Ladies thinking big for 2010

Last year it was a case of so near, yet so far for the Cavan ladies football team. A one-point defeat to Clare saw them miss out on a place in the knock-out stages of the All-Ireland intermediate championship, with the final eventually being contested by the Breffni women's group opponents and won by none other than Clare. For all their talent and grafting in recent years, luck has been something which has seemed to have totally deserted this Cavan team, particularly when it comes to the All-Ireland championship. However, when things are freshened up, they often change for the better. New manager Adrian McGovern will certainly be hoping that that's the case as the 2010 season unravels, anyway. The Templeport man coached his native club up from the junior ranks to becoming a force in the top tier of ladies club football in the county and has seen players like Aisling Doonan and Sharon Cassidy prosper in the blue jersey, as well as the green, in the meantime. His appointment to the hot seat was confirmed in early December, after an interview process with the county board "I've been following the Cavan ladies team for the last number of years because we (Templeport) would have always have had a good number of girls in on the county panel ourselves," said McGovern. "The job came up for this year and my own club put me forward to go for it. I went through interviews for the job along with three other candidates and, thankfully, I got it." After making the much sought after position his, McGovern wasted little time in setting-up his backroom team. Cornafean's Caroline Crowe, Sean Feeney (Killeshandra) and Aidan Reilly (Inny Gaels) have been all brought in to try and help steer Cavan ladies towards what will hopefully be a successful year on the national front. McGovern also set about familiarising himself with the players before Christmas and since training commenced in the New Year, he claims that the attitude and commitment has been A1 thus far. "We met before Christmas and got a new panel set up and brought in some new fresh blood to the team. We started training on January 3rd," he explained. "Numbers the first day were up on 35 and we've been training ever since through the bad weather conditions and everything. We've had over 20 out every night since the first session. We trained this morning (Sunday) again at 9.30am in Breffni Park and I have to say there is a fantastic set-up. "Despite the fact that a lot of our players are doing exams, training is going very, very well. Their attitude is great and they're a great bunch of lassies that are willing to work and are very keen." This time last year, Hugh Donnelly may well have said something similar to mirror his successor's above comments. But where did it all go wrong for Cavan ladies in 2009? The Blues survived Division Two of the Suzuki National Football League, despite the fact that they now find themselves back in the third tier due to re-construction of the league, lost the intermediate Ulster championship final to arch rivals Fermanagh for the second year in-a-row and exited the All-Ireland intermediate series at the hands of its eventual two finalists. McGovern's view…Rotten luck. "They were very unlucky," he claimed. "There was a kick of a ball in almost every match that they had lost. They were unfortunate and didn't really get the rub of the green at all. "Hugh Donnelly was a great manager for them last year, but due to work commitments he had to pull out of it," added the Bawnboy mechanic. So, how are things going to change for the better? McGovern hopes that his 16 years of experience in ladies football, along with a real sense of belief being installed by the team management, can help to guide Cavan's unquestionable talent to glory in 2010. Players of the calibre of Aisling Doonan, Bronagh Sheridan, Donna English and Ailish Cornyn only come along once every so often. Therefore their new manager pulls no punches over what his team's aim will be whilst he has players like these at his disposal. "The main objective is to win the All-Ireland intermediate championship," he simply puts it. "We're trying to be very positive in everything we do. There has been encouragement the whole way. At the end of the day, all we can do is encourage the girls and try and get the best out of them and that's a lot of what coaching is about." While coy to reveal, McGovern did explain that there have been a number of new faces drafted into the panel for the new season, while there have been no major casualties from the squad from 2009, which is only a promising sign for the new man at the helm, after some rumoured conflict between some of the players and the previous management during spells of last season. It needs to be a case of all hands on deck if Cavan are to go one better than they did in '09. This summer they will embark on a championship group that reads; Fermanagh, Donegal, Westmeath, London, and, all going well, should be confident of progression to the knock-out stages. Summer may have never seemed so far away at this point in time though, but what better way to warm up for a new season than welcoming your dear neighbours. Cavan kick-off 2010 on February 7, when they host Fermanagh at Kingspan Breffni Park in Division Three of the NFL.