The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Also on a side note it was very disappointing to see some of the cavan players head to the dressing room mid presentation, I know they were hurting but ffs man up and show a little respect

Take on his man the odd time and try and pull some some of there other defenders towards him and make room for others. Mackey used to be able to do it along with McVeety.

Mackey & McVeety weren’t expected to cover the ground a player like him does. Smith is end to end. Management seemed to have told him to play deeper yesterday also. I’m not sure to be honest why you’re singling out who many people see as our best performers when there were plenty of others didn’t pull their weight.

Gerry Smith was our best player yesterday, bizarre to pick him out as being a problem.

I critised him for slowing down the game and standing soloing when he off all our players has ability and pace to take on his opponent.

Having now saw the challenge again on TV, I agree with the red card. It is what cost us the game but the ref was correct.

He was one of the few you could say played well, but in reality no one was outstanding. We looked like a team that had over trained. We were leggy and lacked any sense of urgency. Aside from Gerry, Jason and Killian Clarke put in big shifts. I thought the Gunner did a good job on Heslin and Faulkner did well and his never say die attitude almost got us over the line. Gearoid and Paddy Lynch alongside Gerry Smith our only attacking threats. A lot of players didn't get out of second gear at all. Credit to Westmeath, they had a good game plan and everyone worked their socks off. We were as flat as a pancake when we should have been flying out of the blocks like we did against Antrim, Donegal and Down. You would have hoped for a final that we would leave it all out there but the reality of it was we were second best in almost everything- and the annoying thing is that we are way better than that performance.

I really hope that the panel and management take a pause and that no one makes any rash decisions about their futures. Yes, it was disappointing to have YET AGAIN left silverware behind us in a game that we could have won, but I would prefer not to have people walk away just because of that disappointment.

I definitely think he should stay on. Sometimes there is a knee-jerk to a bad result and think that the only option is change, but I think we've seen enough progress this year and the players clearly buy into this approach. I would hate to think we had to start again from scratch and if we did, we probably would see a lot of change in terms of player turnover. Mickey Graham sounded very flat after the final and on the WAC match day diary did say he would have to think about whether he could commit to another year. Hopefully with a few weeks break he will be convinced to stay on and continue for a few more years.

One bad performance, especially the final game of the season, will tend to dominate the analysis, but taking a step back I think there was progress. Division four was always a case of getting out straight away. Mission accomplished- even if the performances weren't great, it was the results that mattered. Paddy Lynch was backed during the league and has now established himself as our top forward. We played some great football in our championship games, barring the final. Antrim were being talked up a lot before we trounced them. Donegal have been the most consistent team in Ulster for the last decade and we went toe to toe with them until they scabbed a goal, and if we had taken our goal chances when we were on top in the first half, then who knows? We didn't, but you can't knock the performance that day and the football we played was scintillating.

Aside from Saturday's flat performance you can easily argue that James Smith, Gerry Smith, Conor Brady and Jason all are continuing to improve. The Holla will hopefully be back to his best next year. Killian Clarke was very consistent over the year in the middle and Gearoid clearly has plenty to give. Cian Madden definitely has the tools to be a top player and has shown glimpses of that in his debut season.

I agree that during the Tailteann we seemed to ditch any defensive structure and the model seemed to be that we would outscore anyone, which was fun to watch but came unstuck at the weekend. Defensively we clearly need to do a fair bit of work but assuming there aren't wholescale retirements, the panel is in good shape. There's lads like McKenna and some of hte u20s who will have benefited from S&C training.

On the downside there are players who are coming to the end of their time but hopefully the likes of Cian Reilly, Carolan and a few of the u20s are eased into the side through the league next year. We really need someone like Conor Madden or Conor Smith to do what Lynch did this year as we need James Smith out the middle in my opinion if Thomas Galligan isn't firing.

If he is unsure whether he will commit for one more year and that is all he is willing to give i think he should go now and let the county board appoint a new manager in the next few weeks if they can find the right candidate.

I’d have to second the sentiments of this post to be honest. The last two games, scraping past Sligo, and then losing by 4 points to Westmeath, leave a bad taste in the mouth.

We didn’t set the world alight in the League either and 2021 was an unmitigated disaster.

It’s hard to know where this management team go from here. Our tactics are baffling at times and we’ve been overtaken by teams in Ulster like Armagh & Derry. What has Ricey brought to the table? Defensively we’ve been poor this year. All of us knew we had an issue with teams running at us throughout the Tailteann Cup ahead of the final but management ignored it.

If Mickey is staying, I would be giving a one year term on the basis we need to get out of Division 3 next year.

I thought we'd keep at the level we showed for the first 55 mins against Donegal but we could only manage to play well in fits and starts since then with the defence worryingly open. Saturday was the acid test for me as to what level we are at, I was hoping it would be the level we showed against Donegal but it was a poor performance. Defence still leaky and it was poor tactically. Jayo should have been on O'Toole from the start but at the very least moved onto him after the first few points when Conor Brady was no where near him. Think the Holla in top form is showing what a big loss he has been.

I wonder about the mccabe thing. I knew dermot back in school and for sure he can be as thick as an ass BUT have things improved since he left, as conventional wisdom had it that he was the problem? If Mickey stays I think his forwards and defensive coaches should be exited as clearly neither has had success and I'm not one bit surprised by that.

I wouldn't say anything has improved.

Mickey has the men around him that he wanted so to change them now would be admitting that he got the appointments wrong. I think his loyalty to Niall Murray will cause him problems with buy in from some players if he does stay on.