The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

cavan4sam

That was an embarrassment but at the end of the day we won one less game than the top 2 teams ....

The mayo love in on rte is pathetic

We have played possibly 2 of the best teams in the country at the minute and failed miserably but we now are a top 12 team in the country ...funny old game this football

mylestheslasher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123547571#Comment_123547571

I dunno. The results will show we got Mayo on a very good day (for us) and that Mayo are miles better a team than us. We are extremely lucky to be going through to next round. I don't think anyone really believes we are top 12 do they?

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123547639#Comment_123547639

No. Twitter is awash with the general public saying the championship would be better without Cavan and with Mayo left in. And who are we to argue to be quite honest? Mayo vs Dublin or Kerry is a game people would want to see. Even as a Cavan supporter, I’m praying we don’t see Cavan vs Dublin or Kerry.

cavan4sam

No we are nowhere near a top 12 team but that's the beauty of head to head ...maybe we should amend the rules to suit mayo as we go forward

Personally I'm delighted the way Mayo went out they're an arrogant shower of ......

tayto lover

Whoever is coaching the backs is doing a very poor job. They never put a hand on the attackers who waltzed past them at will. Conceded 31 points and rarely a challenge on the shooters. Fish in a barrel.

Naughty_Skelator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123547745#Comment_123547745

There doesn’t seem to be any coaching done there full stop.

I’m out of the country on holidays, missed yesterday and will miss next weekend, Really not bothered at all about either which I never thought I’d say, I fear what Kerry or Dublin will do to this team….

mylestheslasher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548096#Comment_123548096

I dont think its all coaching. At the Donegal game (and you can read back at my comments) I saw senior players, the lads that should be leaders on this team, just watch men waltz past them. Not tracking runners etc. Like they didnt want to be there. Well maybe it is time for some of them to step away as if your heart is not in it then you are no good to anyone - even if you possess a higher skillset to the lads on the bench. I can see an exodus coming at the end of this season but maybe that is needed now. As for Ray, I am not sure. There are things I look at and wonder what is he doing - like why have we no set plays for Kick-Outs? I watched Down, and they are small - but they have a bucket load of set plays to secure possession and they do a lot better than we do. But I dont think there would be a queue of people looking to take Cavan on and we have no money either by the sounds of things.

cavan4sam

Kerry it is so ........

celt262

Have our local media made any comments about the ability of this Managment team?

There went in on McGleenon if i remember correctly who didn't ship defeats like this.

mylestheslasher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548232#Comment_123548232

On the match day diary podcast I think there was some mention of it being harder to get off the team than on the team - surely that is a dig at the management. BUT I would say, some players also need to look at themselves. Its not the manager that made them down tools in the last 2 games when the going got tough.

Kerry away. The 4 Preliminary Quarters have thrown up 4 very one sided games.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123547137#Comment_123547137

Getting well beaten by Tyrone is absolutely nothing new to me as a Cavan fan so I was heading down just to be there. I had zero expectations to be honest, and that's not a reflection on this group of lads. I think as a county we are now conditioned to expect Tyrone to beat us and beat us well.

You're right, if at the start of the season someone would say "you'll beat the Rossies away and be a width of a post away from promotion, you'll get a win over Mayo and get to the preliminary quarter finals" I think almost every single Cavan fan would have bitten the hand off you.

But that capitulation against Donegal has soured it for a fair few so it's going to be three trimmings on the bounce to end things by the looks of it.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123546543#Comment_123546543

Wise choice to be honest. Annoying thing is that it wasn't like that Tyrone team is unbeatable. They kicked two wides in that half, we kicked 6, dropped three into Morgan's arms and he saved a goal chance. Our conversion rate was atrocious. Their's was superb. Mattie Donnelly was given the freedom of Brewster Park to run the game.

One thing I noticed, their forwards tackle like absolute demons. Their work rate is superb. We don't have that sort of intensity on the pitch at all, and it's worrying

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548267#Comment_123548267

It's almost as if the GAA wanted the big four to get through unscathed….

baconsarnie

End of the day, if Mayo couldn't beat Cavan at home, then that's on them. Personally I am delighted we knocked them out!

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123547394#Comment_123547394

I don't understand this disconnect between fans and the players. It is evident in terms of numbers going to games, but let me explain what I don't understand.

Those players are dedicated and have given us big days at minor, under21 and senior. They are all ego-free and are a decent bunch who always make time for supporters. Let's be honest, that hasn't always been the case. There's been manys a player who once they got onto a panel who thought they were god's gift.

Unless you are in your 70s or 80s, none of our support has grown up witnessing prolonged success. I've seen two Ulster titles in the last 50 years. This panel got us back to our first Ulster final in 18 years and our first back to back finals in decades. Our first Ulster win in 23 years. There's been poor showings, yes, and the travails of trudging through division four. We got to win league titles in Croker. Given where we are, those sort of things cannot be sniffed at. We can talk about being "Ulster royalty" but we're not and havent been for 2 generations.

Our support has been on the decline for some time and it's baffling. We've not been successful for ages and yet we have players who have donned the jersey with pride and fans are not going.

Very soon I think we will see a whole raft of lads who will call time and in true Cavan style, we will bemoan their retirement. They will become better players once they've hung up the boots, and the people who never go to Cavan games will tell us how great they were.

Our "support" these days is absolutely woeful. Plenty of other counties who win nothing would put us to shame.

Custard_Cream

I would say the tailteann cup final in 22 was where things started to get a bit sour . I remember the Donegal semi final in 22 and we outnumbered them 3 to 1 in Clones that day .

The Galligan appointment didn't inspire anyone and things have just got worse since. There is just a real lack of confidence and belief across the county. Look at Monaghan and Meath, a change of manager and they are like new teams this year.. We appointed somebody with zero managerial experience who tried to copy and paste the previous set up. He will probably come out next week and say he will want to be over the rebuild - He shouldn't be let near any rebuild.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548393#Comment_123548393

On the last line, people will turn up if it's worth turning up.

Our results over the last two years in the All - Ireland series have been embarrassing

2024 - Mayo (Hammering) Dublin ( Hammering) Roscommon ( Loss) ( - 34 pts differance)

2025 - Mayo ( Win) Donegal (Hammering) Tyrone ( Hammering) - 29 pts differance

It's not baffling that the support is on the decline people are not going to keep going to games and pay hard earned money to watch that. You have to be at least competative in the majority of games to get people in the gate.

cavan4sam

At least now we won't meet Tyrone again until the final ....

Funny thing is we are scoring much the same against the other teams as they did against each other just a pity once other teams get possession it's like we are saying good man there's the goals safe journey....

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548641#Comment_123548641

Fair point @celt262 but how do you explain the low numbers for the win against Monaghan last year? The very poor turn out against Tyrone in Cavan when the sun was beating down….that's before the hammerings against Mayo and Dublin.

The decline of Cavan support has been going on longer than that.

And personally, if you're only showing up because you might see a win, that's not good enough either.

hatefulrory

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548393#Comment_123548393

All true. All well considered and level headed and knowledgeable. Unfortunately our supporters are none of these things.

They have turned against Ray now as they turned against Graham, McGleenan, Terry etc etc It's the easiest most linear A to B analysis you can get. Bad results = bad manager.

The main factor in the results of any side is the players at their disposal. We have a group of lads who have been carrying this side for a decade. If they had been preceded and followed by players of equal quality we would be in an excellent position. This didn't happen and we are paying the price.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548808#Comment_123548808

When has our support last been decent? i started going to games in the 90's and championship was knockout then and there was always a buzz around games and decent crowds attened.

There are alot more games on now and people are picking and choosing what games to go to due to costs and timing of games etc. Even lads who would never miss a game years ago are not bothered if they miss a game now and alot of that is down to the performances.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548838#Comment_123548838

You say they have been carrying the side for a decade in which they got the one Ulster title which we are all graeful for. But on the other side of that they carried us the whole way down to Division 4. This group of players are average inter county players and are probably a mid Divison 2 team at best and are no way capable of competing with the tops team and our yoyo years between Divison 1 and 2 prove that.

Would you like to see Ray stay on for another year, is there any positives that you have seen in relation to the managment of the team that give you hope?

MacDanger

Mayo supporter here; just want to say that Cavan are fully deserving of the pqf spot, ye hammered us out the gate in Castlebar and while ye're last 2 results were poor, there's no reason ye can't give kerry a decent rattle. Meath beat them by 9 and I'd say ye wouldn't consider yourselves to be that far off Meath. Psychologically it's going to be difficult to get ready for that one though

hatefulrory

Calling the likes of Gerry, Dara, Faulkner, Holla "average" intercounty players is, I feel, inaccurate. And I firmly believe if we had a few players of similar ability coming into the team we would be a Division one side. Instead we are relying on players of the same age group or older who are on the decline and some average or poor intercounty players to fill out the squad.

Positives over the last two years? Absolutely. Great away wins against Cork and Roscommon. Beating Monaghan and Mayo in Championship. Ray has been able to get performances out of them.

I'll put it this way, is whoever we get to replace him going to do any better? Probably not. Maybe a different manager would get a bounce but it will be short lived and people will be on here slating him as they did with literally every other manager.

If we want change we need to take drastic steps in schools, development squads, clubs etc.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549182#Comment_123549182

An average intercounty player is still a excellant footballer.

baconsarnie

Just a quick comment on the game yesterday. There wasn't much to highlight, but worth nothing that Cormac Reilly had the beating of his man and kicked some nice scores. Just didn't get the ball into him enough.

Oisin Brady is a fine footballer and had the beating of his man time and time again but not surprisingly, he was a bit rusty. He needs to add in shot efficiency into his game and he can become a very fine inside forward.

Paddy Lynch looked like a man who was out for over a year. Not easy to come back and be straight up to speed but we all know he is a class act.

Was impressed with Curran's brief cameo. Full of energy and took his score well.

Evan Crowe was easily Cavan's best player over the 70 minutes. Was probably the best midfielder on the pitch for the second half. For a young player, he absolutely stood up and that's a credit to him.

Not much else to say…

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549182#Comment_123549182

Our U16s train once a week. I was talking to a Fermanagh coach whose son is on their U16 development squad. They train 3 days a week plus a coach goes into the schools and takes them in there too. Instead of doing normal PE with the rest of the class, any lad on a development squad gets coaching once a week in the school. As I said here previously, they do extensive coaching over in term school holidays - full week at Easter and at Halloween. Half day each day.

Our county board have today sent out a handout which they state “outlines the huge amount achieved in this area” of coaching and games in the county.

It’s a report with stats about Cul Camps & coaching workshops. Nothing re what work we are doing with our elite juveniles.

Is it any wonder we’re falling behind if even Fermanagh are ahead of us?

But sure maybe Fermanagh can help fill the white elephant in there in Breffni we’re spending all our money on.

God forbid we spend some funds on trying to improve what actually happens on the pitch.

tanko

So it’s the supporters fault that Cavan are losing games, you couldn’t make this rubbish up. I suppose if there was no Tyrone supporters in Brewster or no Donegal supporters in Breffni, Cavan would have won the matches.

This Cavan team couldn’t beat Westmeath in the Tailteann cup final which was a disastrous result and couldn’t beat Down in Breffni park which was just as bad. Cavan have no business in the All Ireland series when they couldn’t win the Tailteann cup.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123550552#Comment_123550552

Did anyone say that? I merely pointed out that we haven't had good support for some time.

I doubt there's a sports fan who doesn't recognise the power of a crowd to lift a team.

So any team who is in division 2 but hasn't won the Tailteann cannot be in the All Ireland series.

That's some logic.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123550375#Comment_123550375

That's depressing. For my sins I'm based in Dublin and we have full time GPOs going into local schools from infants upwards for coaching each week, even kids not linked with the local club. Does anything like that happen in Cavan these days?