The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

We need to find a keeper that doesn't give away 4 or 5 points a game that would be a good start. Although dropping a son of a county board man could be seen as a bad move.

The game has changed but we haven't, you need big men in the middle to win ball and unfortunately we don't have that. Carolan and O'Connell two serious runners with the ball left back, yes they are good defenders.

Seriously need to have a look at the panel and maybe lads who are Old School type defenders brought in to free up our runners, the days of a corner back having to do everything is over so get good tackling physical lads in.

Could do with a few old school type lads in centre field too.

The players were all bunched in the one area it was obviously the plan to kick to the same spot the whole time.

I don't know why 3 or 4 couldn't be positioned on the other side and kick it out that side the odd time.

The reach of Cavan County board goes far….somehow nepotism has allowed O Rourke to flourish at Sigerson level with UCD.

Such a load of cobblers. If i could be bothered I am sure if we trawl through posts last year that you and others called for O Rourke to be given a run ahead of Brady.

Performance for any player is up for scrutiny wihtout pulling out the old County Board conspiracy theories…

Don’t shoot the messenger. I’ve only pointed out what I’ve heard people say and the reason why some might believe it. Nepotism unfortunately has been an issue in Breffni and its surroundings. I can’t comment on UCD but what exactly warrants that a player flourished at Sigerson level?

Re Brady, I doubt you can find posts about a change because I’m not sure when exactly Brady got a run for Cavan that we could call for a change.

It was actually streamed on TG4. Ironically, like Tyrone on Sunday, Cavan built up a big lead in the first half by dominating the kick outs. Some lovely scores by Cian Keaney, Mattthew Smith and Lorcan O'Reilly. Evan Crowe was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch. Davin Graham and Costello very solid in the middle, Dylan Edwards a fine player, was impressed with Ben Tully on the ball, very composed.

Decent crowd at it. They were very conservative. Play a systematic game. You could hear the manager telling them to hold the ball and not take risks. I thought they made hard work of it but a win is a win.

A couple of lads could do with letting the ball move a bit quicker.

They have good forwards though. Quigley is very good, played at this level last year, and at times he was inside with only his man to beat. On a slippy day like that, with the rain, why not let the ball in? One player was shaping up for it at a free and the manager started roaring at him.

Re the keeper, my understanding is they’d prefer to have him outfield but they’re weak between the sticks. The backup goalie is from the U16 panel so has another year.

Great display of kicking by the keeper yesterday. If he can keep that up, he’ll be in a senior jersey soon.

They had a few missing yesterday too that would be starters if fit. At least three by my count.

Like all good county teams, they’d a Skintown man playing well.

McConnell did well in goals. Danny Brady from Laragh did well in the backline. Smith was the pick of the half back line. Faolan Graham at midfield did very well second half, kicked a monsterous two pointer when the game was in the melting pot. I’ve heard his midfield partner, the aptly named Sam Maguire, was immense in other games.Mark Reilly from Denn did very well and got the goal. Quigley was good when they gave the ball into him which wasn’t a lot or enough. The number 15 is a big man who drops out around the middle and doesn’t stay inside. Got through good work yesterday.

In fairness, there was none of them you’d look at and think they looked out of their depth at this level. A few need a bit of coaching re when to let the ball go. One lad in particular is spectacular at club level but needs to be taught that intercounty isn’t a club game where he’s expected to take all on himself.

That's what happens when a well drilled and well coached team meets a team that are sent out to give it a lash.

That has to be another contender for the worst ever .

We can give out about structures and GDOs all we like but when our teams are as poorly coached and as badly set up as that how do we ever expect success ?

No defence and a give it a lash mentality seems to be the plan of action for our senior and under 20 teams the last two years...

Let's not go to that place when we celebrate 20 point defeats.Most of that Donegal team are underage again next year..

You might recall in 2023 ,Cavan minors had that Donegal team bet but lost at the end to a Lucky goal .

How have they improved so much since that day?

Get the coaching element sorted. Get Damo Donoghue back over the 20s. Too many lads learning on the job over our teams

. Our elite athletes deserve More.

No matter how experienced or successful a manager is and has been, they aren't going to come in and outwork years of neglect of our youth system. A good manager might come in and get a turn out of a certain bunch, like Damien Donohoe did in 2022, but for sustained competitiveness and success we need to raise the standards of coaching and preparation across the board.

The minors loss in 2023 and the loss on Wednesday night are worlds apart. Nobody is celebrating the 2023 loss but we can be realistic about it, we were in a position to win the game. That's the goal. Putting performances into binary win or loss categories is juvenile.

So it's solely a results business until a young lad you know wants to go on holidays and miss training.

It’s more than one lad missing out. There are several.

It’s a poor manager feels a group of players missing one training session in how many will affect a result this weekend. Why not move the Tuesday training to this morning? They’d have been back for Thursday evening training prior to the game.

They are kids. How many realistically will ever play senior football for Cavan? Michael Hannon said last week you’d hope to get about four per year to the senior team from your U20 panel.

Only two of last year’s minor panel were even brought into the U20s is my understanding.

It is true. The school were able to open places to some others that hadn’t booked because the minor lads couldn’t go. Trip is from Monday to Thursday.