More chance of them going to junior, according to a couple of bjd men I chatted to after game, than going straight back up, an awful lot of work needed to make them competitive, shortage of players coming through, could be 7-10 years b4 they'll challenge for senior again, but these things go in cycles for most clubs
All over for the Maroons, pretty poor all round, game deteriated in last 20mins,3reds,1black, Rahan lost 5 players with injury and Oisin Kiernan injured in training didn't help
Ronan Flanagan out of retirement again but Castlerahan behind by a point.
Castlerahan 0-06 to 0-03 ahead at half time in the big relegation game. They seem to be playing a bit more directly today than other games I’ve seen but the big difference is they are taking their scores and Kilkygarry, with two county forwards starting, don’t seem to be able to.
According to the Laragh people I know, a lot of the Laragh lads aren’t particularly interested in the county setup due to the commitment involved. A shame because the two McKennas, the two O’Rourkes and Paul Smith are worth throwing a McKenna Cup game to at least to see how they’d get on. Fergal McKenna & Fergal O’Rourke did play in a charity challenge in Clones vs Monaghan a couple of years back.
Lavey didn’t get enough out of their star players last night. They need a keeper can take a short kick out too. They had the chances to make more of a game of it. Two goal chances, although Kingscourt did hit the crossbar twice in the one play. Tierney & Gilcreest were good but you’d expect more from Conroy, Smith, Jordan & Duke. Cullivan was in the stand and not togged out.
Kingscourt worked the mark well and, as stated, Tully & Reilly excellent, Dillon always a threat. Faulkner kicked a monster score but capable of better.
Barry Reilly was also very good for Kingscourt. He plays a bit like Ciaran McDonald head up,rarely gives the ball away, great vision. A.shame he didn't play more County football, but couldn't commit with his work.
Killygarry with home advantage should have enough for Castlerahan, though Crahan wont want to go down that easy
Ballinagh drew with Ramor in group stages so should be interesting game.
Gowna should have enough for Mullahoran
He'd be 20/21,played Co Minor in 2017.
Laragh play a very exciting running game. But in fairness to the Gaels, they had their homework done and didn't give them the space to run into. Laragh were a bit one dimensional and didn't adapt to try much long-range in the second half. If the Gaels had Gearoid for the full game it would have been a massacre. Paul Smith really looks a classy footballer, reminds me of Barry Reilly a bit.
Maloney Derham and O Connor were superb last night. O Connor being fit and on form is a big asset for the Gaels.
Very disappointing first QF in the Senior. Gaels through with a minimum of fuss, without even Gearoid featuring much. Laragh being talked up a lot, particularly by Paul Fitzpatrick who I see from a recent pod is a lurker here, but, at the end of the day, they couldn’t beat Lacken and only beat a Lavey team who were out on their feet after a big game against Castlerahan and suffered with injuries.
I’m not expecting much from Lavey vs Kingscourt tonight either unless Lavey can get the likes of Ray Cullivan & Gerry Smith fit.
I see your point but I do think part of the evolution of a team has to be to move on after a while - any decent manager will make a limited team hard to beat but over time look to improve on that. Sherock have done well playing defensively but why not try to evolve it? The lads on We Are Cavan said they have lost 14 group games out of 16 (one draw and one win) over the last four years. Is that much enjoyment for players? I can't imagine so. Is it much enjoyment for their supporters? Is there not an argument they'd be better try and play some football and, if intermediate is their lot, so be it? Some of the other ''minnows'', as you call them, at least provide the odd shock and have made QFs, or even SFs in Lavey's case, but Shercock are in no danger of doing that anytime soon it appears.
The shape up of next years League/Championship being decided at Congress on the 23rd. The option B whch is a League based Championship seems to be the best route . Super 8 not being brought back which is no harm
https://t.co/8rDAX1UMGF?amp=1
Shercock got a really tough draw (as did some of the other minnows, like the reigning champions ☺️): Kingscourt, Ramor and Gowna are all heavy hitters.
I know of very few teams that can move seamlessly from one style to another. Shercock are set up to make it difficult and ideally use that pace to hit teams on the break (it worked really well for them at intermediate level) and I don't think it is possible to decide for one game (Lavey) to come up with a completely different game plan.
I fully agree with you re playing to their strengths but would Shercock not have one of the fittest panels in the county to play a running game? The Clerkins, Clarke and, I would imagine many others, come from an athletics background due to the highly successful club they have up there. I remember a Ramor man telling me how Jack Brady told all their underage teams in Ramor to get into athletics and learning to run properly because no man on the county panel could beat Clerkin or Clarke in a sprint due to their athletics background.
I can understand going defensive if they played the reigning county champions Crosserlough (we're still that until another name is on the cup) or Ramor but they really should be going for it against Lavey, a team who would also have one of the smallest senior panels - there were games under Kevin McDonnell where he didn't even use a sub and it's rare they'd make more than two changes in any game, if even two changes.
I think Cavstream has been great, especially for those of the Breffni Diaspora that can't get to club games every week. That said, it could easily improve. There is absolutely no denying Sheanon or Clarke's knowledge of Cavan football, and i think both work well in tandem.
Given the joy he has given us, I feel almost traitorous saying this, but please don't let McHugh commentate on any more games. He is cat. All of the above ("there's his aunty", "his father played for me") and his false praise for Cavan football (he's hardly going to get paid and say "this is absolute muck, no wonder you got relegated"). He also talks too much- we have a video Martin, we don't need every single action to be described. That and "he's handled a lot of ball" being used every third sentence. Sorry Martin, thanks for the memories!
Is there a way to get the Mixlr commentary of We are Cavan to sync with Cavsteam (the latter is about 5 seconds behind?)
True, Keoghan was on commentary last year. Off it this year when he went back to Castlerahan.
He's good pals with McHugh.
There are probably two schools of thought on this. One being you have a style or philosophy of play and train players towards that. It possibly has some merit at county level, but even still there's no point saying you're going to only kick long range points to counter a blanket defence if you have players who can kick from distance with some accuracy (see All-Ireland final for example). If you've got fast runners, you probably play a running game.
And then there's another school of thought that says you play a system that best suits the skillset of your panel. I've seen Shercock and they do have some very fine players but they are operating of one of the smallest panels for senior. They've made themselves very competitive and that will stand to them again (i think). Going out and getting absolutely tanked week on week does zero for morale. Look at Lacken- they were competitive in one game (not surprisingly when Raymond Galligan was fit and offered an outlet at full forward) but have been taken apart in their other games. Not sure that is helping matters for them.
I would say Shercock are being set up to be competitive and that for a slice of luck they could have gotten results against either Kingscourt or Lavey. I would say they are in a better place than Lacken (albeit home advantage could be huge) but I think it is fair for smaller clubs to have ambitions to survive in the championship as opposed to wining it. Such as Shercock. Or Crosserlough 😀
Isn't Keoghan involved in cavstream hence the reason McHugh is on it?
Sheanon has a good enough knowledge of players. The commentary can be a bit like a chat in the pub at times. but they are providing a service and it would be fairly dull to watch it with no sound.
I'd prefer to attend games, but its been handy to watch a few games on the stream as a means of seeing some matches.
McHugh is terrible but Sheanon and Clarke are just as bad. It’s obvious that Sheanon spends his time learning who all the players are and that’s it, nothing else of substance to contribute. Referring to some players by their nicknames is annoying i find, not everyone watching knows who he is talking about. There’s only so much “he got his pocket picked there” or “there’s 26 mins and change gone” you can listen to. Cavstream is great once the sound is turned off imo.
What's the reason Martin Mchugh does commentary for Cavan stream? He is obviously getting well paid to travel from Kilcar which is over 2 hours away.
His commentary isn't great ,and its clear he isn't up to date with some players so why have him doing it? He has a gra for Cavan from his time managing and does be in Cavan a bit but bound to be others they could have got
Paddy Sheanon is good and Jody Clarke.
I waited until this morning to post this hoping we'd pull off the great escape but, alas, it hasn't happened. At least we finish in obscurity and haven't a relegation play off to contest.
In regard to Shercock, I have no problem with a team attempting to play to their strengths but, even against the likes of Lavey & Lacken, who are also limited rural teams with low numbers, they don't drop the negative tactics. A couple of weeks ago they played a blanket against a Lavey team with Gerry Smith on one leg. Why not go for it? They have Sankey, Clarke, the Clerkins and other good footballers - just as many as a Lavey or Lacken have.
I would expect them to beat a very poor Lacken team though and retain senior status yet again.
That Bridge / Bailieborough game was absolutely compelling stuff. Given the conditions there was some lovely scores and you really couldn't take your eyes off it. Credit to the Bridge, that was a serious come back. Even at 10 points down they never panicked and kept plugging away and didn't chase goals when many teams would have. They took their points and kept chipping away. Fitzpatrick had an absolutely brilliant second half, took his goal really well but also kicked points when they needed scores.
Bailieoborough will be come out of that not knowing how they lost it. It was utterly bizzare that they didn't replace their keeper earlier. Seven points up at half time and when the Bridge put the press on and the keeper couldn't go more than 20 feet was just asking for (and getting) wave after wave of attack. Tactically when they got the third goal I could see why they wanted to sit it out, but why not bring Michael Argue out to the middle then as a target. I know they looked gassed for the last 5 minutes but tactically they seemed to miss a trick or two.
Rhys Clarke was superb all night for the Shamrocks. But you would hope that sort of loss doesn't do them any long-term damage as they have improved hugely from last year and if they keep progressed surely have an intermediate title in them. I don't think the Bridge's defence will hold out against the Cucus but with that level of passion they will be handful for anyone.
Mad game between Bailieborough and Bbridge. Bborough were the better team and costing by 10 pts but Butlersbridge stepped it up in last 15 minutes. A great goal by John Fitzpatrick brought them back in it. Then they scored a goal from a dropping ball, and scored from the kickout.. The bborough was injured and was evident from his kickouts throughout the game
I don’t think Castlerahan will bounce back from intermediate very soon either. They could be hit with retirements and don’t have much coming through.
Gowna v Mullahoran
Kingscourt v Lavey
Ramor V Ballinagh
Cavan Gaels v Laragh
Do you know the QF pairings?
Castlerahan V Killygarry in the Relegation play off
Shercock V Lacken
Its likely Castlerahan will be Intermediate next year unless Keoghan gets a big performance from them.
Crosserlough and Castlerahan gone and Martin McHugh thinks this is a sign of the strength of Cavan club football.
I’m going to ignore everything else and just go for the last point: the players from Dernacrieve are even playing with their neighbouring clubs from U7 so why would they know any different if clubs amalgamated?
If anything, you’re pulling them away from lads they have trained with and played with since they were 4 and what, telling them to forgot the last 13 or 14 years and now imagine a huge rivalry is there with their former team mates?
That's it, there is 8 Senior Clubs in the Kerry County Championship the rest if made up of Amalgamations.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-20314760.html
