Another marker has been laid down for Cavan football

ALL-STAR Faulkner warns against complacency in Division 3 teams

“It’s sinking in now when you have time to reflect,” says Padraig Faulkner noting that the days after his All Star announcement have been all go. “It’s only now you get to sit back and take it all in.”

It’s been a lot to take in.

Of course all Cavan readers are already aware so we’ll keep the recap to the minimum: the last inter-county season saw Cavan relegated to Division 3, yet still end up with the Anglo-Celt Cup gracing their hitherto underutilised trophy cabinet, an All Ireland semi-final, and now a trio of All Star accolades for Faulkner and the Galligans, Thomas and Raymond.

Padraig comes from proud footballing stock, as his father, Pat, was a fine player for Cavan back in the 1980s.

“Funny enough his phone is going as much as mine,” says the Kingscourt Stars man. “He’s never been as busy. Dad would take pride in the achievements of the last year, and anything I do. Even if I wasn’t winning any All Stars, I’d always have the backing of Dad, no matter what.”

While his father was a major influence in his love of football, Padraig downplays his impact on how he sees the full back role. He notes Pat played most of his football at wing half back or wing half forward for Kingscourt Stars.

“It wasn’t until his latter days that he started playing full back, and probably would only have played fullback for Cavan.”

Padraig cites class acts like Padraic O’Reilly of Ballinagh and Rory Dunne of Redhills as the fullbacks he looked up to. Of the latter he says, “He was the best player at Cavan.”

Mention of Dunne brings back the glory days of the Ulster U21 Championships four in a row, which might have gone onto become five if Faulkner hadn’t “pulled a hammer” and had to leave the action when Cavan had a two point lead.

“Last ball that came in was a high ball – it was caught and stuck in the back of the net,” he recalls of the Donegal sucker punch in the 2015 semi-final.

Was he aware of the fear amongst some supporters that the potential demonstrated in Cavan’s provincial dominance of 2011-2014 would fall short at senior level?

Boat had sailed

“It was talked about a lot: ‘This four in a row never actually amounted to anything, and there’s only this many playing still. There was a lot of talk.

“It had probably gone past the stage where people were expecting something to happen. In that crop that played with me you still had Killian Clarke, Madden, Gerry, Liam Buchannon, Ciaran Brady – I’m probably leaving loads out there.

“A lot of people would have thought the boat had probably sailed on that, but a lot of boys persevered over the years and kept at it and kept at it and eventually we got our rewards.

Was the removal of that expectation a factor in the success?

“Maybe, maybe. Hard to know. Over the [recent] years Cavan hadn’t really done much in Ulster - up until last year it was a long time since Cavan were in a final.

“Yeah, I suppose,” he continues mulling over the thought. “Maybe it’s now that U21 team are finally matured enough, or developed enough that they could push on.”

Confounding expectations was the theme of last year’s championship for Cavan. In each round they fell well behind in muted first half displays. With the exception of Antrim, by the half-time break they had little prospect of winning the game.

“And possibly that added to how special it was,” he says of the 2020 Championship success.

“It was a never say die attitude all year. At least four or five men showed real leadership in every game – and it wasn’t the same men who were always doing it – someone different stepped up in different games. It’s hard to pick out one player, I know myself Thomas and Ray are accepting the awards for All Stars, but some individual performances - Ciaran Brady against Dublin, Gerry Smith against Monaghan or Donegal, Killian Clarke against Monaghan - everyone was able to show up in different games when they were really really needed.”

He agrees with the Celt’s suggestion that the Down match in the semi-final was his best performance.

“I would probably be hard on myself in a lot of the aspects of the game, but I felt in that game I had one of my better performances – just taking the game to them and hopefully driving on boys as I went,” he says.

Putting the Down battle in context, he suggests the comeback “stemmed from the Monaghan”.

“The belief was in our mind that if we did it against Monaghan, it was doable again.”

He’s confident the success of the team winning three All Stars is another benchmark for a team eager to keep developing.

Marker

“I suppose it sets down a marker - the marker is hit.

“It was probably an unachievable task for so many years for any of us to even be nominated nevermind win one. You look at Moynagh last year – the only man from Cavan who was nominated, but it set a marker. If Conor Moynagh last year could do it I suppose it pushed a lot of fellas on this year – it was achievable.”

He accepts that it will have an impact for the supporters too.

“It really sets a tone for fans, it obviously has to be backed up next year, but it puts a bit more belief in what this Cavan team can do.”

The discussion turns to a possible silver-lining of being relegated, as crushing as the experience was at the time. The Celt suggests they should be confident of getting promotion at the first time of asking and build momentum ahead of defending their Ulster title.

“Yeah,” he says, unconvinced by the suggestion. “Then again, there’s no easy games. You look through it and there’s no games where you would be eyeing up thinking - Aw yeah, definite points here. Every game is going to be some battle,” he says warning against complacency.

What’s his hope go into this year?

“Try and repeat the process. I don’t want to say, look it, this Cavan team is definitely going to go and win an Ulster title, but the belief is there now that we can go and do that.

Likewise of the national league campaign: “Obviously you can’t say you are just going to bounce straight up – that’s just not how it goes.”