The past year saw Cavan's development squad illustrate plenty of promise for the coming term as they took a step into the unknown and almost conquered a side that would go on to become All-Ireland kings in the junior grade. The origin story of Cavan's 2008 development squad starts somewhere in the mind of Lacken clubman Terry Hyland back in late 2007, where the idea of a Breffni panel competing in a Leinster Championship mounted, and once presented the thumbs up of the Cavan County Board shortly followed. The successful auctioneer has had stints with both Cavan and Louth as a selector on the senior inter-county scene in the past, and took over the reins of intermediate championship contenders Lavey as manager from Brian Comiskey last season. However, while helping the New Inns club establish their new Division One status early on for the 2009 season, Hyland, along with Peter Reilly and Martin Lynch, were putting together what they believed to be the county's most suitable squad of players - outside Donal Keogan's senior panel - to compete in the All-Ireland Junior Football Championship. Through trials and challenge games, a 30-man squad was established that would enter the Leinster JFC and take on Dublin at Parnell Park on May 28. "Myself, Peter Reilly and Martin Lynch went to the County Board with it (the proposal) back in January and they liked the idea," said Hyland. "It started out with the regional games and that's how we went about selecting a panel, by taking the players that impressed us from those games. It (the regional games) didn't really happen last year because teams like Cavan Gaels and Ballinagh were still involved in the club championships." Players interested in taking part were summoned to play in challenge matches against other junior county teams, such as Kildare and Leitrim and often played out training matches where members of the squad faced off - 15 on 15. The theory of using matches rather than conventional training sessions came down to two reasons for Hyland and his management team. One, any player involved with the squad at that time had been training with his club, college or county all year round and, two, it helped the players focus more on match situations. The Lacken native revealed that "about two" collective training sessions had taken place all in all throughout this 'experiment'. "We set it up as a development squad where we played games rather than trained, because the players had already been training with their clubs all year. "It was a new concept," he enthused. "Something for players in their 20's still interested in playing for their county to become involved in." The squad's gatherings commenced around February, as they prepared to take on Dublin in the first round of their imp revised provincial campaign. With no current Ulster JFC to compete in, Cavan juniors would have to delve east outside their provincial borders in order to find themselves opponents to play in the All-Ireland JFC, and at that, Leinster and Dublin, emerged as counterparts. "There is no junior championship in Ulster for us to play in," stated Hyland. "I'm guessing the reason for that is because the Tyrone's, Derry's and Armagh's feel as tough they are competing well enough at senior level without having a junior squad, but every other province does and you even see the likes of Kerry having gone well in this year's championship." In the preparations for the Dublin clash, Hyland's side played off several challenge games, one of which was against county senior champions Cavan Gaels, with the "focus on match situations" taking priority. However, the team's trip to Parnell Park proved to be a very different proposition to that of the games they had been playing up until then. While the visitors more than matched their opponents for the opening 20 minutes of their opener, Dublin's danger forwards hit a devastating 1-6 in the closing stages of the first-half to all but put the Breffni outfit out of sight. The opening minutes had began with such promise for Hyland's charges as they pushed into an early lead with Lavey's Kevin Brady and Cuchullains attacker Seamus Clarke combing for 0-3 with no reply from the hosts after ten minutes. With senior manager Donal Keogan in attendance, it would have been fair to say that many of the players were out to impress against the Metropolitans. Ex-county seniors John Tierney and Trevor Crowe cancelled out two of the Dubs' efforts before Redhills' veteran forward Paddy Gumley opened up the gap to four on the 20-minute mark. Unfortunately, from a Cavan prospective, the Blues suffered a collapse in the closing 15 minutes of the half, which was summed up by Eoin O'Gara's goal before the half-time whistle which paved the way for a six-point lead for Mick Deegan's men. Points from Sean Maguire, Gumley and Kevin Brady were Cavan's answer to try and rectify the game for their side early on in the second-half, but Dublin stayed the course on their own patch to maintain the lead and ride out four-point winners in the end, on a score-line of 1-12 to 0-11. Cavan (Leinster JFC v Dublin): Fintan O'Reilly; Michael Clarke, Darren Smith, Cillian O'Reilly; James Moynagh, Alan Clarke, Andrew McConnell; Trevor Crowe (0-1), Sean Maguire (0-1); James Clarke, Seamus Clarke (0-1) (1f), Kevin Brady (0-4) (2f); Paddy Gumley (0-2), John Tierney (0-1), Gavin Doyle (0-1). Subs: Dane O'Dowd for Seamus Clarke (29), Paddy Brady for Gavin Doyle (50), Alan Curran for Michael Clarke (55), Colm Reilly for James Clarke (58), Paddy Smith for A McConnell (59). From there Dublin went onto capture the Leinster title and defeat Roscommon in the All-Ireland decider, but Hyland believes that doesn't offer as much compromise as others would think. Asked about whether or not he was content with the side being beaten by the eventual All-Ireland Champions, Hyland's straight reply was: "Not really. "I think that's one of the problems with Cavan football," he stressed. "You hear people often going on about how close Cavan teams have come to beating this and that, especially with the minor teams this county has had in past years, but it gets you nowhere in the end. "After Dublin beat us they kept focused and went all the way. Who knows what we could have done? But we should be looking to next year and thinking about what we can do." In September of last year, Hyland was believed to be one of the local candidates linked with the Cavan job following Donal Keogan's departure from the post back in July. However, with Tommy Carr's instalment to the position, Hyland's future remains up in the air over whether or not he's prepared to take the junior reins for another year, but maintains that the County Board should be looking towards the regional games as a structure to selecting both county panels. "For next year I really don't know," he admitted. "But the regional games are the way to go. "It's the way go with regards to picking your players for a panel. I think senior management should be involved and the best 60 lads out of the games should be picked to assemble two squads." Cavan 2008 development squad: Gavin Doyle, Dermot McGlade (Arva), Andrew McConnell (Butlersbridge), Colm Reilly (Ballyhaise), Dane O'Dowd (Drumlane), Michael McEntee, Alan Curran (Drung), Paddy Smith, James Clarke (Killinkere), Cillian O'Reilly, Daniel Luby (Killeshandra), Declan Gallen (Killygarry), Alan Clarke (Kingscourt), Michael Clarke, Stephen Tormey, John Tierney (Knockbride), James Moynagh, Terry Hyland, Trevor Crowe (Lacken), Darren Smith, Kevin Brady, Sean Maguire (Lavey), Paddy Brady (Mullahoran), David Gibney (Mountnugent), Anton Reilly (Ramor United), Fintan Reilly, Paddy Gumley, Pierce West (Redhills), Eamon O'Reilly (Shannon Gaels), Michael Reilly (Shercock), Seamus Clarke (Cuchullains). Tweet

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