The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Who are the players knocking about with the right age profile who should be in there? Genuine question.

Great post, loads of things I would agree with, espcially the Armagh game under Mickey Graham.

In terms of listing Gearoid, it's not unique to Cavan to have a dummy panel or team and try to bluff opposition management to plan for something you don't intend to do. Can't see the point in it myself. Sure McGuinness did the same, and he's a genius :0

Your point about needing to remain competitive now and plan for the future is the problem. Our best players are proven and have done it (inconstantly, granted) and we definitely don't need to go back to 2012 when we started from scratch.

I still am not sure there is loads of talent just waiting there. You mention Armagh but they are the outlier here. Almost all successful intercounty teams are based on waves of successufl u20 teams. Armagh have had the luxury / luck / foresight of consistent management with 100% player buy-in but uo to last year there were years of talk among Armagh supporters that McGeeny's time was well up (a friend of mine thought he was finished in 2019 when we beat them). He was given time that no other county will ever give a manager.

Our only successes in the last 50 years have been based on success at underage level. Granted in 97 we had a good age profile but back to back Ulster titles in 2019 and 2020 was based on youth development.

Agree with most of those two posts.

I'll just say on the Armagh manager Baconsarnie, the outlier is they got lucky with a great manager, not that they stuck with a manager. Fans might have been getting frustrated but players were always 100% behind him which is a near impossible task for 99% of managers for that space of time. If they had stuck with Grimley they'd be nowhere today so you have to know when to move on managers too and go with a better option and move fast if they exist.

It's not only development Cavan_King. There's so many small little things that add up to a general disconnect between clubs and county. Hopefully a new chairman will improve things. Yes I've heard plenty complaints of very negative experience in the development area for young players. This sours their view early of playing for Cavan and that can be infectious. Then when they do come into the senior setup, some have been treated poorly. Go back to their clubs dejected, their club form suffers for a bit afterwards too and it takes a bit of work to get their confidence back. There's also some bullying that has gone on in there with young players. Then scheduling county finals in home ground or the pulling the bit of a fast one on clubs when it comes to club fundraiser monies. Even when you go looking for money now for a club some people are very wary and suspicious of where the money is going and that it's not 100% what it says on the tin. All this adds up to a club first mentality for a lot of people. And I'm not saying Breffni development is not important or it could be a great thing, but you have to be wary at what cost.

Genuine question. How did they only score 1 point in the second half against Tyrone if they're that good?

This should tell us a lot about the quality of Cavan juvenile football because these three lads have been tearing it up for years now.

As another poster said above, we struggled against Tyrone in the second half to even get the ball up the pitch but it’s a valid question : were Tyrone very good or are these lads over rated?

I think we have a good overall club game. There’s probably a bit of a gap after them but Gowna and Crosserlough would be a match for the champions from any other county IMO.

We were second best for a lot of that game but still could have won it. I felt there were at least 2 frees not given to us at the end, the ref bottled both.

Still, couldn't say Kerry didn't deserve it. A very odd Cavan side, playing in bursts but drifting out of games and making lots of unforced errors. Possibly the athleticism isn't as high as their skill level and that gets exposed against sides who have both.

So you think you should put three or four years development into lads and then just release a promising player away from the setup for a year?

Would it not be better to keep a group of lads like that together and get them to push each other on?

They haven’t exactly been flogged in development panels. U15 & U16 panels are one session a week.

What U15 and U16 development panels are you on about? The Cavan U15 & U16 development panels do one session a week on Saturday morning.

Not regularly for the 15s & 16s panels. They might the odd time but it’s rare. Other counties, even Fermanagh, do extra over school holidays, like Halloween week, but Cavan don’t tend to.

I read somewhere recently that mayo don't allow lads into under 20s on 1st year of senior football it could be bs but it might explain why Kobe mc Donald wasn't playing this year

Not sure where you read that, but it's incorrect.

Paul Gilmore & David Dolan from this years 20s side both played u20 all 3 years they were eligible. Next year we'll have another 5 lads in that boat (Coghill, McGreal, Mortimer, Beirne & Lydon). With Daithí Butler playing this year, who'd have been part of '24 minor panel with the potential to be another 3-year 20. No rules or selection criteria that rule out lads playing. With lots of the u18 lads that might have been close (though not one specifically mentioned) featuring for the u19 dev panel & getting a few games along with some comparable development coaching to the u19s that were playing 20s this year.

Edge of the seat finale yesterday. Played in spurts. At times we looked like we'd get overrun but hung in. When we were on top we looked very good. Very disappointed in the end not to get something out of the game. Opportunity was there to punish them. Probably should have got a free or two but there were other opportunities had we showed a little more composure.

But overall have to be very happy. You'd imagine it's between Kerry and Tyrone now. We competed well with both even though playing at a huge physical disadvantage. Some of our lads look to have big futures. Power and ability up the middle to midfield. GK is a talent. Forwards hadn't their best day but there is clearly talent there. Was a tough assignment for the smaller lads but they showed skill and bottle, and once they gain in size loads of potential there.

Yeah there were lots of frustrations in the game had me pulling my hair out but that's football. They had ample opportunity to throw in the towel too which we've seen from many Cavan teams before. But they stuck at it and stayed swinging till the end. Overall you'd have to feel positive with that group.

Certainly from what I've seen in the two games it's the spine of the team up to midfield you'd be crediting with our progress this year plus the GK. That's no bad thing. Plus we were playing 2 very very good teams so you have to give defenders credit too. If I were a Tyrone scout looking at the second game yesterday, I wouldn't be getting too excited over Kerr either from the 45 minutes I saw. Conditions were tough on top. Days like yesterday are a huge learning experience and build character if the attitude is right.