I think plan is for championship in August and not before. I can't see them moving it. They'll run out the All County League until then.
I'm not sure we will have a great ''Summer'' of football to look forward to. Cavan will have max 4 games between now and 09/07/2022 if they go all the way. Then the club championship will start in August. With only two Tailteann Cup games possible in June, and the League not being taken seriously by a majority of teams, June and July look fairly sparse for top quality football. As another poster mentioned, some clubs will only start moving towards being championship ready in the next few weeks.
There were some player issues last year which have now been ironed out but we couldn't have got a harder draw in 2021 either. I believe James Smith has nipped away on a short holiday. Not sure for how long but it is two weeks until Cavan's next game. I hadn't heard anything to the contrary re Stephen remaining on the panel.
The intermediate and junior should also be excellent. You've had Knockbride knocking on the door at junior with plenty of successful underage players coming up and, just when they thought they had got rid of Denn, they've Arva and Drumlane for company. Both suffered due to injuries last year and shouldn't be at that grade.
The intermediate too. A Castlerahan man said to me that they have two years to get back up or they'll be stuck. Juvenile teams playing at low levels. I think Sherock's level is an intermediate team. They held on at senior by the skin of their teeth for years. You do have teams like Bailieboro and Ballyhaise to battle it out though.
Indeed Gowna will be very strong i overlooked them they won't be far away.
Fair enough. The Lough are really motoring and Paddy Lynch and James Smith aren't stuck for game time. Is Stephen Smith still on the county panel? Assuming everyone is fit come August, the Crosserlough are going to take some stopping. I know they got a really tight draw and weren't bet out the gate in any game, but i reckon your lads will be fairly fired up to correct the inertia in 2021. I can't but see Gowna being even stronger this year. Should be a humdinger of a championship so!
Padraig Moore has also been back for Ballyhaise in most league games from what I see on Twitter and scoring heavily. He was in the county panel in 2018 i think and will be a handful for most senior defenders, let alone intermediate- IF he is about for the championship (which he hasn't for years).
I caught two league games in the last while and without naming teams, a few had "wintered well" and clearly aren't remotely near full tilt, and are probably not putting a massive shift in now. I assume that plenty of teams are going to do that.
Gowna were down the two Maddens, Brady and Pierson from the seniors and at least 4 or 5 from the under 20s for a majority of league games. With their u20s back, their results are already improving. Come championship they will be in the mix with Ramor and the Lough.
Crosserlough didn't play the county lads. I was chatting to a Cornafean supporter and he said Gerry Smith & Chris Conroy won the Lavey game for them against the Reds.
I'm not surprised by Ballyhaise. They aren't doing well at underage but they are bringing through two to three strong players in each squad, have big numbers and a coach down there told me they have a number of players on many of the underage development panels. They also have no county players so are not weakened during the League. Compare that to say Gowna who are a rural club performing very well but were missing a huge number of U20s and a number of seniors also. Surprising to see Killygarry near relegation with the squads they have but then they don't seem to be able to perform to their potential as a club.
I presume you mean Division 2 re Drumlane and Cuchulainns. Somebody recently told me that Division 2 would be bottom four going to play offs for relegation so Denn may have a chance yet. It's amazing that only 4 points in that Division separates 4th and 13th after 8 games. Anyone that strings together a few wins could vie for promotion.
Some teams aren't taking the league seriously at all. Very hard for smaller clubs to be missing their top players. I certainly wouldn't count Gowna out of senior when they've everyone back and playing.
Scanning through the club Twitter pages on Friday, didn't see too many clubs posting their starting 15s. Anyone know did many county players get a run out? Interested to see if the Holla got more game time for Arva, Martin Reilly and Conor Smith for Killygarry and so on.
Any club games scheduled for Saturday evening are now moved to Friday evening. Good to see the CB are learning from the mistakes they made earlier this year.
For some reason, I would have been more concerned if we had drawn London, Leitrim or Sligo. I think there would a bigger chance of complacency playing a team from Division four. Even though it seems like a Down side on the decline, it still is Cavan Vs Down (no disrespect to the other teams) and that along with the 2020 fixture should have us fairly focused.
Our recent record against Down is pretty good, but in the last 4 meetings we've won games that we easily could have or should have won. Down are definitely on the slide but I am sure if there is one team they can be fired up for, it's us. They had us dead and buried in 2020 (and more or less in 2018 before they imploded) so they will want to settle a score or two (and the league game in 2018 i am pretty certain Ray was MOTM).
For us, we have to know they will come out all guns blazing and that we have to treat this like a championship match. Probably preferable for us to think this is going to be a battle as opposed to a "we only have to show up for 10 minutes and we will be grand".
I was well impressed with that performance. As you said, the Antrim lads were much stronger physically and that makes a huge difference at this level. Antrim were a sticky side and despite being the better team it was hard to pull away from them until the end. A lot of very positive performances there. Obviously Smith and Keaney are going to get the plaudits, but the two Tullys were superb as well. McCrystal looks very composed at centre half back.
They are well coached as they never panicked when Antrim kept reeling them back in which is a very good sign at minor. Great to have some young forwards that hopefully can progress. An Ulster final would be brilliant.
I’m happy with it. I would have preferred it to Longford, Fermanagh or Leitrim away. This North vs South section is a piss take though. North Section far stronger.
Down at home.... Not the draw I'd have wanted
Whats peoples thoughts on the ACFL i see Ballyhaise going well just lost there first game at the weekend to Castlerahan it will be interesting to see if they get over the line this year in the Intermediate championship with there biggest challengers probably the team that just beat them. Crosserlough flying high and with the players they have to come back from the county setup they will surely be looking at the big prize this year along with the also unbeaten Ramor. Cootehill look in bother with only 1 draw to there name and Killygarry also struggling.
Newly promoted Drumlane top of Division 3 with Cuchulainns and the bridge on there tails. At the bottom it looks like Denn are going to get relegated you would wonder has the long season last year and all that has gone on up there the last few years taken a lot out of them. Lavey surprisingly down that end of the table as well.
Division 3, Templeport going strong and unbeaten so far and Drumalee going well also. I'm a bit surprised to see Shannon Gaels at the bottom of the table along with Maghera but they will be stronger come championship with Mcloughlin back and hopefully a full fit McGovern.
The three championships look to be very competitive this year and it is hard to pick a winner in each of them. Going by form at the moment i would be going for the below but i wouldnt be suprised if none of them won.
Senior : Crosserlough
Intermediate: Ballyhaise
Junior : Drumlane
Depends who you ask to be honest. Few different rumours but last I heard was he came home for a family event but will be back for some part of championship.
So did he just resign with Crosserlough to play one game or is he coming back again for the Championship?
He’s back in Australia.
Could make for some cracking games on Friday!
many word on McVeety Cavan_King? He’s not played for your lot for weeks- was it only a flying visit?
I’m hearing the county lads can play with their clubs tomorrow night but from Monday are not available again.
They did have a training session this week.
Conor Smith needs to get a run of games in. Any time he gets fit for the county, he's injured by the next game. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see him playing more than 90% of the other forwards in the county but he hasn't been able to string a couple of intercounty games together yet.
It would be great if Conor Smith could stay fit for the remainder of the year such an unfortunate player with injuries.
Is Lovett old enough? Or is he just in training?
Oisin Brady and Conor Smith played at the weekend for Killygarry, Conor scored 1-4 I think, be great to see him get a run in Tailteann playing off two good ball winners in Lynch and Smith
Oisin Brady seems to have dropped off the face of the planet. I thought he was featuring for Killygarry in the League so perhaps he was one of the younger players involved in the disciplinary breach earlier in the campaign.
You'd have to expect us to be able to get out of Division 3 next year. I know we struggled through 4 this year but the only explanation I can see is that the lads were training heavily throughout it. In games like the Wexford one it was nearly like Mickey pulled them in at half time and said, there's no point hammering these or we'll have a few newspaper articles written about us so lighten off lads.
As was raised on this forum earlier in this season, after the top 3/4 in Division 2, there is very little difference in quality and anyone can beat anyone. I would firmly believe we are good enough to be in at least that top 3/4 when we are concentrating on a competition and on our game.
My understanding is that 4 of the U20s gone in are Niall Carolan, Daragh Lovett (as per this board), Cian Reilly and Fionntain O'Reilly. Anyone know the fifth?
Murphy makes a good point that if Cavan only raise themselves for Championship then they will be staring down the Tailteann Cup barrel for years to come. Damian Donohue also makes a good point that Tyrone under Harte went out to win every McKenna Cup. It's a pity we are not in the Qualifiers but that's our own fault, if we win the Tailteann then we will be next year no matter what happens in Div 3. It would be great to see some of the younger players get a run Oisin Brady, Cian Reilly, Ryan O'Neill and to get the Holla back up to speed. The more games and high level training this panel gets the more benefit it will be going forward.
Well the media opinion now seems to be that we just need to turn up to win the Tailteann Cup:
Ciarán Murphy: Cavan can set the tone for the Tailteann Cup (irishtimes.com)
Martin Breheny: 'Why Cavan are the cuckoo in the Tailteann Cup’s flimsy nest' - Independent.ie
That's a really good point- Mickey clearly trusted most of the lads in 1 on 1s, and by and large they didn't let us down. I hate criticising players when they are clearly putting some effort in and playing for the pride of the shirt, but that wasn't one of Killian's finest and the mistake for the goal was criminal. Having said that on another day, it drops somewhere else, and the fact that it landed on McBrearty's head (who wasn't even looking at the ball) and then landed in front of him just compounded what an awfully messy goal it was.
I thought Gearoid was quiet in the first half- no doubt about it, but a lot of the game was kicked beyond him into Lynch and Smith. But in the second half when Donegal were edging away from us he stepped up. Not necessarily the most amazing display, but absolutely got into the trenches- and THAT fetch was absolutely lifted the crowd and the team (I can't remember who kicked wide from that play) when no one seemed able to get a hand on primary possession in the middle and then he tacked on three scores. The pressure was on, you want your leaders to come up with big plays and he did. That's why I was so frustrated with the first goal as I thought he might drag us over the line. Ah well.
I'd have to agree with your comments that criticizing Faulkner was harsh. I thought he had his best game for Cavan in some time. Of the more senior players, I think the majority did well and I only had some disappointment in Gearoid who, bar a five to ten minute purple patch, didn't influence the game enough, and Killian Clarke, who, in my opinion, had an absolute nightmare. Clarke was directly responsible for at least 1-2 between the goal at the end and the frees he gave away in the first half.
You would have to look at our defence and wonder if we need a bit more pace in it. Donegal had fast players cutting in from the side and I felt at times they got away from our backline too easily. That said, we played an open game so our backs didn't have the advantage generally of extra players to close off the space when Donegal countered.
