Cavan Forum

Good Year Or Bad Year?

(Oldest Posts First)


The lads on wearecavan ran a poll recently asking cavan supporters whether they thought 2019 was a good year or a bad year for the senior team. I'm going to also suggest another option, an average year. So what do ye think

1- Good
2- Bad
3- Average

Personally I think average. Why?

Negatives, Relegated from Div1, poor performance in ulster final, abysmal showing against Tyrone in qualifiers.

Positives- beat monaghan finally, beat roscommon and made Ulster final.

fredflint (Cavan) - Posts: 1483 - 27/07/2019 11:29:51    2217037

Link

Replying To fredflint:  "The lads on wearecavan ran a poll recently asking cavan supporters whether they thought 2019 was a good year or a bad year for the senior team. I'm going to also suggest another option, an average year. So what do ye think

1- Good
2- Bad
3- Average

Personally I think average. Why?

Negatives, Relegated from Div1, poor performance in ulster final, abysmal showing against Tyrone in qualifiers.

Positives- beat monaghan finally, beat roscommon and made Ulster final."
Average ... although it was a slight improvement on the previous year up to the Ulster final. Then went completely down hill again in the final 2 matches.

Inaroundehouse (Cavan) - Posts: 975 - 27/07/2019 14:44:25    2217102

Link

the record books will show that we got to an Ulster final. So in the context of what has gone on in the previous 2 decades it would have to go down as a good year. However a good year for Cavan is not the same as a good year for lots of other counties. It's all relative. League-wise we got relegated but had some decent performances in div 1.
unfortunately the year ended on a terrible note with our worst performance in a long time and that is the one that sticks in the memory.

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 27/07/2019 17:12:25    2217144

Link

An average enough year.

Competed well enough in Div 1 but ultimately relegated. A sweet championship win over Monaghan but we got a bit carried away when you see what happened them after.
Great 2 game sequence against armagh had me thinking we were on to something. Getting to a final should not be be taken as a measure of progress-Fermanagh and Down were there too recently. Disappointed after Donegal, depressed since Tyrone.
And no real prospect of new talent coming through. Promotion and Ulster Final 2020 a minimum requirement.

MadgeKing (Cavan) - Posts: 493 - 27/07/2019 20:06:37    2217203

Link

A bad year, getting to an extremely rare Ulster final is only papering over the cracks but I suspect that's all this group of players wants, to think they're doing well. We were soundly relegated again and utterly humiliated by Tyrone, but hey it hasn't seemed to effect some of the lads confidence god forbid.

IamADragon (Cavan) - Posts: 303 - 27/07/2019 21:04:22    2217248

Link

A good year. We got rid of an extremely negative manager playing awful football. We looked fresh and hungry against Monaghan and Armagh x 2. Then things went pear shaped. We froze against Donegal and refused to fight Tyrone. Bitterly disappointing end but overall pleased that we knocked on the Super 8 door for a change. Next year will tell all. We must return to Div 1 and we must rediscover our willingness to honour our tradition by always fighting regardless of who we face.

ondforty (Cavan) - Posts: 459 - 27/07/2019 23:51:12    2217351

Link

Cavan were outplayed for much of the first Armagh game. Don't overhype it. They missed 3 good goal chances too.

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2763 - 28/07/2019 10:12:28    2217426

Link

One negative I forgot to mention was the lack of leadership and mental strength of our team. Its been there for years and judging by our last 2 games it is still there. We haven't one leader on the pitch that would inspire lads to fight. Those things are very hard to change in fairness to Mickey but there was little progress on that front. In factvwgen the going got tough some potential leaders wanted out. Its actually depressing reading the article featuring Killian Clarke on the homepage. Hes no Roy Keane, we need a Roy Keane badly.

fredflint (Cavan) - Posts: 1483 - 28/07/2019 10:51:54    2217457

Link

Replying To ondforty:  "A good year. We got rid of an extremely negative manager playing awful football. We looked fresh and hungry against Monaghan and Armagh x 2. Then things went pear shaped. We froze against Donegal and refused to fight Tyrone. Bitterly disappointing end but overall pleased that we knocked on the Super 8 door for a change. Next year will tell all. We must return to Div 1 and we must rediscover our willingness to honour our tradition by always fighting regardless of who we face."
You're very easily pleased

IamADragon (Cavan) - Posts: 303 - 28/07/2019 13:11:15    2217524

Link

Replying To ondforty:  "A good year. We got rid of an extremely negative manager playing awful football. We looked fresh and hungry against Monaghan and Armagh x 2. Then things went pear shaped. We froze against Donegal and refused to fight Tyrone. Bitterly disappointing end but overall pleased that we knocked on the Super 8 door for a change. Next year will tell all. We must return to Div 1 and we must rediscover our willingness to honour our tradition by always fighting regardless of who we face."
Is that the best you can come up with??? " discover our willingness to honour our tradition by always fighting regardless who we face"???
What planet you on?
It's plan and simple ... look at Kilkenny yesterday , they had 20 leaders on the field . Some old hands , some in the 1/2 year, some new.
They fought for everything for a full 75 minutes. No let up. If we had a quarter of what they have we would be worth watching. As Cody said you either have it or you don't . Willingness to honour jack sh@@e doesn't come into it.

Inaroundehouse (Cavan) - Posts: 975 - 28/07/2019 17:31:53    2217706

Link

It was a bad year with one positive. Reaching the Ulster final was obviously the positive but beyond that it was poor. Relegated from the league. We actually competed better in division 1 when McGleenan was there. I thought the manner of the defeat against Kerry this year was very depressing. Just stopped playing when we were in a great position. No belief. Low on confidence. Inconsistent. We could've stayed in it had we beaten Monaghan. But that performance was poor also.

As for championship, as great as beating Monaghan was, the rest of their season sort of shows us where they were at i.e. the end of a management cycle and facing a decline. Fermanagh literally couldn't have done more to hand them the game in the qualifiers.

Beating Armagh after a replay was superb. I genuinely thought it was looking like we were going places after that result.

Ulster final, from the minute the ball was thrown in, we didn't compete.

The Tyrone game, well, what can be said that hasn't already been said?

Overall, we ask ourselves this. Have we closed the gap on the top teams in the province?

The answer is a resounding no. Monaghan have declined, we haven't improved.
Donegal and Tyrone are as far ahead of us as they have ever been.

Cavan_Shambles (Cavan) - Posts: 575 - 28/07/2019 17:52:39    2217726

Link

Replying To IamADragon:  "You're very easily pleased"
Maybe I am or maybe there's no pleasing you?

ondforty (Cavan) - Posts: 459 - 28/07/2019 18:10:27    2217739

Link

Replying To Inaroundehouse:  "Is that the best you can come up with??? " discover our willingness to honour our tradition by always fighting regardless who we face"???
What planet you on?
It's plan and simple ... look at Kilkenny yesterday , they had 20 leaders on the field . Some old hands , some in the 1/2 year, some new.
They fought for everything for a full 75 minutes. No let up. If we had a quarter of what they have we would be worth watching. As Cody said you either have it or you don't . Willingness to honour jack sh@@e doesn't come into it."
Stayinyourhouse, I'm wasnt actually communicating with you personally, just contributing to the forum. Ok to disagree with other views but don't let yourself down so badly when you're disagreeing. Your tone is very unnecessary but becoming pridicable. You made my point when you mentioned Kilkenny. They DID honour their proud tradition yesterday whereas we didn't against Tyrone.
Hopefully next year we'll win The McKenna Cup, Div 2 and promotion to Div 1, the Ulster Championship and the Sam.Then you might cheer up. Then again maybe not......

ondforty (Cavan) - Posts: 459 - 28/07/2019 18:24:04    2217753

Link

Replying To Inaroundehouse:  "Is that the best you can come up with??? " discover our willingness to honour our tradition by always fighting regardless who we face"???
What planet you on?
It's plan and simple ... look at Kilkenny yesterday , they had 20 leaders on the field . Some old hands , some in the 1/2 year, some new.
They fought for everything for a full 75 minutes. No let up. If we had a quarter of what they have we would be worth watching. As Cody said you either have it or you don't . Willingness to honour jack sh@@e doesn't come into it."
Stayinyourhouse, I'm wasnt actually communicating with you personally, just contributing to the forum. Ok to disagree with other views but don't let yourself down so badly when you're disagreeing. Your tone is very unnecessary but becoming pridicable. You made my point when you mentioned Kilkenny. They DID honour their proud tradition yesterday whereas we didn't against Tyrone.
Hopefully next year we'll win The McKenna Cup, Div 2 and promotion to Div 1, the Ulster Championship and the Sam.Then you might cheer up. Then again maybe not......

ondforty (Cavan) - Posts: 459 - 28/07/2019 18:24:41    2217754

Link

Very simple really - it was neither good, bad or indifferent, the same as every other year over the last 10 or so years.
I said it before down and i'll keep repeating it, we lack players with footballing intelligence. You can pluck any player from any club in Cavan, put him through inter county training, put him in the gym and he'll be fit and he'll be committed, but the difference between him and a Donegal or Tyrone player is intelligence on the pitch.

We've gone through 10 years or so now, Hyland, McGleenan and now Graham as managers but nothing really has changed, so its fairly obvious that the players are the problem. I'm not doubting the commitment of these lads as they train hard and give up a lot for this team, but match after match, its the same old problems arising, players doing silly things, running into tackles, getting turned over, playing a silly pass, getting booked for silly things, you cant coach senior footballers not to do these things, a senior inter county footballer should at this stage be able to make the right decisions himself.

Cavan Football in general is in a bad way, we could go back to basics and look at coaching the younger kids, but other sports are taking over, most pitches will be full of kids on a Saturday morning, but a lot of clubs are finding that when kids hit 14/15, a lot of them are dropping off, just look at the amount of amalgamations at under age at the moment.

cavanblueman (Cavan) - Posts: 636 - 29/07/2019 13:58:31    2218200

Link

Replying To cavanblueman:  "Very simple really - it was neither good, bad or indifferent, the same as every other year over the last 10 or so years.
I said it before down and i'll keep repeating it, we lack players with footballing intelligence. You can pluck any player from any club in Cavan, put him through inter county training, put him in the gym and he'll be fit and he'll be committed, but the difference between him and a Donegal or Tyrone player is intelligence on the pitch.

We've gone through 10 years or so now, Hyland, McGleenan and now Graham as managers but nothing really has changed, so its fairly obvious that the players are the problem. I'm not doubting the commitment of these lads as they train hard and give up a lot for this team, but match after match, its the same old problems arising, players doing silly things, running into tackles, getting turned over, playing a silly pass, getting booked for silly things, you cant coach senior footballers not to do these things, a senior inter county footballer should at this stage be able to make the right decisions himself.

Cavan Football in general is in a bad way, we could go back to basics and look at coaching the younger kids, but other sports are taking over, most pitches will be full of kids on a Saturday morning, but a lot of clubs are finding that when kids hit 14/15, a lot of them are dropping off, just look at the amount of amalgamations at under age at the moment."
I would agree with you to an extent but some of the negative , backwards, sideways football that's was embedded in these players during the Hyland era is still very much evident today despite Mickey trying to have a more forward approach .
Take Martin Reilly for example. During the Hyland years Martin could not or would not kick a forward pass. It was backways or sideways never forward.
During the Monaghan game he kicked a brilliant 50 metre forward pass that resulted in our goal early on .
More of that type of football was needed from Martin as he's very accurate with long range passes.
Instead against Tyrone he reverted to the backward sideways stuff that's been drummed into him years previously.
That's only one example of the job Mickey faces trying to change thing and get players to become more positive .
Yes I agree so called inter county players like Clarke and McVitty should be beyond repeatedly running up blind alleys and getting turned over.
Any manager can only do so much and it's up to inter county players to be able to stand up and think on their feet for each situation that arises.

Inaroundehouse (Cavan) - Posts: 975 - 29/07/2019 14:18:38    2218218

Link

Replying To cavanblueman:  "Very simple really - it was neither good, bad or indifferent, the same as every other year over the last 10 or so years.
I said it before down and i'll keep repeating it, we lack players with footballing intelligence. You can pluck any player from any club in Cavan, put him through inter county training, put him in the gym and he'll be fit and he'll be committed, but the difference between him and a Donegal or Tyrone player is intelligence on the pitch.

We've gone through 10 years or so now, Hyland, McGleenan and now Graham as managers but nothing really has changed, so its fairly obvious that the players are the problem. I'm not doubting the commitment of these lads as they train hard and give up a lot for this team, but match after match, its the same old problems arising, players doing silly things, running into tackles, getting turned over, playing a silly pass, getting booked for silly things, you cant coach senior footballers not to do these things, a senior inter county footballer should at this stage be able to make the right decisions himself.

Cavan Football in general is in a bad way, we could go back to basics and look at coaching the younger kids, but other sports are taking over, most pitches will be full of kids on a Saturday morning, but a lot of clubs are finding that when kids hit 14/15, a lot of them are dropping off, just look at the amount of amalgamations at under age at the moment."
Great post. Hits the nail on the head.

It simply can't be the managers at this stage, we've been through so many in the last twenty years and we never seem to get any closer to the top teams in the province.

And the last point you made is arguably the most important issue facing Cavan football. It baffles me that Gaelic football is still the number one sport among the youth in Cavan. If they make it to senior level they surely know that they haven't a hope of winning anything unless there are serious structural changes. I would say it's inevitable that Gaelic football in Cavan will soon lose its hegemony with the growth of other sports and other options available. If Ireland have a successful rugby world cup later this year, it'll do wonders for the sport here. Parents who traditionally would've sent their kids to play football would naturally respond to the growth of rugby, as it offers a chance of a successful sporting career, whereas playing senior for Cavan means coming up short in Ulster repeatedly, with the occasional thrashing thrown in. Now who wants that?

In fact, a growth of other sports might be the catalyst for Cavan GAA to look inwards and recognise the flaws in our structures and take meaningful action.
But as the original poster alluded to already, maybe we are seeing a drop off with the amount of amalgamations happening.

Cavan_Shambles (Cavan) - Posts: 575 - 02/08/2019 14:24:45    2219777

Link

Replying To Cavan_Shambles:  "Great post. Hits the nail on the head.

It simply can't be the managers at this stage, we've been through so many in the last twenty years and we never seem to get any closer to the top teams in the province.

And the last point you made is arguably the most important issue facing Cavan football. It baffles me that Gaelic football is still the number one sport among the youth in Cavan. If they make it to senior level they surely know that they haven't a hope of winning anything unless there are serious structural changes. I would say it's inevitable that Gaelic football in Cavan will soon lose its hegemony with the growth of other sports and other options available. If Ireland have a successful rugby world cup later this year, it'll do wonders for the sport here. Parents who traditionally would've sent their kids to play football would naturally respond to the growth of rugby, as it offers a chance of a successful sporting career, whereas playing senior for Cavan means coming up short in Ulster repeatedly, with the occasional thrashing thrown in. Now who wants that?

In fact, a growth of other sports might be the catalyst for Cavan GAA to look inwards and recognise the flaws in our structures and take meaningful action.
But as the original poster alluded to already, maybe we are seeing a drop off with the amount of amalgamations happening."
There's two rugby clubs in Cavan.

doratheexplorer (Cavan) - Posts: 1467 - 02/08/2019 14:51:34    2219792

Link

Replying To Inaroundehouse:  "I would agree with you to an extent but some of the negative , backwards, sideways football that's was embedded in these players during the Hyland era is still very much evident today despite Mickey trying to have a more forward approach .
Take Martin Reilly for example. During the Hyland years Martin could not or would not kick a forward pass. It was backways or sideways never forward.
During the Monaghan game he kicked a brilliant 50 metre forward pass that resulted in our goal early on .
More of that type of football was needed from Martin as he's very accurate with long range passes.
Instead against Tyrone he reverted to the backward sideways stuff that's been drummed into him years previously.
That's only one example of the job Mickey faces trying to change thing and get players to become more positive .
Yes I agree so called inter county players like Clarke and McVitty should be beyond repeatedly running up blind alleys and getting turned over.
Any manager can only do so much and it's up to inter county players to be able to stand up and think on their feet for each situation that arises."
Have to agree with you here, weren't Martin Reilly,R Galligan and Mackey so fortunate to have played under great managers like Keoghan,Carr and Andrews before Hyland got his hands on them and embedded his negative, backwards football into them. Clarke, McVitty and the other young lads were soo unlucky to have Hyland as their manager , how dare he subject them to Ulster U21 titles or even have the neck on him to take them out of Division 3 and bring them to Division 1, jaysus the negativity of the man. He even had us thinking that we might beat the top teams in the country, WoW! Maybe if he had been more positive we could still be enjoying our football in Div 3 and hoping to maybe draw and beat Antrim or Fermanagh in the championship. Maybe you'd like to be back in 2009 when Antrim beat us in the championship and then that stronghold of football Wicklow handed out asses on a plate with a 7 point beating, in the league we may have been beat by the likes of Offaly, Louth and Longford, but by God we gave the Rossies some hiding, you would've enjoyed that, no monkeys on the back them times. Oh yea that man Hyland has a lot to answer for!!!

aceofspades (Cavan) - Posts: 256 - 02/08/2019 15:25:16    2219801

Link

Replying To aceofspades:  "Have to agree with you here, weren't Martin Reilly,R Galligan and Mackey so fortunate to have played under great managers like Keoghan,Carr and Andrews before Hyland got his hands on them and embedded his negative, backwards football into them. Clarke, McVitty and the other young lads were soo unlucky to have Hyland as their manager , how dare he subject them to Ulster U21 titles or even have the neck on him to take them out of Division 3 and bring them to Division 1, jaysus the negativity of the man. He even had us thinking that we might beat the top teams in the country, WoW! Maybe if he had been more positive we could still be enjoying our football in Div 3 and hoping to maybe draw and beat Antrim or Fermanagh in the championship. Maybe you'd like to be back in 2009 when Antrim beat us in the championship and then that stronghold of football Wicklow handed out asses on a plate with a 7 point beating, in the league we may have been beat by the likes of Offaly, Louth and Longford, but by God we gave the Rossies some hiding, you would've enjoyed that, no monkeys on the back them times. Oh yea that man Hyland has a lot to answer for!!!"
Poor Terry Hyland, still getting blamed for everything and we all know the real reason why, for telling a certain player his massive ego wasn't welcome.

fredflint (Cavan) - Posts: 1483 - 03/08/2019 07:49:58    2219962

Link