The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Does anyone even care. As far as I'm concerned the lad was a league footballer who didn't show up in championship, had massive notions about himself and the only mistakes that were made was letting him back into the fold as a player and as a coach last year.

Look at the lads we have in our county panel now, an absolute credit to the county - just no comparison.

What championship wins did he redeem himself in when he came back?

As far as I'm concerned, the only way he could've redeemed himself was a full public apology to Cavan gaa. That was never going to happen though.

I remember that game well. We had two men sent off, it was under Tommy Carr and Johnson came on as a sub with a point to prove and played out of his skin.

Yes, the mighty Wicklow. He had been dropped for that game and scored 6 pts in 2nd half when it was 13 v 15. It was an incredible show. But it was Wicklow in an obscure qualifier. But that was before he went to Kildare.

In 2018 Cavan beat Tipp by a point, Conor Madden with a last minute score. Johnston was a sub that day, went on with 15 minutes left and did not score. He had some good days the following season in the league in Div1. But I was countering your claim he played well in championship games during his 2nd coming. Not to my memory he didn't, much like before he went to Kildare.

Listened to the interview last night, and have to agree with all of your analysis. It is a very soft interview. For one, it neglects to set any context. The previous two managers dropped him for being too big for his boots. Johnston just says "Val wanted to go with the u21s and i was dropped". Every Cavan Gael knew that the culture for our senior county team was shocking for years and more or less anyone i knew welcomed Val Andrews and Terry bringing in the broom, sweeping out inflated egos who had never performed and starting from scratch. The suggestion that McGeeny is some tactical genius is the biggest load of my hole i have ever heard. He brought on Johnston to stick two fingers up to Cavan. Nothing else.

Listening to the interview i had to ask myself: "why now"? What is the value of a soft-sell interview with BBC NI for something that happened 10 years ago? I didn't need to relive and be reminded of the basket case that our county team had become. The whole saga clearly had an impact on his life and he seems to be somewhat contrite, but let's be honest, what did he expect?? He wasn't the first and wont be the last lad to get dropped from a county panel. Fair play to Terry Hyland for having the grace to bring him back in 2016 as it provided some level of full stop to the whole saga.

This is what SJ said in the interview: "I think the most important point for me to say, and it's probably something I haven't been forthcoming enough with, is to say that looking back now, I was wrong in a lot of things I did. It's probably taken until nearly 2023 to admit it.

"At that stage, I was 25 or 26 years of age at time, I had worked my backside off, in my head, to be the best player I could possibly be and I got too big for my boots, is the first main thing I would like to say.

Give the lad a break, that's not easy to admit in public, he came back in 2016 and did what he could to get us to Div 1. It's just a shame that at what should have been his peak around 27 to 29 he was languishing in Kildare and not playing for Cavan when they turned the corner from 2013 onwards. I'm sure that gnaws away at him too.

Lad, of all the games you could pick on the 2nd coming of johnston you picked one where he came on as a 15 minute sub. I was at that game and remember it well and the man who got Cavan over the line that day was Cian Mackey. So you are right, don't re-write history. Johnston played some very decent games in the league for Cavan against Kerry for example in 2019 that you could have referenced. The one you did reference was very odd. But like I said, I wasn't questioning his performances in league football. I was debating with you your comment about him playing well in championship games when he came back. If you can reference one he played well in I'd be grateful.

Mackey also played a blinder that day. Two players can play well. I referenced that game because of its importance in the context of Cavan football and because his introduction was key to winning that game. As was Mackey's.

He had a great game against Armagh in the 2016 Championship. Scored 7 points.

In all my years watching county team, this was the worst result I ever saw. To think some lads on this team had notions about themselves...

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2011/0625/281491-cavan_longford/

Maybe a terrible result but not as bad as the Waterford 2006 or Wicklow relegation play off ones

there was some fine footballers on that team all the same

Ré the Johnston interview i thought it was quite good and wasn't expecting it to be too groundbreaking

I think he was headstrong and probably easily enough led at the time but It wasn't as if he transferred to Monaghan so I wasn't too fussed over it

Wasn't the most glorious time for Cavan football but thank god those days are over... For now at least lol

On reflection, his interview with Niblock and McConville finishes with his longer term aspirations to manage Cavan. Perhaps the interview is all part of the "process".

I would imagine it will be a very small crowd. Cavan's motivation is bound to be low for this, you'd expect we'll get through based on superior talent.

Not exactly an enticing fixture to travel for.

Interesting to see Cian reilly coming in for dara, has dara a knock or is he giving him a rest, no point in burning dara if he has a niggle, Cian is a good player and hopefully will do well. It will be good to get a look at another good player in jack McKenna. Best of luck to all the lads tomorrow.

Hoping for a good win today and seal promotion in style though I'd have my doubts we'll do it the easy way

I'm afraid mickey owns that one... Far too many changes in a settled team

How does that leave us now?