. If they were the best minor team in 15 years, they would have steamrolled everyone, as it was they neded a replay to beat Mayo in the final, who themselves had needed a replay to beat Kerry in the semi-final. They were extremely lucky to draw with Mayo the first day too.

Anyway, it's irrelevant, it WAS an excellent Tyrone team. Still, Cavan have had teams lose narrowly to excellent teams before. Remember in about 2002, Cavan, with a few injuries, lost by three or four points to an outstanding Derry team which won the All Ireland.
I think Tony Brady was the manager and I'm nearly sure he also brought Castlerahan from nowhere to win the Intermediate in 2001, so his achievements are more or less equal to Mickey Graham's. Yet we're not talking about him as Cavan senior boss, so my point that Graham is over-hyped is still valid.

If not Mickey Graham, then who? Morris???

[BallyhaiseMan]

While Morris won an Intermediate and Ulster Intermediate, it was always believed he wasnt very tactically astute and wasnt great at making changes when things were going wrong.
Homer would know more about him,being a Ballinagh man.

Put it up
i think Carr will go,The criticism from the fans like ourselves he could live with,But with a high profile player like Jason Reily coming out saying in the media that he wont be there next year and criticising his management abilities,i cant see him staying.

You never know though, he may be an ignorant c**t who will stay on, drop half a dozen of players including the bould jayo and build a new team,comprising of many of the players we named in our lists of regional teams.
Hed certainly win over alot of us here if he did that.