The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Cavan_King

Team named:

Panel v Galway
1. Raymond Galligan (Lacken)
2. Jason McLoughlin (Shannon Gaels)
3. Padraig Faulkner (Kingscourt)
4. Conor Moynagh (Drumgoon)
5. Niall Murray (Cavan Gaels)
6. Ciaran Brady (Arvagh)
7. Conor Rehill (Crosserlough)
8. Michael Argue (Bailieborough)
9. Killian Clarke (Shercock)
10. Pierce Smith (Crosserlough)
11. Dara McVeety (Crosserlough)
12. Martin Reilly (Killygarry)
13. Jack Brady (Ramor United)
14. Thomas Galligan (Lacken)
15. Conor Madden (Gowna)

16. Liam Brady (Ramor United)
17. Barry Fortune (Cavan Gaels)
18. Stephen Murray (Cavan Gaels)
19. Paul Graham (Cavan Gaels)
20. Stephen Smith (Crosserlough)
21. Luke Fortune (Cavan Gaels)
22. Killian Brady (Mullahoran)
23. James Galligan (Lacken)
24. Oisin Pierson (Gowna)
25. Cian Mackey (Castlerahan)
26. Kevin Tierney

Very much what I would expect but disappointing to see Clarke at midfield. I was hoping he’d be full back.

There may be positional changes though. For example, Clarke back to the back line, Moynagh play sweeper and Galligan out to midfield.

cavan4sam

In fairness it looks decent enough and if we can put a performance we should be hopefully taking something out of it ....

TCDStudent1

cavan4sam wrote: »

In fairness it looks decent enough and if we can put a performance we should be hopefully taking something out of it ....

Galway have also named a very under strength team so this is a massive opportunity for Cavan. If Cavan are losing to the 15 Galway have selected, then you ain't gonna survive in division 1!

rrs

It's a decent Cavan team. It might lack any heavy scorer though. McKiernan always capable of 3 or 4 pts. Madden has ability and could play well, or have an off day like when he came on against Roscommon in league final. Caoimhim Reilly a loss as well.

Is Conor Bradley injured, or just not included in the 26?

Thunderbirds

rrs wrote: »

It's a decent Cavan team. It might lack any heavy scorer though. McKiernan always capable of 3 or 4 pts. Madden has ability and could play well, or have an off day like when he came on against Roscommon in league final. Caoimhim Reilly a loss as well.

Is Conor Bradley injured, or just not included in the 26?

Bradley is in France.

rrs

How much of the League will he miss? He played in the McKenna Cup but not available for League? Seems pointless.

Thunderbirds

rrs wrote: »

How much of the League will he miss? He played in the McKenna Cup but not available for League? Seems pointless.

Probably going to miss most if not all of league.

Cavan_King

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

Galway have also named a very under strength team so this is a massive opportunity for Cavan. If Cavan are losing to the 15 Galway have selected, then you ain't gonna survive in division 1!

Careful now. We're talking about a team here went unbeaten in the League last year and reached an All-Ireland semi final!

A win in Salthill will not be easy. You Galway lads may be eager to lure us into a false sense of security but we won't be falling for it!!

Happy with the Cavan team that's named though. It's a 20 man game and great to have players like Mackey, Killian Brady & Tierney on the bench.

rrs wrote: »

It's a decent Cavan team. It might lack any heavy scorer though. McKiernan always capable of 3 or 4 pts. Madden has ability and could play well, or have an off day like when he came on against Roscommon in league final. Caoimhim Reilly a loss as well.

Madden deserves his chance. Kicked some super scores in the McKenna Cup and finished as our joint top scorer.

He's a confidence player and his confidence should be up.

rrs

Yes he does. Mcgleenan never seemed to have faith in Madden. He was brought on as a sub against Dublin 2 years ago and taken off. He kicked a good score while he was on. He was subbed off early against Monaghan in league and championship too. His confidence bound to have been affected.

Cavan_King

rrs wrote: »

Yes he does. Mcgleenan never seemed to have faith in Madden. He was brought on as a sub against Dublin 2 years ago and taken off. He kicked a good score while he was on. He was subbed off early against Monaghan in league and championship too. His confidence bound to have been affected.

I hear the main problem with McGleenan was that it wasn't just the media he talked and spouted bluff to, not to mention saying one thing and totally doing the opposite.

Imagine being a player slogging it out in January/February and you've a manager telling you you'll definitely feature in the next game and then you're not even named in the panel?

At least Graham is being open with certain lads and telling them they are in there this year to start getting to the strength and fitness level needed to be an intercounty player.

baconsarnie

Right, prediction time. I’m quietly optimistic. Galway had a brilliant year last year and I think they will struggle to build on that. Under Walsh they are very well set up defensively but without Comer I think they won’t put together big scores.

Having just hexed us to a massive hiding, I am going for Cavan to win by 2 points in a low scoring match.

They are missing a lot of players and if we have any hope of staying in Division 1, we need to start well.

Hon Cavan.

PCeeeee

A Galway man here. I agree re. Comer, they looked absolutely lost without him in the FBD league loss to Roscommon. Pearce Stadium will also have its usual detrimental effect given the gale that is likely going to be coming in off the Atlantic. Cavan have a great chance today I think.

A question about the 3G pitch at Breffini, is that the main pitch or is there still a grass pitch? Is it 3G long?

Cavan_King

PCeeeee wrote: »

A Galway man here. I agree re. Comer, they looked absolutely lost without him in the FBD league loss to Roscommon. Pearce Stadium will also have its usual detrimental effect given the gale that is likely going to be coming in off the Atlantic. Cavan have a great chance today I think.

A question about the 3G pitch at Breffini, is that the main pitch or is there still a grass pitch? Is it 3G long?

The 3G is a training pitch at the bank of the main pitch basically.

PCeeeee

Cavan_King wrote: »

The 3G is a training pitch at the bank of the main pitch basically.

Thanks Cavan King. Are they playing league on it? RTE seem to think they are.

tanko

That has to be a mistake. I doubt a league game has ever been played on an artificial pitch or would be allowed either.

Cavan_King

PCeeeee wrote: »

Thanks Cavan King. Are they playing league on it? RTE seem to think they are.

Definitely not. It’s used for the odd underage game but not for senior matches. Last year when Breffni was relayed, we had to go to Enniskillen for championship games.

Anyone down at the game today? By all accounts, it sounds like the chance was there to win the game and we didn’t push on. That said, it’s promising to be there or thereabouts with a team who reached an All Ireland semi final and the league final last year, knowing things you can improve on.

PCeeeee

Cavan_King wrote: »

Definitely not. It’s used for the odd underage game but not for senior matches. Last year when Breffni was relayed, we had to go to Enniskillen for championship games.

Anyone down at the game today? By all accounts, it sounds like the chance was there to win the game and we didn’t push on. That said, it’s promising to be there or thereabouts with a team who reached an All Ireland semi final and the league final last year, knowing things you can improve on.

Thanks again. I wasn't at it but did listen on local radio. Couldn't argue with what you say.

Thunderbirds

Cavan_King wrote: »

Definitely not. It’s used for the odd underage game but not for senior matches. Last year when Breffni was relayed, we had to go to Enniskillen for championship games.

Anyone down at the game today? By all accounts, it sounds like the chance was there to win the game and we didn’t push on. That said, it’s promising to be there or thereabouts with a team who reached an All Ireland semi final and the league final last year, knowing things you can improve on.

Was at it. We were awful. Nobody could break the line and a lot of sideway passing. Midfield poor and missed some awful frees. A lot of lads unfit and overweight. Martin Reilly best player. Galway were poor too and a big chance missed.

Giggernaut

I travelled across, my assessment.

Cavan missed a few handy frees, landed a few in the goalies hands. Should have be at least 2 points better off going in at half time. Madden was encouraging as was P Smith. Both sides looked tired going in at half time.
Galway brought Walsh out from the corner and replaced a midfielder with an even taller ginger chap. Walshes speed ripped a very tired Cavan apart. Then black cards everywhere, lots of Cavan hand passing and ball recycling. Galligan was immense with 2 great goal bound saves and some great takes under the high ball. McVeety disappeared and then reappeared a frustrated figure, constantly fouling.
The grand plan is to move forward without a dependency on Mackie but his appearance was badly needed. He's the type of player Cavan needed to pick a pass as Galway packed the backline.
Argue is annoying, in my opinion he is very yellow. Wincing out of tackles. Galligan was named at full forward but moved into the middle. I don't know whether he was carrying an injury but Lord he was slow and ineffective.

It's the first game, with a new team playing under new management so improvement will come along with players to come back in. The lads did look wrecked. Lots of work to do. Graham tried a few positional switches but couldn't find a tune. Glad Comer was benched.

Pearse Stadium Highlights:
New Cavan jersey
Joe Canning
Galligans saves
Supermacs

Cavan_King

Thunderbirds wrote: »

Was at it. We were awful. Nobody could break the line and a lot of sideway passing. Midfield poor and missed some awful frees. A lot of lads unfit and overweight. Martin Reilly best player. Galway were poor too and a big chance missed.

Who took the frees that were missed?

Giggernaut

Cavan_King wrote: »

Who took the frees that were missed?

Galligan and P Smith missed scorable chances

Thunderbirds

There was a player today that played with us that was the most overweight Cavan player in maybe ten years. Shocking to have him involved.

benjy1000

Yevon wrote: »

Today was worrying. Extremely blunt up front as usual. Smith's freetaking not up to scratch, Galligan got 1 out of maybe 4 attempts. Martin Reilly landed a monster free from the right but didn't take any more after that and Smith took an easier free from the right???

Lazy indisciplined tackling especially from Killian Clarke and Adam Rehill. Couldn't handle the pace of Galway and it took two marvellous saves from Galligan to keep us in the game.

Madden did well in patches but hit a few loose balls. Martin Reilly was excellent. Faulkner and McLoughlin did quite well.

Spot on analysis , I tell you we will do very well to pick up any points in div 1, if we were in div2 this year we would struggle to get promoted. That’s where we are at.

Midfield was quite poor today I thought. Nowhere near the standard.

Cavan_King

Seems very negative here. Rome wasn’t built in a day lads.

It’s the first game of the League, against the League runners up and All Ireland semi finalists last year.

quidel

Last year’s Div 2 was of a very poor standard. While Cavan got promoted they were lucky enough to do so. Tipperary really ought to have sealed their promotion in Breffni. We are seeing the much higher level that the usual sides in Div 1 operate at. It’ll take time for Cavan and Graham to get up to speed particularly with a few players who have been away from the county scene a number of years now. Patience is required I guess if the hard work is being put in by players and management.

Thunderbirds

Cavan_King wrote: »

Seems very negative here. Rome wasn’t built in a day lads.

It’s the first game of the League, against the League runners up and All Ireland semi finalists last year.

Galway were nowhere near the standard that they were last year.

benjy1000

The problem with Cavan over the last 10 years and more is that you have a squad of 40 lads each year and bar 2/3 players you could pick any 12 or so players from the squad and there isn’t a whole pile of difference in them.
I always found that to be a telling point.

Look at the turnover every year 10 new players or so and lads returning after a few years away but the standard never improves.
The 10 lads or so who played last year and aren’t involved this year could have played today and wouldn’t have made a difference either.

Graham could make 12 changes next week and the team wouldn’t be weakened or improved . McKiernan and Martin Reilly on their day and Mackey who unfortunately is past his best but the rest of them are only middling.

quidel

The physical conditioning of seasoned division 1 sides like Monaghan, Dublin, Tyrone and Mayo among others is way ahead of where Cavan are at right now. I dare say a fair few Div 2 sides like Donegal, Armagh and Kildare are well ahead too. That will take some time for Cavan to address.

tanko

Thunderbirds wrote: »

There was a player today that played with us that was the most overweight Cavan player in maybe ten years. Shocking to have him involved.

Who is it??

Thunderbirds

tanko wrote: »

Who is it??

Player back on panel again.