This past season was one of ups and downs for the senior camogs of the Breffni County, with two finals reached and two defeats suffered. From the sidelines, Colm McEvoy, Margaret Carroll and Philip McDonald oversaw Cavan's fortunes and told Breffni Blue all about the rollercoaster ride that was 2011.

To say that Cavan camogie has been on the crest of a wave as of late may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but some progress has definitely be made, according to Colm McEvoy.
This Management Team has spent the last two years putting the county's senior camogs through their places and in their first year in charge they guided the Breffni women to the Ulster Junior League and up a division to the fourth tier of the National League, where survival was the main objective come the start of 2011.

However, with players like Roisin O'Keeffe, Mairead Mc Cabe, Siobahn Reynolds and Rosie Crowe at their disposal, the feeling in the Cavan camp was that they were capable of more than survival in Division.
"This year the management team and players were hoping to improve on last season," explained McEvoy.
"We were operating in a higher division than we were in 2010 and our main objective would have been to just compete at that level and secure our position in division 4. As the season unfolded we ended up qualifying for the final."
Cavan hit the ground running in 2011 and their form from Mid-February until the end of April was splendid as they scored two wins from three to book their place into a National League Division 4 Final.

First up were Tyrone on February 13 at the Kingpsan Breffni Park 3G pitch, where, despite the freezing conditions, Cavan put forth a scorching display to fire four goals past the Red Hands to secure a 4-10 to 2-6 victory and two early points on the Divison Four table.
Two weeks later, the Breffni women made the long journey south to Bagenalstown, where they met a Carlow side still awaiting their first game of the campaign, having conceded their opener to provincial rivals Westmeath. In a game that was nip and tuck throughout, Cavan edged a 4-3 to 3-3 win in Carlow which sealed their status and all but confirmed a National League final spot against table-toppers Westmeath, who would hand them their first defeat of the campaign on April 20 on a narrow 2-7 to 1-7 score-line at Kingspan Breffni Park.

A week later, Cavan would get the chance to avenge their defeat to the Lake women when the two sides met at Donaghmore/Ashbourne in Co Meath in the Irish Daily Star National Camogie League Division Four final.
Westmeath went into the game as firm favourites, having won all three games, but Cavan would boast a superior scoring difference going into the decider. Cavan made the better start, with Roisin O'Keeffe getting them off the mark via a fine point inside three minutes. Westmeath's response was immediate as the lethal Joanne Walsh tore through the Breffni defence and lashed a brilliant finish to the net.

If Cavan hadn't known it coming into the game, then the moment Walsh score the opening goal they certainly knew they were in for a game against the determined Midlanders. The Blues would have the chance to get their noses back in front in the 15th minute when they were awarded a penalty, but O'Keeffe's stinging shot was blocked by Fiona Keating in the Westmeath goal. Two minutes later some superb individual work by Marie Brady saw the Cavan corner-forward finally hit the back of the net, but a Pamela Greville strike on the eve of half-time was Westmeath steal back the lead.

In the second-half, the Leinster outfit stretched their advantage to a goal before Brady raised her second green flag following some splendid build up play which saw Elaine M O'Reilly, Mairead McCabe, Siobhan Reynolds and O'Keeffe all combining to send the deadly attacker through. Just when Cavan looked to seize the initiative, Walsh popped up to crack in a third Westmeath goal before nabbing her hat-trick five minutes from time, which would prove the killer blow.
O'Rourke (free) and substitute Grainne Smith added late points for Cavan, who needed goals by that stage, but in the end it was Westmeath that came away with the 4-6 to 2-8 win to break Breffni hearts.

Cavan (Division Four final v Westmeath): J O'Rourke (0-1, 1f); S Brady, N Brady, E P Reilly; A Smith, M McCabe, R Crowe; A Lynch, S Reynolds; T O'Reilly (0-1), E M O'Reilly, B Boylan; B Lynch, R O'Keeffe (0-2), M Brady (2-2, 2f). Subs: G Smith (0-1), S McKenna, C Fitzpatrick.
As the season unfolded, Cavan would go on to suffer more heartbreak as their Ulster Intermediate Championship campaign would end in a crushing 6-22 to 0-6 defeat to would-be All-Ireland champions Armagh

"We started in the intermediate championship, where there were four teams - Cavan, Tyrone, Monaghan and Armagh. The two teams that won their games would go into the final and the other two teams went into the junior final," explained McEvoy. "We beat Tyrone and Monaghan and it put us into the intermediate final against Armagh. We had to travel to the Morgan Athletic Grounds to play them and they ended up beating us well on the day."
In a one-sided contest, scores from Sinead McKenna, Tina Reilly, Marie Brady and Grainne Smith were among a few highlights for a Cavan side that simply ran into a Orchard haymaker on the day.

The heavy defeat was a hard one to take for a Cavan side which had come so close to a historic National League triumph just two months previous and as things progressed the Cavan side would end withdrawing from the All-Ireland championship come the end of the summer, citing fixtute congestion and lack of player availability and as the reason for doing so.
"In the end, we decide to withdraw because we were finding it difficult to get a team together mainly due to the timing of games and player availbility," said the manager.

"In Cavan we had a relatively small pool of players with girls playing camogie and football for county, college and clubs so it was difficult to get the team together. The fixing of games for Saturdays did not help either, so we reluctantly decided to withdraw the team after our first game."

Despite the decision to withdraw from the All-Ireland championship, McEvoy is still very much positive about the future for Cavan camogie.
"Cavan have a relatively strong enough panel, but you're coming from a small pool of players and if you're missing just a few its difficult" said the Laois man.

"At the moment, with the way the economy is, it's not that easy to ask players to give up their part-time jobs on Saturdays to travel away for games. So I suppose you could say that we started with high hopes this year but we ended up having to deal with the reality of the situation and we decided to withdraw from the championship. Hopefully, some of these issues may be resolved moving forward because Cavan have the potential to do well in the All-Ireland championship. With all players available Cavan can compete with the likes of Westmeath and Armagh. Both these teams contested the championship final this year, with Armagh winning after a replay".

U14s claim Ulster glory
In September the Cavan Under 14 camogie team secured the Ulster Shield for a third successive season with an impressive victory over Donegal at Annalee Park in Ballyhaise. Under the managership of John Kearney, Marie Brady and Treena Keenaghan, the young Breffni women got their just rewards for an impressive campaign when they were handed a home tie against Donegal to decide where the U14 Ulster Shield would rest for 2011.

Cavan started the game in good fashion, with Shannon Leddy blasting in their first goal inside three minutes. The Blues dominated the next ten minutes but failed to make it count on the scoreboard and Donegal took advantage with a goal of their own to level. The home side regained their composure after that though, as they held on to possession and sent over scores via Michelle O'Rourke and Sarah Bagnall. Cavan would go in at the break boasting a 2-2 to 1-0 lead, with Donegal having found a defence back-boned by Ciara Shalvey, Lauren Ellis and Roisin Rahill tough to breakdown.

In the second-half, Kearney's team picked up where they left off by adding three further points to their tally and a fine goal from Rebecca Farrell. The visitors hit back with a point, but that was about as good as it got for the Tir Chonaill girls as Aisling Creegan, Hayley Gemmel and Roisin O Ruairc remained on control in the full-back line. Katie Reilly, Rebbeca Farrell and Michelle O'Rourke kept the scores coming up front, while Leddy blasted in another goal to all but seal the deal for the would-be winners. Sarah Bagnall secured the title in the closing stages with a late free to bring her tally up to 1-3 for the afternoon, which would shortly be followed by Cavan captain Michelle O'Rourke receiving the Cup. Tweet

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