CAVAN’S PAIN DROVE THEM ON
CAVAN player Oisín Pierson has claimed that the hurt of losing last year’s final drove Cavan to their first Ulster title in 23 years. Pierson, who had started in the previous three games, was the fall guy in Sunday’s Ulster final – he was dropped from the team to ensure that Cavan could match Donegal pound for pound as midfielder James Smith came into the team. But that did not dull his disappointment, claiming it made up for the heartbreak of losing the final 12 months earlier. He said it was that pain that drove their glory charge all winter, which included coming back from 10 points down in the semi-final against Down. ‘You can’t take the heartache of last year away and it probably made us go stronger,’ said Pierson, who admitted that they had learned from their fivepoint defeat to Donegal in last
year’s final. ‘It was a bit surreal last year. I was 20 and it was my first year with the team, I was caught up in it like. I was being marked by Niall McGee, a man I have been watching on the telly for the last 10 years. We probably got caught in the headlights in last year’s Ulster final. There was two weeks of a build-up and it was the talk of Cavan. I know this week it was much the same but there are no crowds, the media was not there so we just took it as it came, week by week, which probably suited us better this year,’ added Pierson, who compared the impact of Cavan boss Mickey Graham to Donegal’s mould-breaking manager, Jim McGuinness. ‘I have only been playing since Mickey started so I would not know what went on before that but the boys around us have said that the culture is changing and that is what it takes to win Ulster titles,’ said Pierson. ‘That is what is after happening in Donegal in 2010. Jim McGuinness changed their culture, it changed their path and the sky is the limit for them. You have to have belief if you are to go places... and that is the main thing I would take from Mickey. He has belief in every single last one of the 36 or 37 and we believe in ourselves.’