The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

Agree with a lot of that but Jason Mcloughlin will play, he was excellent against westmeath and can only presume he picked up a knock to miss yesterdays game.

If people start coming back, there's massive headaches for Mickey in terms of starting 15 and then matchday 26. Which is great. I think for the last couple of years we had a strong core group of 12 or so and then the standard dropped off a fair bit after that. Last year we were just waiting to see if Paddy Lynch could nail down a place. This year we are realistically saying he has hard work to do to dislodge Oisin Brady or Ryan O'Neill, both of whom have played well in McKenna cup and in both league games.

Conor Smith is a top class club forward and shows glimpses of it at county level. With Gerry Smith coming back and Gearoid, there's lots of power to come back in. I am a massive Oisin Kiernan fan but he was quiet again on Sunday. If we get serious competition for our forwards with lads chomping at the bit to make an impact off the bench, we should be in a very strong place in this league.

The half back line at present can't be changed as it is now the heartbeat of the team. McVeety commanding games from centre half back (Holla was quieter on Sunday). Full back line solid- you couldn't shift Finnegan, Faulkner or Carolan on performances for the Gunner or Moynagh for example.

I was surprised how disjointed Tipp were. Barring the goal, they were waiting for the ref to hand them soft frees for Kennedy to knock over. Yes Tipp were missing players (and the loss of Sweeney on top of Quinlavan is absolutely huge for them) but they played liked a team that could be facing relegation with that level of performance. Bearing in mind from our more established players were were missing Jason, Gunner, James Smith, Gerry Smith, Gearoid and Paddy Lynch only for a cameo (and obviously Thomas Galligan as well). That's seven nailed on starters from last year- I don't think even Tipp were missing that many players.

Yeah I suppose it's not fair to dismiss the return McVeety and Holla just because they've been there before. I would consider the true test of a strong panel to be looking at your bench with 15 minutes to go against Armagh in the first round of Ulster and be able to bring on players who can impact the game and not squad players who you'll hope can just survive out there. I haven't seen that from most of the new lads who got game time but will probably drop to the bench if our injuries clear up. In 2019 we had Stephen Murray, Mackey and Jack Brady on the bench. I don't think we'll have that sort of potential impact in the subs this year. Maybe i'm just being pessimistic!

Conor Rehill & Conor Madden are on the bench at the minute. In 2019 they were in the starting team. I wouldn’t see Jack Brady as a strong bench player, certainly not any stronger than what is there now.

At the moment your team could be:

Galligan

McLoughlin Faulkner Carolan

Brady, McVeety, T Madden

Clarke, Smith

Brady, Smith, Kiernan

Lynch, McKiernan, O’Neill

That leaves no room for the likes of Conor Brady, Finnegan, Gunner, Martin Reilly & Conor Smith. Moynagh was also a starter in 2019. I certainly think we’re in a better position than then.

Boylan did well, took his scores nicely. He's got bags of pace and it's great to see a forward take on scores when the opportunity arises. Often a young lad coming into a team doesn't back themselves and opts to recycle the ball. Granted, the game was open and there was less pressure on him, but still and all he did what was asked. McCabe put in a huge shift, worked really hard and hopefully will get a chance to do more on the ball as at club level he certainly looks a top player.

I'm not sure I'm following your train of thought here King. You said we will have stronger options off the bench now than we did in 2019 (when we were in Div 1 and an Ulster Final). But you're also saying we are getting carried away and more performances are needed to judge the lads, while we are "in the ****" in Division 3 as you put it?

I made a similar point to your final paragraph a few days ago. I don't think we have suddenly uncovered a bunch of quality new players. Madden looks like he will hold down a place. O'Neill is playing really well and busting a gut but as the year goes on much bigger questions will be asked of his skill level and i think he'll find it tough. Carolan was a starting player last year, has improved in fairness.

Personally I don't think any of the other new additions will be there in 2 years time. There is no scenario in which Gerry and McLoughlin don't make the starting team come championship if fit.

We weren’t in Division 1 for long!

I think we have a stronger group overall than 2019. Mackey was a class act but age was catching up with him and lads who can’t make the team now were starting then as pointed out previously.

Players like Stephen Murray & Rehill were only making names for themselves in 2019. I think some of the new additions this year could do the same but we need to step back and judge them in due course - that’s what I mean,

12 months experience can make a big difference. It looks to have helped Carolan for example.

Some players need even more time. Dara McVeety played in 2013 for example but it was in 2016 he really started to come to the fore. Niall Murray also really excelled towards his latter years.

Last years U20 team were a good side and there is more of them to come. Which of the Bradys was it marked Canavan in the U20 final? He did a good job that night.

are you sure? DCU were playing Ul I don’t see him named on the panel?

I watched that Sigerson game. Brady didn't feature despite being listed as a starter on the programme

The U20s let that game slip by the looks of it. They were 5 up at one stage in the second half. The team listed was absent a lot of lads you'd expect to start come Championship.

Back to the action Sunday hopefully we can keep the momentum going and make it three from three.

Cavan 1/8 for this game which is mental, especially for a derby game. While form says Cavan should have too much for Longford I've been following us for too many years to forget about our ability to lose focus and let a good position slip. Will be interested to see if any extra players will be back from injury as Mickey indicated a few weeks back.

I remember saying the same about Wicklow two years ago.

Are the U20s in Breffni Friday night? Thought I saw mention of that somewhere but can’t find it now.

Remember the hammering Longford gave us in 2011 when we weren’t even top billing in our own ground. The team from that day:

Cavan: J Reilly, M Cahill, T Corr, M Brady, M McKeever (0-01), J McCutcheon, J McEnroe (0-01), D Givney, G McKiernan, F Flanagan, M Lyng, N Murray, N McDermott 0-01, f), E Keating (0-04, 1F), S Johnston (0-03, 2F).

Subs: G Smith for Murray (18), R Flanagan for F Flanagan (41), M Brennan (0-01, ’45) for McCutcheon (41), C Mackey for Lyng (51)

There was talk of him last year leaving kildallen last year too.