Published: Wednesday, 8th July, 2009 12:07pm

END TO END: Will the real Cavan please stand up?

Tom Carr is one of the most media-savvy managers in the game, but his recent comments about his team lacking in hunger and freshness have alarmed some supporters. If Cavan are to resurrect their best form and beat Wicklow, those are two areas where they can"t afford to be found wanting...

The average supporter picks up his or her newspaper on the morning after a match and reads the usual stuff - reports and scores, clichés and stock phrases.

It"s part of the whole championship experience, the build-up, the hype, the event and then the post-mortem.

It"s different for the boys (and girls) behind the keyboard though. For them, it"s often a race against time, filling space as best they can, asking the same questions and listening to, more or less, the same "soccer speak" from players and managers, governed, it seems, by the desperate wish not to say anything that may be of motivational value to future opposition.

The unseemly scramble for quotes (the "nanny goat mambo" as Tom Humphries called it," nanny goats" being Humphries" personal rhyming slang) in the immediate aftermath of a championship game provides proof, if needed, that the herd mentality is alive and well, among sports journalists at least.

Watching the whole thing unravel after a game is fascinating. The big hitters from the nationals, with looming deadlines, generally lead the way, collaring a manager in the tunnel or at the side of the field. Within seconds, the rest of the pride descend for a bite of the prey and, in no time at all, literally a dozen dictaphones surround the target as the usual twaddle is churned out.

Winning managers love to praise the character of their team - if they play poorly and win, it"s proof of this character. If they happen to turn in a good performance, the immediate aim is to downplay it, pouring on the usual, mind-numbing 'we knew coming here today that it wouldn"t be easy…' shtick.

Mayo"s Ronan McGarrity hadn"t yet left the field following his team"s 20-point win over Roscommon a fortnight ago before telling the press pack that they would need to 'improve a lot' before the next match against the winners of Sligo and Galway.

It would have been refreshing if he had said 'yes, we were brilliant today and can"t wait to tear into Galway' - refreshing, but implausible. While there are a few engaging personalities around, most GAA folk err on the side of caution.

Bernard Flynn, for example, stated on RTE last Saturday that Monaghan needed to "take stock, regroup and stand up and be counted" against Armagh.

Hardly a rallying call to arms, and that"s from a pundit, who is paid to deliver stirring comment!

Never will you hear a manager admitting that they made a mistake or got it wrong; it"s human nature to blame someone else.

Losers first give credit to the opposition and, if it was a tight defeat, point the finger at the referee, usually accompanied by the rider that they"re 'not one for criticising officials but…'.

This is how the thing works. Players and managers talk to the press and, in reality, say nothing.

The one half stirring comment from the ten minute conversation forms the angle and makes up the first line of the piece.

Occasionally, something interesting will slip out. Take Tom Carr"s statements after the Antrim match for example.

In fairness, Carr is lucid and articulate and, win or lose, makes himself available for interviews before and after games.

Now, the Cavan manager is a master of the media game, having coached teams in three provinces and worked as an analyst for RTE radio. Carr is an excellent speaker but he"s not the type for controversial statements like the late Eamon Coleman or shows of passion, a la Banty McEnaney.

So when he remarked that Antrim were 'a hungrier and fresher team' against Cavan, the surrounding huddle weren"t long perking up. Because, in reality, this was a shocking statement about the Cavan team.

To think that a side without an Ulster final appearance in eight years wasn"t hungry enough was a damning summation.

A manager describing his team, a side with an average age of about 23, and with just two starting players over 26 years old, who only played 11 competitive matches in all competitions and none for a fortnight before the match, as not being 'fresh' enough makes for alarming reading for Cavan supporters too.

Hunger shouldn"t be a problem for a team like Cavan. Freshness shouldn"t either. Cavan had two weeks to get themselves right and, with almost a full hand to choose from, the fact that Carr highlighted their lack of freshness as a factor in the defeat seems bizarre. The players are free, for the most part, to concentrate on county matters remember.

While we"re on the subject, there has been more than a murmur of discontent among club players that the club championships revolve around the county senior team"s participation in the Ulster race and the All Ireland qualifiers, and it"s not hard to see why. With 40 clubs and an average of, say, 25 players in each, the core of adult club players in this county is 1,000-strong. Roughly three per cent make up the county senior squad who, while obviously important, are not the be-all and end-all of football activity in the county.

What is of primary importance, however, is that the team do themselves justice and show why the club season has been disrupted, starting, hopefully, with a win this weekend in Aughrim. The draw is a decent one - we have avoided some very dangerous teams but Wicklow are notoriously hard to beat at home and will be focused, fired up and, as with all of Mick O"Dwyer"s teams, supremely fit, an area in which Cavan didn"t exactly excel in the stifling Clones heat last time out. O"Dwyer (another who can negotiate the snakes and ladders of the media game with aplomb) has his team playing well at the right time as well.

They allowed Westmeath to wriggle off the rack in the first round of the Leinster championship but were superb in disposing of Fermanagh last Saturday, ominously handling them more easily than Cavan did a month ago too.

In that month, Cavan"s stock has seemingly fallen after the Antrim defeat, when too many of the team failed to play to their true form and too many seemed satisfied with the win over Fermanagh and didn"t redouble their efforts to take a glorious opportunity to reach the Ulster final.

Obviously, Cavan haven"t become a bad team overnight. This column extolled the players after the win over Fermanagh and although that form wasn"t boosted by the Erne men"s defeat to Wicklow last Saturday, the sprightly, gutsy manner of the performance on June 6 was impressive.

However, as we saw in the league when an atrocious performance against Tipperary in Breffni Park was followed by a brilliant one on a horrible night in Newry, Cavan have a problem in putting wins back to back. Midfielder Nicholas Walsh admitted as much after the Antrim game.

So, who knows what way this match will go? If a panel of 30 players with two Ulster medals between them is lacking in hunger as Tom Carr stated, then the problems are deeper than one poor performance and we are in real trouble.

The team need to be motivated and prepared for a dogfight, as they were on June 6 but most definitely weren"t 13 days later.

After the Fermanagh match, the manager lauded his team"s workrate. When the press pack descends after the long whistle this Saturday evening, he"ll have to be doing the same or our summer will be over. A win, of course, could re-ignite the season and this team have a habit of pulling off big performances when they"re least expected. The Down performance, remember, was Cavan"s best of the season and it followed a week"s backlash following the abject showing against Tipp.

It"s also worth noting that the only time Cavan have ever gone on a decent run in the qualifiers was four years ago and came on the back of a humiliation by Tyrone in Ulster.

On our best form, we can go through.

On our other form, we"ll be well-beaten. That"s how unpredictable this tie is. We"ll know just how good the team are by Saturday night and the gnawing suspicion, and the hope, is that they should have just enough to account for Wicklow.

Will the real Cavan please stand up?

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