Cavan's premier ladies football team made history in 2006 when they won the Ulster JFC title. County Board PRO Raymond Brady delights in reviewing what was a wonderful year for all concerned. Central Council didn't create the intermediate championship just for Cavan's sake but wouldn't it be great if our ladies won the competition in 2007? Ladies County Board PRO Raymond Brady certainly thinks so. Cavan will be joined by chief challengers Fermanagh in the upcoming second tier championship. In the pecking order of ladies football, nationally, the two neighbours wouldn't quite squeeze their way into the top ten. "You could say we're one of the teams leading the chasing pack," Mullahoran clubman Brady explains. "We have five or six players on our senior team at the present time who would have won Ulster medals at various grades down the years. "There's no reason why they can't progress - with help obviously the other talented players on the team - to add an Ulster senior medal to their collection down the road." As reigning Ulster JFC title holders, Cavan ladies have seen their stock rise greatly over the last 12 months in particular and provincial kingpins Armagh could be forgiven for looking over their shoulders. Cavan go forward in 2007 under new boss Eamon Lynch from Gowna (father of 2005 Player of the Year Patricia Lynch) who succeeded the eminently successful Raphael Rodgers from the Knockbride. "It came as a surprise to most of us that Raphael left the job because he did an absolutely great job over the last three years, culminating in the winning of the junior championship last year. "But Eamon (Lynch) has great experience of the game and has achieved a lot of success down the years at under 14 and under 16 levels and knows a lot of the girls." The self-same Lynch inherits a team of great talent, ambition, strength and determination but he'll be hoping to engineer a better National League season in '07 than what transpired last year. Relegation from division two of the national league was not what the doctor ordered for ladies football in Cavan but, according to our man Brady, the results were a fair reflection of the team's league form. A slow-to-the boil start by the team in the league in 2006 laid the foundation stones for an enigmatic campaign but matters improved dramatically for the championship and a title duly beckoned. Raymond confesses he had a sneaking feeling at the outset of last year that the Rodgers-led crew would go the distance in the Ulster JFC. As they say around Drumcor, Kilcogy, Ballytrust etc, he felt it in his water. And yet there was never any sense of certainty in his mind that the premier Cavan ladies football team would reap the ultimate dividend; due primarily to the hand dealt the county in times past. In recent years, the Breffni girls had been thwarted by Donegal and Armagh on several occasions in both the final and penultimate rounds of the junior championship. For the 2006 Ulster JFC, Derry, Fermanagh, Antrim and Monaghan 'B' stood in the way of Cavan's finest and history. Raymond concedes that he was pleasantly surprised, for all his gut feeling, that the blues emerged as champions especially in the wake of a tepid display against Antrim in the semi-final. "After the Antrim game the manager give the girls a right talking to and told them that they weren't going to beat Fermanagh - winners of the corresponding first round tie in '05 - if they didn't shape up. "Fermanagh had beaten Derry in the first round and then beat a strong Monaghan side at home by four points and showed a lot of character to limit Monaghan's winning margin to three points in the second leg. "I was surprised that Fermanagh beat Monaghan first time around but then when they showed their battling qualities in Clones, it was easy to see why they had managed to make the final." As things panned out, Cavan's ladies boasted a perfect 10 in whipping the match favourites at St. Tighernach's Park with their 2-9 to 1-9 win not in the least bit flattering for the Breffni-based side. After the success at underage level over recent years, the breakthrough achieved at adult level in '06 could be just the springboard Cavan need to close the gap on the Armagh, Tyrone and Monaghans of this world. "It will have done wonders for the girls' confidence and it has raised the profile of ladies football in Cavan no end but it's up to everyone to see that we push on now and keep improving." The provincial final was a fine advertisement for ladies football in both Cavan and Fermanagh but the paucity of the crowd in attendance was disappointing for all concerned. "I'd have to say the GAA in Cavan didn't acknowledge the ladies' achievement as much as they should have because it's not every year the county wins an Ulster title," Raymond maintains. "There was no more than 200 at the final in Clones which was very disappointing, especially considering that there were no fixtures for the men laid on that day in July. "There was absolutely no excuse for the lack of support from the clubs around the county; all of the clubs knew we were in the Ulster final and it wasn't nice to see such few people at the homecoming either." The game itself saw Cavan captain Grainne Smith hit the high notes for Cavan with a 2-2 personal tally after a dream start for the Ernesiders threatened to ruin Cavan's dreams of an historic triumph. The losers-elect found the net after just four minutes after catching out a rather tentative Cavan defence. However Cavan refused to panic and they responded with two fine points, the first from Sharon Cassidy and the second from the hugely influential Bronagh Sheridan (free). Cavan recovered well from the shock early goal and almost nabbed two goals in the opening ten minutes with both Grainne Smith and Bronagh Sheridan going close - the latter firing her shot off the crossbar. Points were quickly exchanged between the sides with Brid Boylan and Cootehill native Elaine Costin both countering similar efforts from the green and whites. It was nip and tuck from there to the interval with the in-form Sheridan knocking over another free for Cavan's sixth point to leave the score at the interval, 1-3 to 0-6. The ebb and flow of the game continued as the second half gathered pace with Fermanagh drawing first blood with a further point after just four minutes but Cavan's top scorer Smith soon replied with a neat point. Cavan continued on the forefoot and their opponents had a huge let-off in the next attack when Bronagh Sheridan struck the woodwork for the third time. Fermanagh notched a free to keep the pressure on Cavan but the blues responded with points from Aisling Traynor and Sheridan to leave the champions-elect ahead by a single point entering the final 15 minutes. The Ernesiders stuck to their task and got a major filip when Cavan midfielder Laura Corrigan was sin-binned with 14 minutes left to play. But cometh the hour, cometh the woman and, with great aplomb, captain fantastic Smith stormed through the heart of the Fermanagh defence before blasting the ball to the net for a dramatic winning strike. "Grainne (Smith) had an absolutely fantastic game in the final and, as captain, she really led by example and showed a lot of character in sticking with it after her form early on in the match wasn't great. "Her goal at the end was something special but I always had the feeling that there was goals in the team." Raymond is passionate about the need for ladies football to kick on from here and consolidate the excellent achievement by the county team and the unstinting work of the clubs at grass roots level. He takes pride in explaining that in 1992 there were only three or four ladies football clubs in Cavan; now there are 28 with the prospect of new clubs starting up in the coming year. A member of the famed 'Gunner' Brady clan in Mullahoran, Health Service employee Raymond believes, to coin a phrase, there's a lot done but a lot more to do. "It would help the ladies game a lot if we could see clubs in Bailieboro and Kingscourt established for instance rather than having just a presence from Knockbride in east Cavan. "The same goes for west Cavan where we need more clubs than just Templeport because there's no doubt the demand for extra clubs is out there." Doubling up as vice-chairman of the county board, Raymond strenuously believes that all the structures are in place to facilitate the development of ladies football in Cavan even further in the coming years. Looking ahead to the coming league and championship seasons, the dedicated official - who is also a hard working PRO for Mullahoran Dreadnoughts - reckons that promotion from division two is a must in 2007. "Of course the championship is the big one and we'd love to make a big impression at intermediate level and maybe even win it and who knows what would happen in the All-Ireland after that. "One thing's sure, there'll be no stone left unturned by the county board or team-management in the effort to win more silverware this year." Cavan: K. Baxter, P. Lynch, C. O'Reilly, S. Kiernan, P. Crowe, A. Cronyn, A. Clarke, C. Rodgers, L. Corrigan, G. Smith , A. Traynor, E. Costin, S. Cassidy, B. Sheridan, B. Boylan. Subs: Joanne McNally, Roisin O'Keefe, Eireann Galligan Tweet

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