The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Terry might bring mixed opinion but what he did bring to Cavan underage football was silverware. The Westmeath manager might have football acumen but we all know it doesn't necessarily translate to success. What sort of KPI's are the CB using to measure his performance? Because anything other than U-16, minor, U-21 or senior titles is just false metrics. Past achievements may be an indicator of future success, but silverware 5-10 years ago CANNOT be enough to keep an under performer in a job. That fact that his cronies are taking swipes at media shows they are all too bull-headed to accept the situation. But we as Cavan supporters seem to blindly accept all sorts of amateurism after one sniff of success. Mickey Graham was allowed to take our county all the way down to division f-king 4 and into the Tailteann Cup, all on the back of that Ulster win. It wouldn't have happened in Donegal. It wouldn't have happened in Derry. And it certainly wouldn't have happened in Tyrone.

Surely success begins at the foundations ie underage, like the success of the minors and U21's. Like a house, if the foundations are not right the house will crumble.

I couldn’t see a hope for us against Louth and was surprised (albeit I didn’t expect Louth to be as poor as they were) so I’m hoping for more of the same in Breffni tonight because I expect Down to beat us.

Listening to Cahair O’Kane on the podcast, he seemed quite sure of Down. I saw their game against Meath on GAA Go and another couple of minutes and they’d have won it. Meath really held on at the end.

Unfortunately, I still think the biggest result for Cavan may have happened last weekend in a game we weren’t even involved in - Louth beating Down.

3 changes 

Evan Crowe out for Cian Madden 

Dara McVeety out for Barry Donnelly 

Daragh Lovett out for Cormac Reilly 

Yeah it was. Could see from the covered stand. It was looking way wide and curled in last moment. Absolutely was a score, but could see why umpire couldn't see it. Gough though on the sideline could and should have called it

Great to win alright, looking up rather than down now as we've head to heads over the others. Feels unreal tbh

He didn't look like a lad making his debut looks well fit for county football.

What was the story with the free at the end that ended up with free in front of goals for us. Ref gave free to Down and then something happened and Down lad threw ball away?

Great to get a win,but again a very uneven performance,

Positives for me,

Gerry Smith, Holla,Jason Mc and Oisin Kiernan have regained their form, I think we were all a bit worried after rounds 1 and 2,

James Smith had an outstanding first half also,

I thought Barry Donnelly had a very good debut, Oisin Brady was his usual solid self,

Great to see Cian Madden and Cormac O Reilly, getting some game time into their legs.

Gearóid is getting fitter every game as well..

Our second quarter was very good, dominant at midfield , winning both primary possession,and breaks, and we opened Down up a few times

Negatives for me, were again, how easily,Down ran through us in the first quarter, they could have had more scores on the board if they had brought their shooting boots…They also somehow had acres of space on a number of occasions in the second half and waltzed through for easy scores, I’m not sure if that was tired legs or lack of a defensive structure…

You could also see Cormac O Reilly getting frustrated as to the lack of ball being kicked/played in, first time ,he was out in front of his man on a number of occasions.

He brings serious speed which he showed when he tormented the Roscommon full back line last year, I think he will be a difference maker in there when he’s fully fit.

We were atrocious in the third quarter , but came back very well in the last 15. Gearoids 2 pointer was inspirational…..

One final point, one of the worst refereeing performance I’ve seen in Breffni in a long time, one of the Cavan lads was actually lifted off the ground and carried, yet no free in the second half, Down got a point which was clearly wide, and obviously Haverns two pointer wasn’t given, nothing to do with the new rules either , just complete incompetence.

The way the stand reacted it seemed like it was over but then it was the same umpire who called it wide that had called the earlier clear wide a point. The linesman on the terrace side second half should have seen that point was wide but I don’t know if he was looking. Perhaps they were trying to correct their earlier mistake.

Gough seemed like he had enough of Laverty anyway. He was telling him that he never stopped at him the whole second half and he was lucky he didn’t get carded.

The refereeing was poor. Did we get pulled up on three occasions for 3 not up? I thought where anything was remotely 50/50 he gave it to Down.

You'd have to imagine that's us safe in Div 2. I didn't see us winning 3 on the trot but we were lucky to get Louth, Westmeath and Down on the bounce after that bad start. But can't take too much away from our lads either as all 3 counties were fighting for survival also. Should we get 1 more point out of the next two games I'd be happy enough. Great to see Barry Donnelly get his run and he looks to the manor born. Also nice to see Oisin Brady step up to his birthright. I just hope Galligan and company have the cojones now to blood in another few lads before the league finishes up. It would be preferable to make 2026 the changing of the guard year. It can sometimes feel like we're in perpetual transition.

We're technically the only team in the division who can still go up or down. As we were this time last year if I recall. Not a bad place to be in, where we can realistically look upwards as yeah it would be a mad sequence of events

Don't think we'll be in much place to rest lads though. 5th or 6th may not be enough seeing the provincial draws, so need to keep the pressure up for 4th at least

This motivational pre-match boost for the Cavan panel was brought to you by Cavan King :)

I can't see how another year on that will do much developing to be honest. They'd learn more in games vs top opposition than beating a Division 4 team by a cricket score. We're showing we can beat teams at lower Sam end, we need to reach further up not down I'd say. Those years in the lower divisions and Tailteann were lost years really

I’d agree the years in the lower league divisions were lost years, particularly for this older group of players, but I don’t see the Tailteann as the same.

Straight away, you have reached for the old, oh we’ll learn nothing playing Division 4 teams. Only half the teams in it are Division 4. Others come from Division 3 and 2.

A wily manager once told me about coaching that it doesn’t always matter if you lose every game, once you’re competitive, you’re learning. The bottom line is though Cavan haven’t been competitive at All Ireland level.

As another poster pointed out above, what did we learn from three hammerings last year? This years League to date has highlighted this further by showing we are in the bottom half of Div 2 teams.

Therefore, if you’re in the All Ireland and battling for respectability, as I believe we would be, is there as much scope there to develop younger lads? I don’t think so.

Ah I do get you, but simply as we've seen what that competition and division is like recently, I'd like to stay up here. i think the gaps will only widen more and more as time goes on, and we need to hang on coattails. I always thought that we were of a similar-ish level to likes of Roscommon and Monaghan (population, club numbers, relative success etc). They're not on about dropping down, but learn playing the best. We got a rotten draw last year. 2 very good teams and a bogey team. I'd hope we stay up in Sam, get a better draw, and with likes of Lynch back and McVeety fit (which we didn't have last year) we can hopefully go from there. The likes of Carolan, Donnelly, Crowe etc learn far more from games at Sam level. Those other counties show this by managing to stay up there and we need that consistency of standard

I agree with this and we also have Gearoid back this year who has made a huge difference in the league imo. Those 2 pointers against Down were the winning of the game. I doubt he came back to be playing Tailteann cup but testing himself against the best in the country.