A lot done more to do for Brady as Breffni men target national silverware

“NO job done yet” is Cavan centre-back Ciarán Brady’s opening salvo as he sits down to discuss Sunday’s Allianz FL Division 2 final. Bouncing back to Division 1 is all well and good, he says, but a quick glance around the dressing room tells him chances to win national silverware might not come around too often.

“We’ve gained promotion and it’s great,” he says. “I suppose looking towards Sunday, we are looking for that bit of national silverware. There are a few people in that team who haven’t had success and they’re tipping on in years even though they wouldn’t like to hear it.

“Your Cian Mackeys, Seánie Johnstons, Marty Reillys, Raymond Galligan in goals. They haven’t had the reward for the work they have put in. Hopefully we can get each other over the line on Sunday to get that success.

“I don’t think there is anything more people in Cavan would love to see than (Dara) McVeety going up the steps of the Hogan Stand on Sunday.”

To send their captain up the steps, the Breffni men will have to turn the form book on its head. Cavan and Roscommon have met regularly over the last few seasons but it’s the Connacht side who have come out on top. In fact, the teams have met on nine occasions since 2012, with the

Breffni men winning once along with securing a draw. “Roscommon, I suppose, have had the upper hand the last few years so we’ll try to put a few wrongs right there,” adds Brady (left).

“I wouldn’t say there’s hurt, the way the game is now, there is a bigger turnover on the panel and a lot of players might not have been there in years gone by. It’s just we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to the county in general moreso than each individual player.”

Last weekend, promotion was secured with a comefrom-behind win over Tipperary in Kingspan Breffni. Afterwards manager Mattie McGleenan looked to take responsibility for the relegation from the top flight in his first year in charge, insisting he “didn’t do the team justice”. Brady reckons

an bedding-in period was inevitable.

“Mattie came in with his own thoughts on how he wanted to play the game last year and maybe it was too quick for us to adapt in Division 1 football and maybe it wasn’t the atmosphere to be trying to adapt,” reflects Brady.

“We didn’t adapt quickly enough because we didn’t get the results; we had one good win and a draw and it wasn’t good enough at that level.

“He has had a longer winter with us this year to tell us and show us how he wants us to play. Maybe not in the McKenna Cup but in the league and we are starting to reap the rewards of that now and he’s instilling in us what he wants us to do.”

Whatever happens on Sunday at headquarters, Cavan will have a quick turn-around to face Donegal in Ballybofey in the Ulster Championship on May 13. They have not lived up to their billing in either Ulster or the qualifiers and Brady is determined to put that right as the summer unfolds.

“A lot of talk is that Cavan have underperformed in championship in the last few years which has occurred but in the last four or five leagues we have been competing well and been there or thereabouts every year.

“The ball going another way in the Ulster Championship over the last few years; well we haven’t come out on the right side of it.

“The one big regret we’d have as a team is our back door record. When we have gone out of the Ulster Championship in previous years we haven’t given a full, proper account of ourselves.”