The game of hurling in Cavan continues to survive if not thrive, thanks, in the main, to a commited band of enthusiasts and a dedicated group of players. Dermot Plunkett is a fully-fledged member of the latter fraternity. County hurler Dermot Plunkett doesn't begin to kid himself about the task facing the disciples of hurling in Cavan. As someone who hails from Offaly, he knows better than most that it can take a lifetime and more to generate the sort of tradition so instrumental in forming the building blocks of title-winning exploits. Dermot recognises that the development of hurling to a moderately respectable level in Cavan will be an "uphill struggle," especially given the strength of football in the county. "Being realistic, the best we can hope to achieve in the short team is the formation of four or five senior clubs which would make the running of a county championship a feasible proposition. "Establishing firm roots for the game of hurling in the major centres of population in the county like Cavan town, Virginia, Bailieboro and Cootehill is crucial to the promotion and strengthening of hurling in the county. "If the game was given a solid footing in those areas and the club in Mullahoran continued to remain in place, then you would have a good base from which to try and build a decent county panel," Dermot opines. The analogy of the game of football and its standing in Kilkenny is never far removed from conversational pieces about the state of the small ball game in Cavan. However, in fairness, the Royal School, Cavan town-based teacher is wont to dodge the simplistic view of things as they currently stand. Instead, he prefers to look under the veneer of the game in Cavan and view it with a more discerning eye. "There are several reasons why hurling is not a great participant sport in Cavan. For one, those who play the game at underage level are invariably lost to hurling once they go to secondary school because of the lack of competitions in the school system. "Unfortunately the number of parents who are willing to get themselves involved in the promotion of the game in Cavan are few and far between and those that do want to help aren't really au fait enough with the rules to actually coach the skills to the youngsters to a high level." "For such a football-mad county like Cavan, it's very important for the development of hurling that that every young lad is given the opportunity to play hurling whether that be at school or at their club. "There's no doubt but that a lot of hard work will have to be done to turn things around to the point where most youngsters involved in the GAA in Cavan would have at least a basic grounding in the skills of the game. Getting teams up and running after that would be the easiest part of the equation." Dermot isn't without hope in terms of hurling taking a credible foothold in the aforementioned gaeldoms in Cavan. However he reckons that hard work allied to patience and dedication are central to developing hurling to the point where the Antrim, Down and Derrys of this world could be faced up to with some confidence. He doesn't believe though that such an eventuality will transpire for at least 20 years, even allowing for all sorts of hurling development plans being realised. Though fulsome in his praise of the goodwill and practical help proffered by County Board Chairman George Cartwright towards hurling in Cavan, vis-a-vis re-arranging football fixtures in deference to the wishes of the county hurling management, Dermot says that unless the county can unearth more qualified hurling coaches to operate at grass roots level, the development of hurling in Cavan will be both slow and painful. "For instance at my home club in Offaly, Killeigh-Raheen, coaching was invariably carried out by nine or ten youngsters who had played for years with the club and who were commited to putting something back into the club by means of coaching the youngsters coming up through the ranks at the club. "There are some good under 16 and minor players emerging in Cavan right now but they badly need as much coaching as they can get but the problem is that there's not nearly enough coaches in the county to ensure that whatever talent emerges is nurtured and helped develop to it full potential. "I know from the time I've already spent in Cavan and from talking to county coach Tom Mortell that the youngsters in Cavan love the game once they educated properly in the basics of the game. "The youth of Cavan must be given coaching consistently at club level though for them to become expert at the game and to be able to compete on reasonable terms at adult level," adds Dermot who played senior football and intermediate hurling back at home in Offaly. Fulsome in his praise of the work put into the promotion of hurling in Cavan over many years now by Peter Brady of Kilnaleck, Dermot's view that the harvest is rich but the labour is poor has been expounded ad nauseum. It's no less true for all of that. The pity is Dermot believes that the sort of talent which shone through in Cavan's morale-boosting run to the All-Ireland under 16 B championship final could be lost if the interest of those players isn't maintained as they leave their teenage years. "I think nine years old is a good time to start coaching a youngster in the rudiments of hurling but a lot of good work that is done with young players comes to nothing if teachers at secondary schools aren't willing or able to help improve the players' skills, especially in the case where those players have no hurling club to fall back on. "I've been impressed by the facilities and organisation of GAA clubs in Cavan but the county is all about football and until the county gets at least another couple of hurling clubs up and running fellas who are keen on hurling will have no option but to put all their energy and time into helping their local football club make progress," the Drumalee clubman opines. Reflecting on the state of play concerning the county scene at this juncture, Dermot welcomes the return of Cavan Gaels clubman Tom Walsh to the helm as county supremo. "Tom's return will be welcomed by all the players and it's a timely boost to the squad as we try and improve on our performances from last year. "Last year was a disappointing one for us with only our win over Monaghan standing out as a plus in an otherwise difficult year although our display against Fermanagh in the Ulster Junior Championship was fairly respectable considering that they had an extra man for the second half after we had a player sent off. It was some consolation also that they (Fermanagh) went on to make the final," the Mullahoran and Cavan star says. Meanwhile on the club front, Dermot is hopeful that the Dreadnoughts can also improve on their showing in 2001. One of Mullahoran's key men, the hard-working midfielder says that the lone Cavan representatives in the Monaghan league are capable of upsetting the status quo in the novel league. "We only lost to Castleblayney in last year's final by three points so we know we're not that far away from making the breakthough and actually winning the league. "I think that on our day and given a full squad we have the ability to beat either 'Blayney, Carrickmacross, Monaghan Harps or Clontibret. "The 2001 campaign was only our second year competing in the Monaghan league so we should find the competition of great help in improving ourselves both as individual players and as a team. "We were disappointed to lost out to Dungannon in the semi-final of the Ulster Shield competition but the plan for this year would be to be more consistent, especially for our away games. "We were pleased overall with the way the club scene went last year. We had seventeen or eighteen players on hand for most games which meant that there was a bit of competition for places. Hopefully, we can build on the more positive displays we put in last year." Tweet

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