Cavan’s core catch sight of the Promised Land again
In Lynch, Blues may have a future ‘marquee’ forward
boot camp scene of a Donegal training session on the weekend before the newly crowned Ulster champions faced Kildare in 2011. “I think it was more psychological from Jim than anything – it was a clear message that we weren’t going to rest on our laurels,” says Cassidy.
He had been captain in 2010 when Donegal were humbled by Armagh in a Crossmaglen qualifier. Afterwards, he told the team he was finishing up.
John Joe Doherty called time on his troubled tenure that Monday morning. It was an open secret that McGuinness, who led Donegal to an All-Ireland U-21 final that year, was the heir apparent.
The pair had soldiered together in ’02 and ’03 but Cassidy initially baulked at a retirement U-turn, even as McGuinness dangled the carrot of his old No 7 jersey. The manager’s persistence eventually prevailed. What followed was like nothing he had experienced before.
“I wouldn’t have been a great trainer, especially in winter — I would have carried a wee bit of extra weight,” says Cassidy. “Jim made it very, very clear that you’re going to get in the shape of your lives. It was horrible, absolutely horrible for the first three, four, five months.
“But come summer time then, when you pulled up to training, you didn’t care whatwascomingbecauseyouknewyou could handle it.”
Still, McGuinness had the intelligence to let the strongly built Cassidy concentrate on speed and long-distance running programmes while others focused on the gym.AndwhenCassidy–nothappywith his form in Ulster – asked if he could skip collective training to do some solo running and shooting sessions with his old Gweedore coach, Tom ‘Beag’ Gillespie, the manager consented. That fine-tuning prep, he maintains, was key to that magical winning point against Kildare.
Looking back, he suspects this was a “make-or-break game” for both – even though Donegal were in the early stages of a revolution. Defeat could have fatally wounded their self-belief – “and I think that’s what happened with Kildare.”
Fast-forward to now, and Cassidy is surprised that a county of Kildare’s size, resources and player-friendly location are “where they are. I would class them as definitely a top-eight or a top-six county.”
Woes
As for Donegal, after all the on- and offfield woes of 2023, McGuinness was “exactly what’s needed.” In any team sport, “you will find people who will take the excuse rather than look at themselves … and that’s what happened in Donegal the last three-four years,” he surmises.
“And what Jim does is those excuses go. So you don’t have any more excuses that we’re not prepared, not tactically up there with every other county, or about resources. So, if you don’t perform, then the light shines on you.”
Can he see parallels with his first coming? “Definitely, 100pc,” he agrees. But with one caveat: he’s not sure if the current team possesses some of the “exceptional individual talents”, generational players like Michael Murphy, Karl Lacey and Neil McGee, or a dominant midfield presence like Neil Gallagher. “That’s the thing for me now, are those players there?” he remarks. “I don’t think Division 2 has told us a lot yet.”
Where might 2024 take them? “Being totally honest, do I think we’re good enough to win an All-Ireland? No, I don’t. But I do think we have the potential to win Ulster, if things go our way … obviously Derry stand in our way.”
Cassidy hung up his boots last October, aged 42, after the Gaoth Dobhair reserves lost the county SFC ‘B’ final. “Club was always first,” he says. “It was always about playing for Gaoth Dobhair.”
One missing medal won’t change that.
Cavan GAA has been inducting quite a few players into its ‘100 club’ in recent seasons, the number of inter-county appearances providing a framework for the service of a few for more than a decade now.
Ciarán Brady was the latest to hit treble figures on the last night out against Meath, a milestone delayed by a cruciate ligament tear he sustained in 2021.
Ahead of Brady, Jason McLoughlin (107), Killian Brady (110), Pádraig Faulkner (112) and Killian Clarke (123) are already bona fide centurians, information carefullycuratedbybythecurrentCavanvicechair Mark O’Rourke, while the current manager Raymond Galligan, Gearoid McKiernan and Martin O’Reilly, who have all ceased playing in the last few months, had passed the threshold in the latter end of their careers.
Additionally, Dara McVeety, who missed a few seasons travelling, and Gerard Smith have careers with Cavan now spanning nine years and more.
It’s a reflection of the weight of experience this current Cavan team carries. Players from neighbouring Monaghan have built a reputation for maximising everything out of their careers while Dublin have at least nine players who are into a 10th year and more.
But Cavan’s core are standing the test of time too. McLoughlin and Clarke debuted in 2012, Killian Brady and McVeety in 2013, Ciarán Brady in 2015 and Faulkner and Smith in 2016.
This evening they can take a big leap towards a third spell in Division 1 in nine years when they travel to Armagh.
A win for Cavan would put them on nine points, level with Armagh. If both were to win their final-round games, for Cavan at home to Fermanagh and Armagh away to Cork, Cavan would advance on the head-to-head, provided Donegal don’t drop two points on the run in. In that case, there’d be a threeway tie and Cavan would likely lose out on score difference.
But to be having that conversation
Paddy Lynch has continued a strong development path
now is probably ahead of the expectation around them earlier in the season. For former manager Terry Hyland, who oversaw the first of the two previous Division 1 promotions in 2016, it’s no surprise that Cavan are backboned by a group with such longevity. In some ways that may have been by design rather than accident. As joint U-21 manager at the beginning of the last decade, Hyland, together with Peter Reilly, sought about establishing a policy where graduates would be in groups.
“The policy was about building up a bank of experience and getting to know a way of playing and how to play together,” recalled Hyland, who was also senior manager in those years. “So they got used to each other on the back of that, we had our U-21 successes and those players mentioned were among those groups.”
That familiarity has worked well for them. They’ve had their dips, as a plummet to Division 4 in 2021 illustrated but they’ve had the resilience to win an Ulster title, and now put themselves in with a shout returning to the top flight.
“We’d have been disappointed not to add another Ulster title, especially in the earlier years,” said Hyland. “Maybe they were a bit inexperienced at that stage but we felt there was a core good enough to win a championship,” he added.
Right now Cavan have to be happy with the position they have put themselves in, though Hyland has a concern about what happens after their centurians exit in the years ahead.
“Have Cavan plateaued slightly? “he asked. ”Possibly. But people would have said at the start, if they can stay in Division 2 and get a performance in the championship, they’d be very happy.”
Hyland’s other concern is the team’s scoring returns. They hit 15, 16 and 17 scores against Louth, Kildare and Cork respectively but dipped to 13 and 11 against Donegal and Meath. They have scored just two goals, both against Louth.
And yet, in Paddy Lynch, they look like a forward as good as any that they have had in this century. The definition of what exactly a ‘marquee’ forward is in Gaelic football can be vague but it feels like Lynch is veering towards that status now. From his the torrid first half he gave Brendan McCole in their 2022 Ulster Championship meeting, Lynch has continued on a strong development path, with 8-146 scored from his 38 games acrossallthreecompetitions.McKiernan’s departure has given added responsibility from which he has thrived.
Damien Donohue, the former Cavan U-20 manager who writes a regular column with the Anglo Celt, has been tracking Lynch’s conversion rate from placed balls during this league and has him at 29 from 33, the kind of statistic the county hasn’t had the comfort of for so long.
Anything within 50 metres is considered Lynch’s range while he has also chipped in with some fine scores from play, courtesy of a high arcing kick that also provides distance. Reliability they have just not been accustomed to.