The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123254091#Comment_123254091

Ah here, just stop. A well coached team wins the game. What matters is the result. We’ve had enough brave losses in Cavan.

celt262

Relax on the Minors lads it's a bunch of kids playing their first competative game of the year hopefully they will learn from it.

Anyway Roscommon on Sunday is there any update on McVeety or Lynch?

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123256460#Comment_123256460

Neither in panel. Team now online.

Cavan_King

The changing of League rules after round 5 hugely devalues the League in my opinion. Cavan are greatly unfortunate in that we played Monaghan & Meath prior to now - they have to be the two teams using their keeper outfield the most in the Division.

large_palette

Midlanders are the first to be relegated from Div 2. I wonder will Westmeath fans now have a problem with the double jobbing, or was that purely a native type concern? Down also looking precarious for the drop.

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123268052#Comment_123268052

Did the podcast not have a Westmeath journalist or reporter stating they were happy with performances given the number of players they had lost?

Sure any intercounty manager will generally have a job so can’t see why they’d have an issue with it. He was the one working for them trying to beat the county he had extensive knowledge of after all (oh, and the county he’s paid to do a role for).

large_palette

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123268069#Comment_123268069

Yes, well there are day jobs and then there's day jobs with direct conflict of interest. I'm personally interested in what the average Westmeath supporter has to say on that matter. Not winning a single game has to be concerning for them.

large_palette

Roscommon will be a useful yardstick in terms of league progress. Have we adapted and improved since the first two games? Good luck to all today.

piplip87

Feck sake first one I've missed all year.

Seemed like a good performance. Looking at the table,

A Monaghan Win, beat Cork and Meath to Lose should do it.

mylestheslasher

Fantastic win and a massive well done to the lads, 4 wins on the trot in this ultra competitive division is some going. We get promoted by doing the following

Cavan beat Cork

Meath fail to beat Louth (draw good enough)

Monaghan avoid defeat to Down (draw good enough)

Cavan_King

Excellent performance today but a great pity it comes at the cost of a couple of injuries to key players in Oisin Brady & James Smith.

I wouldn’t be sure of the Roscommon team but I’ve a man from another county telling me they didn’t start six normal starters, is that in any way correct? He’s on the wind up that the Rossies obviously don’t want promotion!

Louth are poor. Once Meath beat them, they are promoted and I can’t see any way Louth can pull it out of the bag. Ger Brennan apparently said on LMFM today that Cavan was the big result they left behind them!

hatefulrory

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123271104#Comment_123271104

If we win, Roscommon win and Meath win - Roscommon will more than likely be promoted as they have an 8 point lead in the score difference.

ruwithme

Tuned into Shannon side for commentary today as north sound in their wisdom kept with a game too much so up to half time where monaghan had a heavy lead as compared to a very close cavan roscommon game.

Even Willie hegarty was flat in commentary as though he knew rossies weren't up for it.

Reading above post on roscommon starters, if true, explains Willie's flatness.

cavan4sam

I thought it was a really good performance and I'm not buying in to the Roscommon not wanting to get promoted story

The rossies around me at it had an arrogance about them and looked down on us until we got in front towards the end

Lots of good performances all over the field but I was particularly impressed with Carolan,Cian Reilly , Gearoid and mcevoy when he came on

I wud be a little concerned about our kick outs and our ability to change them when it's not working

Gearoid and James smith were doing really well for them but when James went off they bunched Gearoid in and prevented him from jumping but we persisted to hit him with the kick outs

But all in all a rare nice trip to the Hyde and leaves no pressure on us for the last game it's a free shot . I think Louth can beat Meath meaning if we win we go up but either way it's been a decent league bar the shaky start

Cavan_King

And before the podcast (with Fitzy liking to read the comments on here) says I’m denigrating Cavan’s win, I’m only going by what a person told me. Despite all our games against Roscommon, other than the usual suspects like Cox, the Smiths and Cregg, I wouldn’t have a huge knowledge of the Rossies starting team. If someone cares to enlighten me, I would hope to quickly put this person straight!

The bottom line is it was an impressive performance against the Roscommon team on the pitch. Davy Burke certainly didn’t seem happy with his charges after saying if they lose two games in Division 2, they don’t deserve to be going to Division 1. As Roy Keane says though, sometimes you have to throw a grenade into your own dressing room.

Again, we started the game without a key performer in Jayo & Oisin Brady going off after 15 minutes was far from ideal but we rode the punches. Cormac O’Reilly is certainly showing he was worth the call to bring him back in.

If I was to have one criticism, it’s that we need to take our goal chances.

I’m not overly worried about promotion. The bottom line is it’d be great to keep the wins and good performances going and roll into a very tough away game against Tyrone. Let’s be honest though, we owe them one from last season.

I’m a lot happier with this year’s League than last years where we limped to the end. I certainly didn’t think I’d say that after two games and after the first half in Westmeath.

Naughty_Skelator

Other half is a Roscommon woman so I was over at The Hyde,

Thought it was a terrific performance by Cavan,

Gary in Goals made two very good saves and his handling of high ball was outstanding.

Niall Carolan,Beano and Cian Reilly were very good.

Half back line ran themselves into the ground,Faulkner and Fortune, could barely walk in the last 10, Conor Hand is lightening quick and proved a real handful,think Fortune was tracking him for most of the game, he did well, Hand was by far their best player and will cause serious problems to slot of teams this year…

Holla was outstanding, always provided an outlet.

James Smith gave one of the best displays of fielding I’ve seen by a Cavan midfielder, each one was more spectacular than the last, his overall play was outstanding, he’s quickly becoming our most important player, I’m hoping his injury isn’t anything serious.

Gearoid was dominant in the air too,until Hutson from Tyrone decided that Roscommon should be allowed to pull drag and man handle him for every kickout, they got 3 uncontested kickouts due to this fouling which was disgraceful refereeing.

His overall play was outstanding and his free kick from the corner was spectacular, and still not the best score of the day…

Oisin went off after 15 minutes and hobbling badly as he walked to the dugout for the second half,

Barry Doyle made a few mistakes and missed a goal chance but he is just a joy to watch, he has zero fear, so much good play came through him, I lost count of how many men he took on and beat, You’d think by the swagger of him he’s been there 10 years…

Gerard Smith was my man of the match for two reasons,he quarterbacked the team outstandingly well, was at the heart of everything and secondly and most importantly, he tagged Enda Smith,Smith slipped him for a point early on and Gerry completely took him out until about the 55th minute when Smith did break through for a score.
McVeety was very close to Gerry Smith and James Smith for man of match,kicked 4 points from play, and was involved in so much work, also buried a few rossies acting the bollox with Gearoid under lockouts…

Cian Madden again was outstanding, kicked a crucial free and handled a huge amount of ball.

Sean McEvoy, slipped a few times, but was very dangerous every time he got the ball, kicked 2 scores, the second, one of the best scores you will ever see , from out on the right wing, a 2-pointer to put us 3 up with a minute to go.

Cormac O Reilly like last year caused chaos in the Roscommon full back line when he got ball in, kicking 4 great scores, seemed to be limping coming off too though which is another worry.

Other subs all made impacts

Ted showed well and won the 2/3 balls sent into him and McEvoys worldie came from it.

Evan Crowe came on picking up Keith Doyle whom had won the 3 clean kick outs( as a result of Gearoid being fouled) and nullified him in the last 15 minutes.

Ryan O Neil was prominent and kept possession well when he came on.

As for Roscommon missing a load of players,

Diarmuid Murtagh is an obvious difference maker,Colm Neary also,whom they brought on

The other lads they brought on, Doyle,Killoran, Ruane, and Cregg are good footballers, but they aren’t exactly Enda Smith or Diarmuid Murtagh level…

We had no McLoughlin,Killian Clarke and Oisin Kiernan togged out not to mention Paddy, the Roscommon fans were shell shocked , I think they expected to roll over us..easily , truth be told and with the two missed goal chances we should have won by much more.

hatefulrory

What struck me most about yesterday was the contribution across the board. There were no passengers. Some players had more impact, made bigger plays, but everyone did a job.

Tom Donohoe came on with a few minutes left and won 3 balls sent into him. Crowe came on and disrupted the Roscommon midfield dominance. McEvoy's footing let him down a few times leading to Roscommon scores but he won a lot of ball and took 3 excellent scores.

It reminded me of 2016, everyone knows what's expected of them and everyone is delivering.

Carolan's defending at the moment is on a different level to anyone else on the team and indeed anyone who has worn that corner back jersey for the last number of years.

ipitydafool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123272203#Comment_123272203

https://www.roscommonherald.ie/sport/gaa/weve-no-business-being-in-a-league-final_arid-51457.html

You could well have a point here with Roscommon, ridiculous comments from Burke when they playing Westmeath last game who already relegated. Sounds exactly like he doesn't want to go up to Division 1 for whatever reason.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123272074#Comment_123272074

100%, anyone who thinks the Rossies don't want to be in division one is talking through their hole. They had zero respect for Cavan (hence the selection) and got caught. I would take Burke's comments with a lorryload of salt.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123268052#Comment_123268052

I met a few for a pint before we played them, they were fairly happy with McCabe. They said from last year they are down their full back, centre half back, both starting midfielders, their centre half forward and full forward. That's some amount of key players to be down. So considering that and how they've been competitive in every game I would assume they are still reasonably happy. The ones I talked to before we played them had more or less written this season off and were looking to a rebuild.

baconsarnie

That was the best we've played in the league against a good team in a long time. Was worried at 5-1, but Cormac Reilly's scores were crucial and Carolan and Reilly tightened up a lot. Realistically we should have been in front at half time (left about 2-2 behind us) but at half time I was happy enough. All the players did well, some top class performers as well. Jesus the Holla has some engine on him, an absolute collosus. Brilliant to see our forwards taking their men on repeatedly and going for scores.

Pitch was like a sandbox which worked against the likes of McEvoy and Donnelly ooking to turn sharply, but they never lost heart and kept at it. McEvoy's point off the right boot towards the end of the game off his supposedly weaker foot was a thing of beauty.

Regardless of other results, would be great to have a finish at home with five wins on the trot, which from memory we've not done since 2016 if i'm correct?

Naughty_Skelator

Lads, we are out the 26th March in Ulster Under 20’s against Monaghan,anyone hear much about challenge games, strength of the team, this year etc?

mylestheslasher

The U20s played Sligo at the weekend and won by a few points. No other details I'm afraid.

mogue77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123276572#Comment_123276572

I think that they beat Longford last week in a challenge also.

piplip87

The lads are in a very good situation going into the weekend. So far behind on score difference and depending on Monaghan and Louth both to win.

I wonder how they will play it. Get the win over Cork and hope the other games fall into place or just go for it and attack and try to hammer Cork.

For what its worth couldn't be depending on a better game to go our way than Louth and Meath. Louth will not want to hand Meath promotion so could be interesting.

Above all would love another go at Monaghan and a big game vs them in Croke Park would be ideal prep for a very tricking outing a couple of weeks later in Omagh.

large_palette

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123275082#Comment_123275082

That's interesting enough. To use an analogy from another sport Westmeath feel they're winemaking this year, not wine drinking. While we get moderately pissed on depleting reserves.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123278062#Comment_123278062

Love that analogy. I think after Sunday we are probably a little bit tipsy, and rightly so. And extending it further, with the performances of late of Cormac Reilly, McEvoy, Donnelly, Cian Madden, Oisin Brady, Cian Reilly, Caolan and Evan Crowe maybe the cellar isn't as empty as we had feared.

Granted, there's no replacing elite vintage no matter what way you look at it!

hatefulrory

The worry is that it's much easier to perform well alongside true quality than it is to replace true quality. However, there's still plenty of time left in some of those lads so I do believe the 'all is lost' mentality is unhelpful, premature and could in fact be a self fulfilling prophecy if we repeat it enough times.

We need to remember, it takes time and patience with some players and good players will flourish if the environment is right. Plenty of Cavan supporters were ready to dispose of Martin Reilly and Cian Mackey and Tom Corr in the late noughties. Once the ship was righted though, we saw what they were capable of.

Cavan are lucky, a rich history and tradition means we have always had some natural diamonds but if we want to build a real crown that will last - we're going to need some of the lab grown ones too.

mylestheslasher

I don't ever remember us playing Cork in Breffni Park. I can remember an absolute hammering in a back door game in the qualifiers down in Cork and since then I think 2 or maybe 3 wins in Cork. Cork are coming looking for something but are not good travelers and hopefully that away form continues and we continue to win matches at home. The actual starting line-up will also be very interesting given how lads on the fringes but their hands up last day out.

Naughty_Skelator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123281571#Comment_123281571

2 matches that I can remember

October 1995, Cork , Munster champions , Charlie Clarke came on for his debut at half time and completely dominated centre field, We won by 3 or 4 points it was the start of a very good league campaign.

2008,Seanie Johnson destroyed Graham Canty, scored 7 or 8 points from play, beat them 13 points to 12.. Think Cork had been on strike earlier that year if my memory is correct??