The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

cavan4sam

Has Finbar Reilly any involvement in any of the underage teams, I'd have thought he'd have been a good manager at minor or under 20!

Lemlin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737660#Comment_118737660

Hyland was part of Donohoe’s back room team as an advisor on the ticket I thought?

I know Terry has said he wanted a while out. I’m not sure he’d want to go from managing two senior intercounty teams back to U20.

Someone once told me Terry’s greatest strength was getting the right support team around him.

Lemlin

Just checked and here it is:

https://www.anglocelt.ie/2020/12/29/donohoe-aiming-high-with-u20s/

“Terry Hyland is in as an advisor overall, he will be on the end of the phone and will be available to give us a dig-out when he’s available

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737932#Comment_118737932

He did a J Mac podcast there. He seems to be back involved with St Pats. A large part of the podcast was re how they thought they had a strong squad this year but went out in the QFs.

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737715#Comment_118737715

Were those lads you spoke to from West Cavan by any chance? They might have been delighted to have training sessions down in Templeport but I don’t think the lads from Cuchulainns or Virginia were!

I know of one young lad was getting up at 6 to go to Dublin for work, getting home by 6 that evening after a day of physical labour and then having to race past Breffni, pretty much the mid point in the county, to get down to the far side of Cavan for training.

And at the same time Damo was talking on the pod about how Covid bringing about more remote training would lead to improved conditions for players.

Bleating Lamb

Leitrim man here wondering how ye reckon Cavan will do in Markievicz Park tomorrow?…..Sligo seem to have found some good young players this year so should give ye a fair game.

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118738219#Comment_118738219

We’ll have it tough. Game could easily go either way and we are missing Thomas Galligan and up to 3 other important starters: Killian Clarke, Gerry Smith & Jason McLoughlin all in doubt.

Thunderbirds

It was Gary Farrelly got Denn to two finals.

Lemlin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118738979#Comment_118738979

No it wasn’t.

https://www.hoganstand.com/county/cavan/article/index/114582

From that article:

Team manager, Kevin McDonnell, trainer Gary Farrelly and selectors, Cathal Reilly and Thomas Smith all contributed to the club's great achievement. Their style of management seemed to suit the players who responded to their approach with confidence and commitment.

One of the Denn lads told me himself how good McDonnell was. I believe he also got Castlerahan to a senior final did he? He got Lavey to two semi finals and won a junior with Laragh I think also.

baconsarnie

Is Donohoe good enough at u20 level. Much like a player starting out, he will need to be judged on games. Early yet. As noted, he is missing his best two players.

but our run of underage failures suggests a structural issue beyond one manager. Fans putting this all on a manager with a few games is akin to a manager hooking a corner forward in the middle of a tanking.

what is definitely needed is someone to do a review with a mind to getting us back to where we were developing very competitive and successful underage teams. Hyland would ideal for that if he couldn’t be coaxed out of retirement for full time management. I think some people are only realising how much Terry did for this county. He should have had one more year at least after 2016 but that’s another day’s argument.

the idea that Donohoe got the gig so that We Are Cavan wouldn’t go hard on the County Board is laughable. Local media (not just WAC or the Celt) never go hard on their local sports. It’s not in their interest. For one, it means you lose access to players and management fairly quickly. Plus, it’s Cavan, and you’re either going to run into someone you know the day after you write or say something.

Lemlin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118739585#Comment_118739585

It depends whether people have faith in, and to that extent respect for, the manager to be honest. I don’t think people would be questioning a more successful individual. It’s also his second year and last year went terribly so it’s not as if he’s a newcomer to the role.

I believe Terry went because he didn’t have the support of all the players which was unfortunate. He had built something good and we lost two years under McGleenan.

Finbarr Reilly was involved in 2017 with Cavan and he spoke on his JMac interview re seeing it as a wasted year because they never nailed down a consistent and exact style of play. It seemed to change week to week.

Donohoe getting that role has led to changes on the podcast. They stopped talking about refereeing performances, for example, and rarely comment on them negatively.

mylestheslasher

No excuses with weather today, a perfect day for football

baconsarnie

You’re assuming the few of us here can he trusted to agree in what we see!!! 😀

baconsarnie

Interesting starting 15 named. James Smith in the bench, Argue and Clarke lister in the middle. Finnegan stays in the corner, Jason back at half back. Gerry Smith listed, Cormac O Reilly, Cian Madden & Lynch on the bench.

Niall Murray and Stephen Smith listed to start

baconsarnie

More changes to the changes....

James Smith & Mc Kenna to start in the middle. Clarke and Gerry Smith don’t start. Lynch, Madden Jr and Caoimhin at fulll forward.

Thunderbirds

That article is completely wrong. Gary was manager. Kevin helped a few times. And no he didn't get Castlerahan to any finals. Michael Reilly did to two.

Lemlin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118740812#Comment_118740812

I’ll trust the member of the Denn panel from then that told me McDonnell was the manager. The article was also with the club chairman so I’d be surprised if it’s wrong.

A lot of luck today that Sligo were stupid enough to get a red card early in the second half. The quest for 70 consecutive minutes of good football continues.

We pulled the game out of the fire today. Free taking was poor.

Hammar

Followed it on twitter,as I had other commitments,6-2 then 8-5 down, I think we were all a bit worried,but fair play, outscored Sligo 1-8 to 0-2 in last 15 minutes.

You do feel we are going to absolutely annihilate someone before this league campaign is over... I expected us to be winning each game by 8-10 points,but it hasn't turned out that way...

Another 6 points from Gearoid today, is there another player in the country whom is more important to his county team,than he is to us right now??

baconsarnie

We rode our luck today, but we were the better team. There was a tight wind in the first half and Sligo bizarrely set out to contain us. They weren’t 4 points better than us and I wasn’t that alarmed by having to over turn that score line. Carrabine aside I thought Sligo were poor.

We got some luck (goal and red card) and we weren’t great but a win is a win.

Gunner was man of the match for me. He’s not going to get headlines but he turned over the ball again and again and one of his shoulders may have caused a shockwave picked up on the Richter scale. Podge wasn’t far behind & great to see Jason back and play well (first half especially).

I think that was Oisin Kiernan’s best game since 2020. Kicked two brilliant scores, ran the ball well and also kicked some great passes inside.

Paddy Lynch looked lively in the second half and won lots of his ball. Nice point from Caoimhin too. I thought Finnegan did well apart from one time he ran into traffic and got turned over. Kelly did well coming on- didn’t look out of place and good sign for the depth of the panel. I thought Argue did okay but that black card was completely senseless.

Nice to see Gerry Smith come on and show no major concerns after the Carlow game. Kicked a fine score. And big Gearoid, what can you say?

Barring the Gunner & Faulkner our tackling was awful again. And we went to sleep at the end of the first half at our own kick outs which led to two Sligo scores. If we had have been 4-2 down at half time we would have walked all over them.

baconsarnie

I didn’t think it was too bad- we missed 3 frees in the first half I think? The wind was deceptively strong in the first half.

Sligo kicked 6 points with a strong wind behind them in the first half. I think only 2/3 from play. Our pressure in their kickers was very good it has to be said.

i was in the card carrying “let it into f*ck” section of the stand. Some “fans” going absolutely ballistic that we weren’t kicking it long against the wind! If we hadn’t have coughed up cheap frees and went asleep at our kick outs we could have limited Sligo to a handful of scores in the first half. It wasn’t pretty but it was fairly composed in spells.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118741977#Comment_118741977

He replaced Niall Murray, who I am a huge fan of but who was completely ineffective today. Smith ran into traffic twice and was turned over early on but did okay. Definitely looks “sturdier” this year.

That win seriously flatters Tipp. They kicked 8 scores against Wexford- sounds like the keeper had a bad day at the office.

we should be beating them- again like today it might not be straightforward but if Podge, the Gunner & Jason play like today, we’re not conceding 4 goals.

mylestheslasher

We played into a stiff breeze In the first half and Sligo flooded players into the scoring zone and we didn't seem too interested in trying to punch through them. That being said i thought our full back line was excellent stopping sligo getting early ball clean but then we just lost the plot in the last 10 minutes, our kick out malfunctioned and isolated men bringing ball into contact allowing sligo to turn it over and get 4 pts up. We also missed 3 frees we just cannot be missing in that 1st half.

2nd half we started on front foot and I was confident we'd pull Sligo in. The red and black cards they got really effected their efforts to contain us even though the Ref let them away with a lot of lying down feigning injury during their black card time which killed momentum.

Eventually we started knocking over some great scores and bringing on Killian and Gerry settled us down and we were helped by a big blunder by their keeper giving us a goal. For me Gunner was mom, faulkner excellent. Gearoid 6 pts what can you say. The worry is some lads got a start today but didn't do an awful lot with their chance. Smith did OK, was badly turned over once but also set up a nice counter attack at one point. A good win on the road considering the players we didn't start so you have to be happy with it.

cavan4sam

Funny sort of a performance

1st half was sloppy and some bad misses from frees but I was in the terrace on that side and there was a swirling wind so it might explain it a little, 2 points in the first half wasn't a great return but I wasn't really worried about a 4 point deficit with that wind in the 2nd half

I was surprised that sligo actually pretty much matched us physically in a lot of positions

Backs pretty much solid throughout

Michael Argue with the exception of a couple of early balls offered very little

James Smith not very dominant in the middle

Gearoid rolls Royce in the 2nd half

Sligo keeper made a costly mistake as usual but it came at a great time for us

Our subs made a great impact in last quarter and we controlled the game to the end which was satisfactory

We need a result against Tipp next week as I'd much prefer to play Sligo again in croke Park than Tipp

Anyway 4 from 4

Much done more to do

Cavan_King

Pretty much echo what others have said. Sligo were disappointing and I nearly think we had talked them up as the actual rankings on here had them in the bottom teams in the country.

The first half was disappointing as I have seen free taking cost Cavan on too many occasions over the years. We need to be knocking over frees when the pressure is on. If nothing else, it keeps you either in touching distance or keeps the opposition at bay generally. I often saw Mickey Newman, for example, get Meath out of trouble in games over the years.

Great that Stephen Smith and Benjamin Kelly got a good half hour or so in the legs. Fantastic to be able to spring players of the calibre of Gerry Smith & Killian Clarke from the bench to settle things for the last 15 minutes.

No sign of Cormac O'Reilly, Conor Madden, Luke Fortune, Martin Reilly and where the hell is Conor Brady? It would be nice if Mickey Graham actually kept supporters somewhat informed. We were posing questions re Fortune on here last week but We Are Cavan reckoned in their match preview he hadn't been fit for the Carlow game.

Lemlin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118744724#Comment_118744724

It was very hard on him. He had a breakout year in 2019 and then at the start of 2020 he gets badly injured on the Thursday night before the Armagh league game. He had come on against Armagh when we were getting hammered in the McKenna Cup a few weeks previously and really made a difference.

No matter what esle I'm sure he's a good lad to have around the panel. I remember a few weeks after the bad injury he was in Breffni at the Westmeath game showing the mascots around.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118750599#Comment_118750599

I was on the terrace that side in the first half. Galligan acts (or is given i would imagine as captain) a role almost like a coach with licence to direct his defenders. He's been doing it for years. I heard him screaming at Finnegan at twice to drop back to provide cover if Sligo broke but nothing I haven't heard him do before. The bench did the same and also for other players (notably Conroy, who was sweeper) to do the same. There was one time in the first half where Cavan were potentially going to be exposed with Finnegan following the attack and the bench and Galligan spotted the danger and started screaming at Finnegan to drop back and cover the wing, which he did. There wasn't any hostility that i could see either from Galligan and certainly not from Finnegan, who was obviously keen to show he could be disciplined and follow instructions.

Could someone on HS be talking utter nonsense? Perish the thought.

mylestheslasher

I heard pretty much what was said, Galligan was a bit frustrated the Finnegan didnt follow/understand the instruction he was giving him and he said something like come on you have to listen to me or something like that. It wasn't anything that I would be worried about. I do think Galligan does a bit too much yapping and telling every player where to go and what to do is a bit like he's playing his xbox. Fellas have to be allowed to play too. Sligo keeper was even worse, screeching for the whole match.

Thunderbirds

You want a yappy keeper. Nature of the position.

rrs

Thomas Smith and Paul Smith barely got a chance to impress. The sub keeper Liam Brady well likely be there until the end of championship without featuring all year.

Mickey Graham should have mixed the team up against Tyrone in McKenna cup ,and looked at some of these players .

It's the old reliable like Gearoid McKiernan getting Cavan through the Division 4 gamesm

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118752464#Comment_118752464

We have the best player in division four, and you're suggesting don't play him? How realistic is that- if we struggled to get out of (or worse still, didn't get promoted) because we "rested" Gearoid, Clarke, the Gunner, Faulkner and so on, Mickey Graham would be slaughtered.

He was damned for not taking the league seriously enough. Now he's damned for taking it too seriously.