National League 2019

blueman1903 (Cavan) - Posts: 885 - 03/02/2019 18:56:50    2162134

There is still a place on the bench for Johnson in there. Wealth of experience and would have been an ideal substitute when Kerry came back at us.

Inaroundehouse (Cavan) - Posts: 975 - 03/02/2019 19:01:46    2162141

The Quiet Man (Cavan) - Posts: 4602 - 03/02/2019 19:04:04    2162143

doratheexplorer (Cavan) - Posts: 1467 - 03/02/2019 19:11:15    2162150

Inactive x5 (Cavan) - Posts: 1452 - 03/02/2019 19:15:17    2162155

RHF (Cavan) - Posts: 892 - 03/02/2019 19:40:00    2162169

I thought there was many positives to be taken from that today. First half was excellent all around. Madden kicked three great points, Ciaran Brady was the best man on the park while he was there. Kerry subs made difference in the end, Cavan's bench didn't offer any impact, when Dara and Ciaran went off they were greatly missed for their leadership and driving runs forward. We now have a decent full back line with Faulkner, Clarke in there.
Half back line was good with Reehil Dara and Holla.
The first half was definitely an improvement on anything I seen in the last few years considering the opposition.
Free taking was an issue in second half 4/5 frees in similar positions, Martin Reilly scored one then took one short and gave it away, Ray Galligan missed a couple but he is still our best option from frees in that range.

theDagger1986 (Cavan) - Posts: 181 - 03/02/2019 20:23:48    2162214

The Quiet Man (Cavan) - Posts: 4602 - 03/02/2019 20:27:17    2162219

I missed the game today as I was away. So I came on here to get the lowdown on what went on. On the face of it it seemed like a good first half performance and maybe lack of luck/ experience at this level cost in the second half.
What I can't understand is how there is such differing opinions on the game as a whole. Some people saying it was a disaster others counting the merits. Some lamenting that we don't have enough players and that we should go looking again ? Others seem realistic and happy. What's going on ?
From my point of view it's the second game against Kerry. !!! This is division 1. The lads are there on merit. I'd Like to think they're improving As time goes on. I look forward to the trip to mayo next week. Maybe it'll be the kickstart of a revival. Points will be dropped from now on. Out from Dublin. They're points to be taken of all the rest

theweanling (Cavan) - Posts: 414 - 03/02/2019 20:34:04    2162225

BreffniGuide (Cavan) - Posts: 474 - 03/02/2019 20:53:56    2162240

GallantJohnJoe (Cavan) - Posts: 329 - 03/02/2019 22:01:56    2162296

BreffniGuide (Cavan) - Posts: 474 - 03/02/2019 22:55:37    2162326

Good first half but we were out muscled in the second half. Again the lack of free taker hurt especially when Kerry's free taker was superb Ciaran Brady had a great game. I thought Cillian Clarke played well too and Martin Reilly did a lot of hard work.
The ref didn't do us any favours but Dermot Mc Cabe constatly scolding the officials is ridiculous.
Still no points on the board but we really need to instill a belief in our players just like Roscommon did today and we may get a result when unexpected.

marita (None) - Posts: 469 - 03/02/2019 23:17:35    2162332

No I have been a supporter of Cavan football a long time now like many more people who live in Cavan that are not local. So jerks like you will not put me down let me tell you but it's jerks like you that has Cavan football where it is today and you cannot see anything wrong with the blue and white set up when it is blatantly obvious why Cavan football is on it's knees. Don't worry about my birth county I lived in it for 18 years and my adopted county near on 50 years.

By the way RHF you know who I am so anytime you want to talk to me feel free to approach me maybe a few home truths you might see the light. .
The Quiet Man (Cavan) - Posts: 4302 - 03/02/2019 20:27:17 2162219

No need for name calling. Cavan football is what it is and we wont be winning all Ireland any time soon. Perhaps you could give your home county advise on maintaining a pitch I think they need an experienced man down there.

RHF (Cavan) - Posts: 892 - 04/02/2019 07:27:20    2162365

Very encouraging first half performance v Kerry. Great endeavour, energy, determination, resolute tackling, albeit conceding too many frees, but hunting in packs again which is progressive. Unfortunately, we seem to be heavily reliant on Halla and McV and then can be taken out as we saw yesterday.

If we had played like that Kerry first half against Galway for even 10 mins of the second half last week, we'd have had those two points.

We may not survive in Div 1 but I'd accept that if we continue to make progress particularly with our attacking strategy. Having had so many years of the same boring style of football it was great to see us take the fight to them. We now need to build the performance into a full game at this intensity and introduce more players who are capable of beating defenders in a direct run at them in order to create overlaps and goal chances.

We're a WIP and churning players to get the right mix. Still not sure about some of the new players, very Gaels-weighted. If they're good enough, I could live with that, but some look very exposed at this level.

Mickey has been quoted as saying that we might have to go backwards in the short term to make long term progress and I'm fine with that.

ondforty (Cavan) - Posts: 471 - 04/02/2019 08:38:56    2162373

sammaguire1 (Cavan) - Posts: 279 - 04/02/2019 08:54:17    2162379

The Quiet Man (Cavan) - Posts: 4602 - 04/02/2019 09:13:25    2162381

Hard luck to all yesterday. Terrific contest and lads left all on the field. I was very happy with what I saw but was very disappointed with the result and I'm sure the lads are deflated after that. But if we keep playing like that throughout this campaign and then get some players back later on we will not be in the worst shape going into championship. Might even pick up a few points along the way too.
Kerry definitely won the battle of the free takers. If we swapped I think we would have won by 5 or 6 points. We had 3 great opportunities in the second half from frees at a vital time that we desperately needed and we converted none. O'Shea was putting those over in his sleep. Last 10 minutes unfortunately we ran out of road. Lost McVeety and Brady to injury which was a massive blow. Brady particularly was immense. Drove us forward at every opportunity and encouraged the whole team to drive forward when there was a tendency to go lateral. Our replacements lacked experience and didn't really contribute much, possibly even making a few mistakes that led to Kerry scores. Kerry brought on Mark Griffin and David Moran, lads with massive experience and who visibly changed the course of the game and contributed massively both on the field and scoreboard. So a bit of perspective is probably needed. Hopefully we see a similar battling performance in Castlebar next Saturday evening.

Hardtimes (Cavan) - Posts: 1056 - 04/02/2019 10:23:55    2162396

Encouraging first half performance and starting selection from team and management yesterday. Clarke and Faulkner were solid in the full back line, and McVeety held the middle well at cb and then also attacked well at times too.

It's a pity if he has to be sacrificed as a forward but if he can hold the middle at cb better than anyone else we have then it is probably worth losing him in the forwards.

I have already said Faulkner should be tried there and think he could do the job but perhaps him and Clarke are the only two full backs we have capable of keeping Div 1 standard inside forwards quiet and yesterday's line up was the right decision.

Madden playing well also is encouraging.

Martin Reilly one of our best forwards as usual but I think at times we slow ourselves up by giving him the ball too much. i.de Him stopping dead and looking for it and being handed a handy ball by a player who could drive on himself and Martin run with him for an overlap..

More Gaels lads getting runs than deserve it for me. Not including Paul Graham who did very well yesterday I thought.

We could also do with a bit more certainty with our inside & scoring forwards. The likes of Kevin Tierney, Jack Brady, Niall Clerkin have been in and out of the team and panel now for a few years now without any consistency, and there is probably plenty more coming and going, Ado Cole another, who appears to be gone again now this year.

Ray Galligan top class these days in almost every dept. but for me he still needs to hit more of the do or die frees that can give us the momentum swing in a game. Missed a longish but scoreable one at 12-12 yesterday I think it was, that could have been a hell of a lift for us if he had hit it.

Still appears there is a bit of a mental block for us to kick on and win these close games against the big teams it seems. Hopefully we can do so against struggling Tyrone, Roscommon and others to scrape safety. But the likelihood is we will down unfortunately..

But in summary, an improvement on last week by team and management I think and if that continues each week I'll be happy enough.

PatTheDandy (Cavan) - Posts: 356 - 04/02/2019 10:45:15    2162404

Inaroundehouse (Cavan) - Posts: 975 - 04/02/2019 11:47:04    2162434