The Friday Interview: Cathal Cregg
June 14, 2013
Roscommon's Cathal Cregg. INPHO
Just back from the US where he attended the ACSM (American Conference of Sports Medicine) World Conference, the Connacht GAA strength and conditioning officer is, in fact, relishing the challenge of taking on James Horan's men in their own backyard.
Following their 16-point demolition of Galway in the first round, Mayo are the hottest of favourites to capture their third Connacht SFC title in succession, something they haven't achieved since completing a four-in-a-row in their last All-Ireland winning year of 1951. But Roscommon also have the Nestor Cup in their sights, and Cregg is hoping they can build on the form they showed in the latter stages of the Allianz League.
"Our minimum target for this year is to win Connacht and be in Croke Park in August," the Western Gaels clubman reveals.
"We finished the league strongly by beating Antrim, Monaghan and Cavan. We had a great win in Breffni Park to finish the league on a high. Since then, we've had four or five weeks of hard training, played two rounds of the local championship and a number of challenge matches. We've prepared well, but we're under no illusions about the task that awaits us on Sunday.
"When you take into account that Mayo play in Division 1 and we play in Division 3, it's easy to see why people are writing us off. They're a top five or six team who contested last year's All-Ireland final, and having to play them in Castlebar makes it even more difficult for us.
"We'll need to produce a massive display, but I'm convinced the talent is there for us to get a result."
Working in Mayo for the past few months, the highly-rated half forward has been impressed by their improvement since they dethroned Roscommon as Connacht champions in 2011.
"When they beat us in the Connacht final two years ago in Hyde Park, people were saying it was a surprise because they had only just scrapped over London in the first round," he recalls.
"It's funny how attitudes towards Mayo have changed since then. That was James Horan's first championship game in charge and they have clearly come on in leaps and bounds since then. Their graph has gone up considerably, so much so that they are now being spoken of as All-Ireland contenders."
Cathal is in no doubt what Mayo's greatest quality is. "It's their work-rate," he emphasises.
"They work really hard as a team. There are no stars in their team; it's a collective effort. Their work-rate against Galway was massive. They forced Galway into making a lot of mistakes and punished them severely. You could only admire how ruthless they were."
Admitting that Roscommon didn't have the best of starts to the year, the 26-year-old believes things are on the up under John Evans. However, his one concern is the Rossies' tendency to follow a good performance with a bad one.
"Consistency, or rather lack of it, is our bigger problem," he complains.
"We struggle to put performances back-to-back. We beat Armagh in the qualifiers last year after losing heavily to Galway in the first round of the Connacht championship. And then we had a great first half against Tyrone, only to fade badly in the second.
"That's the sort of inconsistency I'm talking about. It's something we're trying to rectify and the fact that we won our last three league games would suggest we are getting there. We were disappointed to miss out on promotion, having found ourselves playing catch-up after a poor start.
"We had a new manager who needed time to settle in, we had a lot of injury problems and were also missing the St. Brigid's lads. It was a difficult time, but we've managed to turn things around since."
Cathal feels Roscommon are fortunate to have a manager of John Evans' calibre.
"His enthusiasm for the game is infectious. It's a huge commitment for him to travel up and down from Kerry, but he just seems to take it in his stride. He has had success with every team he's been involved with.
"He won an All-Ireland club title with Laune Rangers and brought Tipperary from Division 4 to Division 2 in the league. Tipp made huge progress under John. And even though he was only involved with Meath for a short time last year, their results picked up in that time. It's great for us to have a guy like that in place."
Roscommon's strong finish to the Allianz League coincided with the return of their All-Ireland winning St. Brigid's contingent who, the captain reckons, have made the rest of the squad believe anything is possible.
"Their All-Ireland club victory has given Roscommon football a great boost," he enthuses.
"What St. Brigid's achieved has brought an air of confidence around the place and proved that Roscommon footballers can compete at the highest level. Unfortunately, Peter Domican is taking a break from football and is heading to the States soon, but Karol Mannion, Ronan Stack and the two Kilbrides, Senan and Ian, are back in with us and their confidence and winning mentality is rubbing off on the rest of us."
Having won the All-Ireland minor crown in 2006, contested last year's All-Ireland U21 final and captured numerous Connacht minor and U21 titles in between, Cregg feels it's high time the Rossies made their mark at senior level.
"We won the Connacht championship in 2010, but haven't really built on," he laments.
"We've had a lot of success at underage level in recent years. Young lads like Donie Smith, Colin Compton and Ciaran Cafferkey have competed in the latter stages of All-Ireland championships and are ready to bring that experience through to the senior team.
"It's great to have that kind of quality coming into the senior team and mixing with lads like Donie Shine, David Keenan, Conor Devanney and Kevin Higgins from the 2006 minor team. We have huge potential and hopefully we'll be able to bring that through in the next year or two."
Now in his eighth season as a Roscommon senior, Cathal is joined on the county panel by his Western Gaels club-mates Donal Ward, Seanie McDermott, Kevin Higgins and Ciaran Cafferkey, who captained the U21 team which lost this year's Connacht final to Galway after extra-time. Cathal's younger brother Finbar was also part of this year's - and last year's - U21 side.
2010 has been Cathal's most successful year on the football field to date. Not only did he win Connacht SFC and Sigerson Cup medals with Roscommon and DCU respectively, he was nominated for an All Star award and was part of the All Stars tour to Kuala Lumpur in November of that year.
After graduating from DCU with a Sports Science degree and a Research Masters in Exercise Physiology last year, he spent time in the US and Australia before returning to Ireland to take up his current role with Connacht GAA. During the third year of his degree, the strength and conditioning officer worked with Connacht Rugby in Galway and is now putting that experience to good use in the GAA.
"I'm based at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in Bekan, which is just outside Ballyhaunis," explains Cathal, who is also a talented soccer player.
"It's only 30 minutes from my home in Frenchpark so it's ideal for county training. It's a big change from having to travel back and forth from Dublin, which I had been doing for five or six years." Tweet
