The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Who is left from last year?

Shane Tynan stood out more then Devine in the few Ballymachugh games I saw this year.

WAC say no Miller, McEvoy or Oisin Kieran on panel. Conor Brady back.

It’s funny. I said this on here years back and got lambasted at the time, including by the Celt Editor afterwards. I remember thinking at the time one swallow doesn’t make a Summer and unfortunately that was the case. One good year at the time hasn’t stayed the norm.

In fairness to him, it doesn’t help that he has constantly had to play through injury for the county.

McEvoy involved in the Sigerson. Maybe wants to focus on that for the early part of the year.

There is no break for players compared to other sports. Niall McGee , Ryan Tobin are playing into December and possibly jan with the club. Then into a county panel.

Its the Denn Oisin Kiernan not the Castlerahan Oisin Kiernan I believe

Kiernan from Denn wasn't part of the panel in 25. He opted out.

Motions to change the definition of a club and to introduce 11-a-side competitions are the GAA’s demographics committee’s first moves towards tackling rural decline.

Their report 'No One Shouted Stop – Until Now' was launched in Croke Park on Thursday and details the GAA’s plans to address the stark reality of rural depopulation and urban overpopulation it faces.

Establishing new clubs where the existing ones are challenged by the large swathes of people moving to the area and enshrining existing ones in rural Ireland where they struggle for numbers are key goals

As things stand, the ability to field a adult team in a championship is the definition of a club but that could be amended by a proposal at Congress in February, says national demographics chairman Benny Hurl.

A club that maybe isn't fielding at adult level now, but which maybe has an underage unit, if they do and if they're playing in games and competitions and championships, then you will be awarded club status. A lot of the small clubs have said that this is what we want. It basically is reflecting what the clubs want, what the counties want.

“It's not a threat to anybody. It's only going to enhance and make the association stronger. And as well as that it sends a message to the small, weakest, most vulnerable clubs that you do belong, that there is a place for you. Because at the minute they probably feel under pressure. This is a sort of a lifeline to them.” 

The second motion, if passed, would allow for championships where there would be less than 15 players a side.

“The rule in the book right now says that adult championship must be played 15-a-side,” Hurl points out. “What we're proposing, very simply, is to go down to 11-a-side. That will allow county committees to organise competitions at 11-a-side. And that will help the smallest, weakest, most vulnerable clubs.” 

I think you’ll find it was Peter Quinn who said we’d too many clubs in Cavan long before I did. Write him a letter if someone having that view is keeping you awake at night.

We already have clubs manipulating underage dispensations so now we are going to introduce it to adult level. Wonderful.

Did anyone attend any of the forums on change for 2027? It was certainly brought up at the one I was at the ridiculousness of clubs arguing they need to amalgamate at juvenile levels but then entering two teams at the age level!

No I don’t. For example, Lacken & Gowna could field separately at U15 level in 2023 in Division 3. In 2024, they amalgamated for U16 (change to evens so exact same squads), go into Division 2 and win the championship, fielding a second team at a lower division. To make matters worse, they did the same in 2025 and win Division 2 League before going to the Division 1 championship final - highlighting the fact they never should have been in Division 2. Again, fielding a team at a lower Division. You tell me where any of that makes sense?

There was a full table of football people couldn’t understand these amalgamations at the sitting I was at. Amalgamations should be because you don’t have the numbers to field a team so two teams joining shouldn’t have the numbers to field two teams.

Dispensations are available if you’re short numbers. For example, clubs even field 11 a side at some age groups.

As one man said, throw all these amalgamations into one division and leave them there and you’ll see how many continue.

Was there a decision made on the U2

If you’ve a dozen lads, pull up a few of the younger age group and field 11 or 13 like most clubs do.

The majority of amalgamations could be avoided if clubs really tried. A lot of it is trickery to try and win competitions. Nothing else. You can only throw out hearsay, no concrete examples of where it was needed. I can throw out plenty more examples like the above to the contrary. The Gaels & Killygarry amalgamating a few years back!?

Word at the meeting the other evening was that Kill/Drung have realised it doesn’t work and are going it alone going forward rather than amalgamating and entering two teams as they regularly did previously.

Go to a meeting and get involved and you might understand these issues.

I don’t how anyone has come to the conclusion Kill/Drung doesn’t work, it’s a longstanding agreement going back decades. It’s also one parish so makes sense to amalgamate at underage anyway.
A positive from some of the recent fixture meetings is a possibility of a return of double fixtures for 1st and 2nd teams!

Hopefully going forward u20/minor & reserve competitions will be handled better

How many national schools is in your catchment area, you are hardly struggling for numbers if you have multiple schools feeding players into your club?

On your retention you are keeping 90% that would not be normal up through the age groups how do you manage that ?

U do well to have 90% of lads still playing from u12 to minor.