Replying To Breffni1969: "We eat Antrim in the Ulster Championship this year 2022. We beat no one in the Ulster championship in 2021.
Is that the championship form your talking about?
We are not ranked in the top 16 otherwise we would be in the qualifiers.
Get over yourself and call it for what it is.
We have beaten Down, Antrim Fermanagh all Div 3 teams next year.
Possibility of playing Offaly or Westmeath (div 3 ) in final if we beat Sligo (div4).
At the moment that's our level until we prove different.
Suck it up!"
Interesting that you consider Dublin's level the 2nd tier. I personally think they are better than that but yous lads are the experts
Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 11911 - 17/06/2022 16:57:01

Where did I mention Dublin????

Breffni1969 (Cavan) - Posts: 510 - 18/06/2022 11:54:37    2425733

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 1904 - 18/06/2022 12:35:03    2425737

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2380 - 18/06/2022 13:07:24    2425743

blueman1903 (Cavan) - Posts: 882 - 18/06/2022 14:27:59    2425762

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 1904 - 18/06/2022 14:53:36    2425769

blueman1903 (Cavan) - Posts: 882 - 18/06/2022 15:04:26    2425774

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2380 - 18/06/2022 15:15:34    2425777

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 1904 - 18/06/2022 15:36:34    2425788

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 1904 - 18/06/2022 15:40:04    2425791

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 1904 - 18/06/2022 16:04:27    2425804

Best of luck to the lads today strong team named, hoping we travel in numbers to croker today and make plenty of noise Cavan abú

Breffniboys (Cavan) - Posts: 14 - 19/06/2022 10:24:29    2425991

Best of luck to the lads today. Looks a decent afternoon for it. Landed in city centre there and spotted a fair few fans of all 4 sides about. Hope it means a good crowd. Nice few Cavan jerseys in that

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2380 - 19/06/2022 12:26:04    2426028

Congratulations to Graham and the team getting to another final some terrific point scoring and could have had a couple of goals great for the development of the team,but can we stop coughing up goal chances as we were lucky not to concede at least 3goals v Sligo so much work to do before final because they got through us at will.

[email protected] (Cavan) - Posts: 138 - 19/06/2022 15:47:09    2426095

Congratulations to Graham and the team getting to another final some terrific point scoring and could have had a couple of goals great for the development of the team,but can we stop coughing up goal chances as we were lucky not to concede at least 3goals v Sligo so much work to do before final because they got through us at will.

[email protected] (Cavan) - Posts: 138 - 19/06/2022 15:47:24    2426097

Good win. Some strong performances - Gerry Smith, T Galligan, J Smith and a few others. 17 points from play is good shooting. Galligan's kick-outs very good as usual and probably is taken for granted at this stage but gives the team a great platform getting possession the majority of the time.
Made it a lot more difficult for ourselves than we needed to though. A bit of composure from McKiernan for his two goal chances - sell the goalie a dummy bounce and go by him and its a simple tap in instead of signposting his shot & kicking it down his throat. The chance before HT would of killed the game off as a contest if he had of drawn the goalkeeper and scored a goal.
K Clarke needs to be much tighter, rarely gets a proper tackle in on his or whatever player he goes darting for.
Lucky Niall Murphy was only on from HT, caused all sorts of problems when introduced and a few occasions was in acres of space.

Paddy Lynch while not outstanding, won plenty of ball and realised he had a good marker on him & passed it off numerous times to a man off his shoulder.

Watching the opening quarter of the other game here now and Westmeath will be a much sterner test. Play direct, well able to kick points and took their two goal chances that came their way.
Great to be in a final come July and a super chance of winning. Need to tighten up all aspects of defence and be more clinical.

just_the_facts (Cavan) - Posts: 163 - 19/06/2022 16:24:22    2426110

Some good passages of play going forward and some great scores. Defensively we are a disaster and it shows why we a div3/4 team.
We couldn't handle a big London full forward 3 months ago and today couldn't handle a half fit Sligo full forward.
Next we will face Heslin who's a class act.
It's our defensive game that's going to kill improvement . Dad because we have some really nice footballers playing a lovely direct game while going forward.
But yes we are Tailteann standard. No where near able to compete in qualifiers with that defence.

Breffni1969 (Cavan) - Posts: 510 - 19/06/2022 17:20:06    2426129

i dont think we needed to be shooting for goals yesterday. We should have taken points with all those chances. None of them were gimmies. There are times when goals are definitely the correct option but on a day when you are creating so many chances just take the points. we could have killed the game in the first few minutes of the second half. Good to see Cian Madden getting a few nice scores. Hope Martin Reilly will be OK for final. Gerry Smith was my MOTM and Jason McLaughlin not far behind. I wonder would Jason be a better option at Full Back, I think he is one of the few players on the team who is a good marker and can tackle. It was worrying to cough up so many good chances for Sligo. We were lucky in the end that they didnt punish us further. It was the same in the league match. The scoreline there didn't reflect the game. We could easily have been bet.
Having said that some of our play was outstanding going forward and James Smith, T Galligan, G. Smith and GMac at times took some great scores . Heslin is good if you give him space but we need to mark him tight. It should be a tightly contested final.

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 20/06/2022 08:09:55    2426228

Good to win rather than a good win and great to be in the final…. On a couple of points… Why did we give up almost every kick out to Sligo..? It made no sense as nearly all their scores came from this and any time we forced the keeper to kick long we won possession… McLaughlin had an excellent game and should have got man if the match ( or the Sligo full back who was excellent on Paddy Lynch )… The RTE panel obviously only know one Cavan player who somehow got the award after missing 2 open goals and pulling out of another chance when put through… We need someone to man the center back position and Pat Faulkner is a shadow of his former self in defence…We got some wonderful scores and I think all 11 of our 1st half points were scored by different players which must be a record of sorts… A big improvement needed before the Final as Westmeath are a few notches up from Sligo…..

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 1904 - 20/06/2022 08:29:48    2426232

I enjoyed yesterday's game. A tighter game that it was looking early on, and I think the penalty (which wasn't a penalty) saw to that.

20 points is a good return, but 5 missed goal chances is something that needs addressing. The sligo keeper made 4 saves but none were anything special.

I'd agree we need to tighten up defensively. Maybe Moynagh to come back in and play sweeper. We have the fitness to leave an extra man back and not leave 2v2 in our FB line like we did yesterday.

Why did Galligan not take the first 45!!?? He's as good as there is in the country from that distance. That approach cost us in last year's league and I thought we'd have learned.


Hard to know from the second game just how good Westmeath are. I know Offaly were badly Covid affected over the last 2 weeks but they still put up 2-16. I think the Fermanagh team we beat by 9 points were a level above the Offaly team that Westmeath beat by 9, if that's anything to go by.

Bookies have us at 1/2 which is possibly too short. But if we play like we know we can, we will win.

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5010 - 20/06/2022 09:05:07    2426244

So got the win yesterday. Played decently up front, 20 points scored at Croker not to sniffed at. Missed a lot of goal chances that any other day would have seen us score and break them a bit. The one before half time springs to mind. Score there and they're not coming back from that (keep the ball low to the ground!!). Defensively we were so open at times. They could easily have had 2 or 3 goals themselves (we're blessed with that Hill 16 end crossbar now). It was that type of open game though, one that we've tended to lose in the past in a shootout. Overall we really were better though in my opinion. Our shot selection was superior, we scored some lovely points and were fit to score from a little further out than Sligo, and opening up that initial 6 point lead meant we always had them at arms length. Even when they came back at us, it took a lot out of them, and we were fit to step it up and stretch the lead out again. While it got a little hairy at times, think we always had the better of them and were fit to keep ahead.

I'm honestly happy enough. Think we needed a tight game, after 2 big enough wins. Brings the guys back down a little, and shows that Croker can be a bit of a leveller with the wide open spaces. Westmeath had won by half time yesterday, and although Offaly pulled it back a bit, they weren't tested as much overall. Hope they are a bit over confident. Our lads had to dig deep for the first time in a while. Likes of Ciaran Holla was out on his feet going into the red. That'll stand to them more than coasting home.

Lynch was tied up well all day. Teams will have lots of footage of him now he's had a breakout year, so he'll need to be wary of that. Their 3 had their homework done. That way he collects the ball, drops his shoulder, turns and steps off his foot to give him a shot with the right was known. Needs to add a little something else to his arsenal to give him options. In fairness though, when the shot wasn't on, he usually recycled it well and didn't just lose the ball.

GMac got motm, and while he was his usual good showing, I thought Jason McLoughlin and Gerry Smith were the outstanding performers. Jayo is just so solid. He must be a nightmare to play against, always fit to get a hand in, to strip a ball or force a turnover. First name on the team for me. Some clutch points from Gerry, some when really needed, his link up play great too.

So lots to work on for 3 weeks time. Won't be an easy game, Westmeath have a lot of threats. But do think some of our lads won't have as quiet a game, and the defence won't leave as many spaces. Think we have it in us to win, if we play to the level we know we can. Another step up needed, it's one final game of the year so need to leave it all out there, there's no next day. Looking forward to this already.

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2380 - 20/06/2022 09:46:23    2426259