The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Hammar

Well it's a win,but a huge amount of improvement will be needed,

2-20 is a great score, but we missed another score able ,2-7 or 2-8

The first 20 minutes was as tactically clueless as I've seen any team, literally left 2 guys 1 on 1 with no cover in our own 45 and no pressure being exerted out the field, so they could pick their long passes.

A better team would have rinsed us for 2/3 goals during this period.

We got lucky with a ridiculous penalty decision which really took the wind out Laois's sails.

The third quarter were we outscored them 0-7 to nil was very good. We need to be playing at this level of performances for longer periods during games.

We slackened up again in the last 10-15 minutes allowing them to rattle off 4 in a row.

Tiarnan Madden really made the decision to not start him against Armagh look foolish, absolutely outstanding.

Hammar

Minors lose after being 5 points up against Donegal with 5 minutes to go, very disappointing.

rrs

Tough loss for the Minors but they should have managed it better being 6 up with a few minutes left. Donegal scored 1-4 without reply. The first half was really poor quality, second half livened up a bit. Donegal probably deserved it over the 60 minutes

Cavan_King

As others have said, you watched the first half of that game yesterday and couldn’t help but wonder what exactly have management been working on.

The defensive setup was clueless, leaving the full back line very isolated. I actually started to think back to the Wicklow game 2 years ago and wondered if a shock was on the cards.

Anyone know what the story is with the team GAA Go had? Someone had told me they showed a team to start with a number of changes - Liam Brady in goals and Ryan Donohoe starting for example. Watched it back last night and they did.

You would hope that Mickey will utilise the squad for the trip to London next week.

mylestheslasher

I think Laois made 4 changes to starting lineup, including the keeper. I'm thinking gaago applied the changes to the Cavan team instead of Laois.

Despite winning well it's hard to be convinced by Cavan, they just seem to have a very soft centre.

So frustrating with the minor loss, we hear about these good underage teams but again we seem mentally fragile. Same could be said for our U20s. We have a full time S&C coach, maybe we need a full time sports psychologist too.

KeepTheFaith

The minors deserved nothing from the game. Donegal were probably 8-10 points the better team but they kicked a huge amount of wides from scoreable positions.

There were a few good performances from Cavan but overall a worrying inability to execute the basic skills of the game consistently.

Tiarnan Madden had his best performance for Cavan, if he can improve his tackling he'll be a good player for us. I thought Gerry Smith was excellent.

Cavan will be in a no win position until the Semi Final and/or the Final if they get that far. If you win up to then, you were expected to win and if you lose it's a disaster.

mylestheslasher

The minors were 6 up with 5/6 mins left and conceded 1-4. That's mental, irrespective of what went before.

KeepTheFaith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120596610#Comment_120596610

You'd hope any team would see out that game. But this sort of thing happens more often at underage, momentum is everything.

I'd be more worried about how our lads are being coached. It seemed very conservative and low tempo. Donegal were far the superior team in the way they approached the game. We were much more ambitious last year, perhaps the management were cutting their cloth to suit.

mylestheslasher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120597441#Comment_120597441

My point is it's not just this one minor game, it's a regular occurrence. Minor game v Tyrone this year, u20 final last year. We win noting underage in what is it, 10 years? It's very worrying, especially the nature of these defeats.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592368#Comment_120592368

15/8 to win this out i don't think any sensible person would be backing us at that price or any price.

We kicked a few nice scores but overall the performance was not good enough against a Division 4 team. We should be beating London and then the toughest game in the group against Offaly to decide who goes straight into the Quarter finals.

Brutal crowd at the game for such a nice days there were a lot more at league games in January which says a lot about the interest in this competition.

baconsarnie

With the traffic I missed the calamitous opening ten minutes, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was a bit apprehensive about Saturday. Laois ran Westmeath very close last year and I figured that they might be more up for this game than us.

We kicked some seriously nice scores it has to be said. (McKiernan, Conor Brady, James Smith, Tiarnan Madden, Kiernan, Lynch and a few gems from Gerry Smith). Left a load behind us too. Only annoying thing was when we went 8 up, Laois looked absolutely gassed. Instead of racking up a monster score, we let them back into it a bit. I suppose the substitutions did break momentum a bit.

Both Maddens excelent, Tiarnan man of the match for me, but Gerry Smith not far behind.

rrs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120599232#Comment_120599232

Lapis finished midtale in Division 4 this year and Dublin scored 4-30 against them in the opening round of Leinster a few weeks ago. They were never going to be challenging for the Tailtean Cup

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120600082#Comment_120600082

Laois could have gotten promoted but for last day results. I know, its division four, but it probably was the most competitive division four in a while. Sligo, Leitrim, Wicklow and Laois were all in the mix on the last day.

I wasn't suggesting that i thought Laois would win it out, but that if we were very lax that they have scoring forwards we could end up having a bad day at the office.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120598467#Comment_120598467

Good point about the crowd. Was a huge turnout of the u20s, and not surprisingly very few stayed afterwards. Let's be honest, if we were in say Tullamore for an u20 final featuring Cavan, how many would stay for a Tailteann between Fermanagh and Wexford?

Crowds wise, i think Cavan support has dropped in recent years. Was a huge turnout for the first game of the league in Mullingar which probably reflected the gap between the Tailteann and the start of a new season. I think it's dropped since (which is surprising, as we performed well in the opening five games). I would have thought Fermanagh had as many as we did in Breffni, and definitely more in Croke Park. which is understandable given that we had a few outings in HQ in recent times (not withstanding the timing of the game was awful but that was for both teams).

Thunderbirds

I have no interest in going to Tailteann Cup games. Especially after the Armagh performance. I wouldn't miss many Cavan games including McKenna Cup but don't care for Tailteann Cup at all.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120602752#Comment_120602752

Did you go to any of the Tailteann games last year? If Cavan got to the final this year would you go?

I'm not having a go in case you're wondering. I think a lot of people from Cavan bought into Tailteann last year on the manner of the Donegal loss. We had a decent swing at them, didn't take our chances in Clones so there was a bit of energy about the place. The manner of the Armagh defeat is going to take a while to work its way out of people's memories I think.

Thunderbirds

Yeah went last year but have no interest this year. That Armagh performance was so disappointing. Never laid a glove on them.

KeepTheFaith

Wouldn't blame anyone for not going to that game, traffic and parking was a nightmare. It's too much to ask for a Tailteann round one game.

What was more disappointing for me was that a good chunk of the crowd that came for the Senior game left before the minor game and as usual we were left with a mostly silent, edgy support for our minors.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120603116#Comment_120603116

I didn't even know there was a minor game on until i seen some posts here about it !

rrs

Crowds are going to be down when there is a lot more matches to go and pay to watch. 8 from 16 in the Tailtean Cup to make the Quarter final. The serious stuff won't start until then

How many from Cavan would be expected to head over to Ruislip?

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120605299#Comment_120605299

The ridiculous part is having groups of 4 and three teams go through.

I’m not surprised people stayed away given that there was a 100% increase on the prices from last year and, no matter what, the game was always going to be pointless because Cavan will win one of their 3 games and qualify.

Traffic was always going to be a nightmare too with the U20 Final before.

baconsarnie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120606298#Comment_120606298

I think the price for Saturday was higher due to the u20 final, prices were €15 for other games. Still not impressed that kids are being charged this year, that just looks like price gouging to me.

The format is an absolute farce. The GAA is in danger of killing off a competition that a lot of people are at best ambivalent about by overdosing fans with meaningless games. I know managers and pundits are talking about panels needing more games to build them up, but I'm not sure the fans are going to get enthused about a rake of games against teams we've played regularly for the last few years. I would prefer a knock out and get the thing done.

rrs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120606298#Comment_120606298

Yeah the Group stages while it gives teams more games, they aren't exactly high intensity as 1 win will do. 3rd place in play for a quarter final places.

Last year's Tailtean Cup was new and worked well with the knockout format. Changing the system in just it's second year was a bit strange

Cavan_King

Was a bit surprised to hear the Graham interview where he cited a lack of intensity from the players and them playing like the Laois game was a challenge match in the first half. You would have thought, after the beating Armagh gave us, that the manager would have them hopping out of their skins to win.

Damien Donohoe has also realised that slow and sideways play hinders us getting goals in matches. Fook me, how is he only realising that now? It’s been an issue for the last decade.

rrs

Slow build up play was evident in the first half of the League final against Fermanagh l and the Tailtean Cup final The League final against Tipperary wasn't great either.

It looks worse in Croke Park with all the space to move the ball quickly

Cavan_King

Cavan 0-18

London 2-06

I dunno lads, I have a real worry about the Offaly game. I don’t think we have a hope in hell of winning the Tailteann Cup. The team is out of form since the loss to Antrim in the League and the whole lot seems to have gone stale under Graham.

It appears both team and management are just going through the motions until the season ends.

KeepTheFaith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620633#Comment_120620633

Were you at the game?

benjy1000

it didn’t sound too good on the wireless , any dacent team will cut through that defence like kerrygold

Hammar

Conceding 2 goals and another 5 goal chances( according to Paul Fitzpatrick's article in Celt) to either the worst or second worst team in competition ( based on league record) isn't exactly encouraging.

You see Longford annihilating Wicklow, yet us struggling with London. I'm not sure what positives can be taken, Faulkner injured also.

Offaly next week might be a struggle.

Cavan_King

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620682#Comment_120620682

No but I listened to the commentary and even they were struggling to put a positive spin on it. My days of trips abroad to follow sports teams are long behind me!

That result, following the collapse to Armagh & a highly questionable performance against Laois, is not at all encouraging.