Cavan's Dara McVeety. Pic: Adrian Donohoe

Relaxed McVeety takes it in his stride

Paul Fitzpatrick

A week out from the big test and the owner of the most-talked about hamstring in Co Cavan is wearing the pressure lightly. Cavan captain Dara McVeety is smiling and fielding questions from the press men with the relaxed air of a man who is content with the few months' work he has turned in.
McVeety's sensational form in the league was a huge factor – probably the biggest one – in his side returning to Division 1, a result which was unexpected in many quarters, including this one, as he playfully reminds us.
“You tipped us to go down did you?” he chides The Celt with a laugh.
“You tipped us to change division anyway, I think it was going the other way!”
Before the league threw in, McVeety spoke forcefully about the spirit of determination in the champ, pressing the point that “if lads don't want to play for Cavan, we don't want to play with them”.
It was a bold statement but, in time, the Crosserlough man's sentiments proved to be well-founded.
“There were lots of lads didn’t come back but we had lads really busting themselves at training so I knew there was a desire there,” he says now, three months later. 
“Lads were training really hard, it was going to pay off. The first day against Clare we had 12 debutants or something like that.
“At club level, you know the fella you’re always nagging to come to training? At county level you can’t have that. You have to have people that are really committed and really want to play for Cavan, that are committed to the cause. We have a group of players that are committed to the cause.
“If they don’t want to play, you don’t really want them to be coming half-arsed. No, we’re really happy with the group at the minute. Look, there are loads of brilliant players in Cavan who are good enough to play for Cavan but for different reasons they just can’t play.
“You always hear talk about the U21 teams but of the 2011 U21 team I think we have two players. There are not that many of them, from that team some lads didn’t push on, some lads went travelling, things like that.
“So we’re not really building on them, now we’re building on the next group. It could be an U21 team that haven’t been as successful but it doesn’t mean you don’t have brilliant players. There are loads of brilliant lads there, it’s just building on it every year.”
That said and while we have heard for the longest time that the future is blue, in sport, the present is all that matters.
“Oh yeah, there’s no doubt about it, the window is short, it won’t be there forever. That’s why personally I’d try to play as much as I can when I can but others want to travel or whatever, that’s completely understandable too.
“I think the U21 teams definitely set a great basis but you were playing the best teams in that age group, when it comes to senior it’s just a completely different ball game.
“It took us a long time to get up to the pace of senior level, around that time we were Division 3 and we were struggling a little bit. It’s just getting used to playing better quality players every year and lads improving and that’s what we need to keep doing.”
McVeety is the best example of all, a player who has improved year on year since breaking into the starting side at wing-back against Kerry in the 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final. His graph continued to rise until a collision in the league final against Roscommon on April 1, resulting in a grade two hamstring tear (“it’s coming on now, it’s getting there but it’s still a little bit off, still a bit of work to do”) looked to have derailed his hopes of featuring this Sunday.
The county has been humming with talk since that it was a careless injury that could have been avoided had he come off immediately rather than staying on for a couple of minutes and aggravating it. McVeety dismissed that out of hand – when it happened, he says, he didn't realise the severity of the knock.
“I got such a bang on my other quad, my right quad, I actually ended up tearing it so I didn’t even feel the hamstring. When I got up I started running and I found the very top of my leg was nipping. Simon [Gaffney, physio] came in and gave me spray, it just happened so quick. I told him to go away, I thought it was just a bruise and I’d run it off. I just ran for the next ball and then I heard a little rip, that’s when I knew I was in bother.”
An endearing and unique aspect of the GAA, despite the increased commercialism we hear so much about, is the enduring accessibility of its stars and the couple of degrees of separation dividing the whole fraternity. Exhibit A: McVeety, a schoolteacher in Blanchardstown, is a colleague of Donegal's Martin O'Reilly, nephew, incidentally, of former Cavan chairman Tom.
The craic has been good with the McCumhaills man, he smiles.
“Lots of lies being told anyway in the last few weeks! ‘How’s the training camp? What training camp?’” he laughs.
“Little things like that, it’s grand, it’s a bit of craic. He’s actually injured as well or so he tells me. I think he is injured. The two of us could be sitting together in the stand in Ballybofey...”
Whether or not McVeety does line out will likely be a source of speculation right up until 4pm on Sunday. The man himself, of course, wasn't going to declare one way or the other what will happen but he did insist that no player will take the field that is not in tip top shape.
“I think it’s madness to play anyone who is not 100pc. If you’re not fit, you’re doing an injustice to the team. We’ve some brilliant players on the bench, it’s not fair to start someone at 70pc – he won’t be better than someone at 100pc.
“On top of that, you’re risking another injury. We hope the summer is going to go on into June, July so I think it would be silly to go all-out with lads that are injured and ruin their whole summer.
“He [McGleenan] knows the game at this stage, you play whoever is fit and we’ll know next weekend I suppose who is fit to play.”
Regardless of what happens, he will try to take it in his stride.
“When you’re going well, the Cavan support are brilliant at getting behind you. When you’re not going well, they don’t see the set-up, it’s easy to say that things aren’t going well. I live in Dublin so I don’t see or hear much negativity and I pay no heed to it.
“I think the players are our own group, we see each other enough, when things are going well we don’t get too high and when things are going bad we don’t get too low. I think it’s very important to stay grounded because if you were getting up and down for every game it would be a rollercoaster.
“We knew from day one, we set out to get promoted, we got promoted and that was that job done and then we focused on championship. It’s easy for supporters to get carried away but that’s just part and parcel of it.
“Obviously you play to try and win some silverware. We had a chance to do that in Division 2, we didn’t take it. Ulster is obviously a target, every team that’s in the Ulster Championship sets out at the start of the year to try to win it. 
“Unfortunately only one team can win it but the fact that you’re in that lottery, giving it a go every year, is what keeps bringing you back I suppose.”