The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

It would be nice to see a county championship like they have in Kerry purely to see more competitive teams in it and to give every footballer in the county a realistic chance of winning a senior county medal. That would help selection for county team panel too you'd imagine.

Whether that would improve our chances in the Ulster club championship is debatable. You can argue it might give marginal gains but doubt we'd see anything too dramatic. Only a club can go forward to Ulster so if a divisional team were to win, we'd be sending forward a beaten club. The likes of Ramor and Xlough at the moment have a natural ceiling anyway and need to get over the likes of Gowna and Kingscourt first before worrying about Ulster clubs. You can just as easily argue that introducing better teams into the championship will just reduce their chances of winning a county title so hardly preparation for beating better teams in the north.

. Cuchulains weren't good enough in previous years. They have a stronger panel this year with Tobin a good addition and a few players back from abroad. Going from 12 to 10 could have benefits ,but also if a team was hit by emigration they would struggle anyway. Laragh an example this year.

They should have a couple of Divisional teams and give them time to prepare. Run junior earlier as knockout. Not one senior club from Belturbet to Blacklion.

Well after you are out of la la land you realise how silly this is. Run Junior as knockout? You expect a percent of players just to sit and watch all year? How do you expect players to get better? or even get out of junior?

Belturbet to blacklion? Yes less population there obviously but the GAA clubs in that area hold a great sense of community for the people. So maybe instead of thinking about me fein, think about the people in them communites who are proud to have a gaa club.

The divisional championship is not the answer. Even people in Kerry are calling it to come to an end, the great Pat Spillane as one.

Realistically if Faulkner was there this weekend Kingscourt would've won and last year it was a referee who got in the way of xlough beating Kilcoo. We are closer than people think.

The championship needs restructure, the only way to do that is 4 championship divisions.

Gowna lost it on penalties three years ago, and two years ago absolutely hit self destruct after playing themselves into a winning position. So the last 4 appearances have all been defeats by the finest of margins.

Frustrating that Cavan teams are not getting a win but might not be as huge a margin as has been previously.

It's no secrect that if clubs have better players it would improve them.

You might aswell say that there are two less clubs in the county now than there was a few years ago, how many more would you be satisified with gone from there community?

Best wishes to Killian Clarke who has retired from Cavan duty. He may be the first of many.

Seems like there is going to be quite a changed panel for 2026 with lots of new faces. There should be good interest in the McKenna cup games to see some of the new panel members. Don’t see any fixture details for it yet.

Likewise, I always felt that full back was his ideal spot but his versatility and the weaknesses in other positions in the team saw him played anywhere and everywhere. He was outstanding at full back in the successful u21 teams of times past.

A huge presence for Cavan for more than a decade. I've a lovely photo at home of him with my kids at a game in 2018. Great servant and possibly our most decorated modern player. Wish him all the best.

If you read my point, I said any clubs amalgamating at all competitive levels in juvenile so this isn’t just the odd bad year where numbers are low.

They are amalgamating at U14, U16 & U18. All of the amalgamations named above are consistently joining for a decade or more at all juvenile levels.

You refer to them as “temporary juvenile blends”. These amalgamations are actually permanent at this point if you look into them. Your knowledge of juvenile football is obviously limited though as you’ve quoted the wrong age gradings - the county moved from odds 3 years ago.

How exactly is it having a sneer? It’s a point I have often made so off your high horse.

I’d argue it is Cavan’s football problem. You have a dilution of the quality that is there. Quantity over quality.

Do you think it’s good for clubs like Corlough and Maghera to have endured the slow, laborious end that they have? For the patrons or their players? The writing was on the wall for both years ago.

Bit of pace brought into the panel. Tristan Hoffman, Ryan Tobin, Niall McGee, Favor and Emmanuel Shehu, Cian and Aaron Shekelton are some of the players. Conor Casey I presume is in too.

It really boils down to the county’s coaching systems and overall coaching of coaches. Sure, smaller populations naturally have fewer players to choose from, but the real difference comes from how the coaching framework is organised, something that ultimately falls under the responsibility of the current senior football manager.

Has Adam not been there a few years? They transferred in so not relevant to amaglations.

My point is which you ignored is the clubs you mentioned would not do much to raise standards in Senior Championship which was the original point as they wouldn’t even win intermediate.

Adam is there a few years. How are transfers not relevant to amalgamations? They transferred in because of my point you ignored - the slow, laborious demise of their own. Players having to transfer is relevant to amalgamations.

No they probably wouldn’t but those clubs would only be the start. Demographics will mean other clubs will need to amalgamate. Eventually we’ll probably have about 30 clubs I’d imagine.

I’ve listed a whole number of positives above re amalgamations but I don’t see much argument to the contrary about what sense it makes for struggling clubs to endure a tortured, pathetic end as they fade out of existence?

They had to transfer to play a decent level of football and to actually enjoy the odd win. A club shouldn’t be making national newspapers because they hadn’t won a game in a decade. That was a farcical situation and you continue to ignore the questions I’ve asked yet attempted to throw mud when you weren’t happy with a response I’d given.

We’ll see how Gowna & Lacken go at minor level as a tester. They’ve been joining at U16 and minor level for a few years now so that’s a good shout by you in fairness. Lacken conceded a game in the League this year as they’re short numbers. See, you’re even finding clubs to assimilate yourself when trying to argue against the point.