The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

rrs

I think Ryan O Neill made his debut in the 2019 McKenna Cup against Queens. It was on his home pitch in Ballyconnell. he's been on the extended panel since?

He's still young enough, but has to make his mark against the likes of Antrim. He showed well but his decision making could be better. He had a goal chance with a player free, a couple of balls bounced off him. Maybe another day it would have went his way

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120086343#Comment_120086343

I will stand to correction but I don't recall him being mentioned as being part of the panel after McKenna cup in 2019. Given how the panel in 2020 was always in flux, i don't remember him being involved and thought that last year (2022) was his first year back in, with a half against Armagh in McKenna cup and a few minutes against Antrim in Ulster being his sole outings. He was almost always in the matchday panels for the league last year anyways.

mogue77

You are correct in this as far as I know, this was also Conor rehills first game that match in ballyconnell and he played in every game that year after.

rrs

Roscommon a similar size County are trialing Divisional teams in the Senior Championship this year . 12 Senior Clubs and 4 Amalgamations.

The Kerry format is 8 Senior Clubs and 8 Divisional teams.

https://roscommonherald.ie/2022/12/08/revamped-county-senior-football-championship-to-include-divisional-teams/

Thunderbirds

The Kerry system has been exposed as nonsense in recent times with only 8 senior clubs. Players within Kerry very unhappy with it.

baconsarnie

Team released for tonight's game against Armagh shows two changes from Sunday, with Ray to start (for his 100th appearance at senior level, some achievement) and Cian Madden in for Boylan.

McCabe from Arva, Wilson from Lacken and David Brady from Ballyhaise listed on the panel, as are Conor Madden, the Gunner and Gearoid.

Armagh will be bringing a big crowd with them and gunning for this, would (Kevin Keegan voice on) love it, absolutely love it if we sent them home packing. The priority is to have us humming for the 29th but an extra game against an Ulster side would be no harm for us at all.

tanko

Is it being broadcast anywhere?

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120094938#Comment_120094938

Ulster GAA TV.

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120095015#Comment_120095015

Are you sure of that, no mention on their website that i see.

Edit, found it.

piplip87

Didn't make it back in time from work to make it. How was it ? How was Maguire ?

KeepTheFaith

A good night's work there. Armagh were probably the better side in the first half, Ryan O'Neill took his goal well. Armagh made 11 changes at half time which completely ruined their shape. Graham did the sensible thing and made the changes slowly. Cavan were completely running away with it and an excellent goal put respectability on the scoreboard for Armagh.

McVeety was immense, thought Holla did well too. Was impressed with O'Rourke off the bench chipping in with 2 points. Tiarnan Madden had a great game, seems to constantly be available and aware where the space is. He looks very comfortable already. Evan Finnegan did well. Maguire did ok at midfield nothing spectacular.

Good campaign so far given the level of inexperience we are putting out there.

celt262

McVeety is some addition to the team this year he has been the best player on the field these two games.

rrs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120093646#Comment_120093646

8 clubs is too few when they have 64 clubs in the County. Kerry dominate All Ireland intermediate and junior as result.

McVeety was excellent again. 3 great scores. Probably needs to stop answering back to ref though.

Bummer1234

Seen the pitch last night on the stream and parts of the pitch didn't look to be in great condition, In front of the stand and busy parts down the center of the field,It will only get worse with the League...

Could it be another year where the county board send cavan championship games all around to county to give the pitch time to recover like the time they did when they replaced the sod. Seen videos from Derry/Tyrone game and pitch was supreme.

Hammar

Very impressed with the performance last night. Horrible conditions, but i thought we produced some real quality at times. Nobody played poorly,but the highlights for me included:

Ray's kicking was outstanding,

I thought Evan Finnegan after a dicey opening 10 minutes was very good,

McVeety was outstanding, Tiernan Madden is going to be extremely difficult to shift from Left Half back, i thought he was very good again.

Clarke caught some good ball and went through alot of work, Maguire got on the ball and contributed also.

Oisin Brady and Ryan O Neil and Martin Reilly were very good also.

Of the subs, Brandon Boylan and Brian O Rourke contributed 3 points, but the most satisfying aspect was that all the lads brought on, looked comfortable at this level.

It will be interesting to see how Mickey rotates for Saturday, McVeety, Holla, Clarke, Gerard Smith, Oisin Kiernan and Martin Reilly have played the majority of 2 games in 4 games. Will he be inclined to rest some of them to ensure, they aren't overloaded this early in the year, with the Westmeath game, only two weeks away??

Cavan_King

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I thought Gerry Smith & Oisin Kiernan had their quietest games in a good while. Martin Reilly’s point in the first half was a touch of class.

I was surprised to see the three lads and Killian Clarke left on so long. Thought they could have been hooked a bit earlier.

My only worry would be we got a hour early start and went five points up but the next 25 minutes were all Armagh. It good to get the win but a pity the Armagh changes ended up ruining the game as a contest.

KeepTheFaith

Watched back the goal on the stream, a bit worrying to see Madden and Rehill both let the Armagh goal scorer by them without laying a hand on him. Rehill didn't have a great reintroduction.

We went out of the game for the last 20 minutes of the first half, mainly because we were lumping ball in to outnumbered players and Armagh's tackling was excellent. At the other end we weren't getting the same pressure on the Armagh forwards.

Mickey needed to leave some experience on the field but we're left with the possibility of Clarke and McVeety playing 3 very demanding games in a week. It will be interesting to see how Mickey handles that, do you give McVeety as much game time as possible to make sure he's up to speed before the league? To be fair, he's been the best player on the field in the last 2 games so rustiness clearly isn't an issue.

I don't think Graham is too bothered about the McKenna cup and as much as we'd like to put out our best side against Tyrone I think he will continue to give lads a chance. I'd like to see David Brady get a start and let Brian O'Rourke start at full forward. We should be attempting to make more use of the mark.

rrs

I don't think starting players 3 games in a week in Janurary is worth it, especially on soft pitches . The pitch didn't look in good condition, whether it will hold up for a game on Saturday. Heavy rain since.

mylestheslasher

They played a McKenna cup game in the past on the 3g, wonder is that still an option?

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120098897#Comment_120098897

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The Armagh folk certainly weren’t impressed with it. I saw one description of it today as a “quagmire”.

My understanding is that the powers that be were told to stop playing juvenile finals on it by Prunty back in the wet weather in October yet they were still playing them there in the first week of November.

The weather was terrible tonight and the forecast doesn’t show much sigh of showers stopping.

Poor aul Burns learned not to bounce a ball on wet ground at the end of the first half.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120101033#Comment_120101033

There were two underage games in the month of November on the pitch and November was a dry month so i don't think that is the issue. Was there any Ulster club games played there in November or December they would likely do more damage?

Hammar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120101631#Comment_120101631

Drumlane/Craigbane played at KBP on 30th October

Castlerahan and Gowna didnt play in Breffni.

tanko

Is James Smith on the panel at the moment?

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120102394#Comment_120102394

My understanding is that he is one of the people on the panel who are injured at the moment.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120096571#Comment_120096571

It's a balancing act, you want to give new lads a chance to see what they can offer but at the same time, you want to get game time into lads and have a fairly strong 15 to head down to Mullingar at the end of the month and ideally hit the ground running. From the pre-Antrim talk it was about who was available to start due to injuries and illness.

Whilst the McKenna cup isn't remotely important in the greater scheme of things, ideally you want a balance. How much would we learn if we put out 15 debutantes against Armagh and got tanked? Anyways over two games we have had nine lads make their debuts, had two lads return to the panel since 2019 and players like Liam Brady, Oisin Brady, David Brady and Ryan O'Neill get more game time. And the Holla looks to be firing again. Can't ask for more than that.

Ideally Saturday might see a bit of rotation (Liam Brady back in nets or a debut for Gary O'Rourke) and maybe a few minutes for some of the more established players (how far off is Paddy Lynch? James Smith? Conor Smith) before the 29th. As it stands, IF we had everyone fully fit for Westmeath, some lovely selection headaches. Wouldn't fancy making a call for the starting 15!

rrs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120102342#Comment_120102342

There was a Hurling semi final played on it,18 of December. All Ireland Intermediate.

Tooreen from Mayo v Liatroim of Down.

They should have had those games in Croke Park at that time of year since they had Senior hurling semi and football there. Only Decent surface this time of year.

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120101631#Comment_120101631

***this post is for use on Boards.ie only and not for reproduction or screenshotting on any external websites or Facebook pages**

Did my post say the two games in November were the only issue? My post said they were told in October yet continued into the following month.

October had been a wet month and the guidance they got half way through it was no more games on the pitch. They proceeded to play games on the pitch then and into November.

We’re now in January with National League starting in two weeks and the pitch is in terrible condition.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120105372#Comment_120105372

I don't care what you said a few underage games doesn't have the pitch saturated now.

Cavan_King

Team named.

Niall Carolan in for Cooke

Conor Brady in for Enda Maguire

Brandon Boylan for Martin Reilly

Will be interesting to see if lads like Ciaran Brady, McVeety, Gerry Smith & Oisin Kiernan drop out or play three games in a week.

Still no sign of the likes of Conor Smith, Gearoid & Paddy Lynch in the starting panel.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120106285#Comment_120106285

Gearoid was listed for Wednesdays game.