Cavan aim to make Lory Meagher semi-finals

Hurling

Kevin Óg Carney

Cavan’s need to keep their discipline in the white heat of battle this Sunday will be key to the county’s hopes of a successful start to their 2021 Lory Meagher Cup campaign.

Breffni hurling boss Ollie Bellew is convinced that if his charges can limit the number of frees they concede in their own half of the field and keep the card count down, they will stand “a very good chance” of beating group rivals Fermanagh at Kingspan Breffni (1.30pm).

Bellew believes that the contest is a “50/50” affair but recent meetings suggest that Cavan may just be slight favourites to make it through to the semi-finals given that they have won one and drawn two of their last three meetings with the Ernesiders.

“As usual, there’ll be nothing much between us on the day but I believe that if we show the form that we’ve been showing in training and in our recent challenge matches then we’ll have a great chance of getting the win,” Bellew told the Anglo Celt this week.

“Fermanagh are a massively improved side over the last year or so but we are more organised and playing much better hurling this year and I’m excited by the form the lads are in right now and they show enough belief in themselves and are mentally strong on the day, I think we can do it.”

In their last meeting, the sides fought out an entertaining draw in what was a fine NHL contest. In the corresponding Lory Meagher Cup tie between the counties last year, Cavan’s 1-13 was matched by Fermanagh’s 0-16. The draw was enough to propel Fermanagh into the final but they lost out to Leitrim.

In this year’s competition, Louth, Monaghan, Longford, Fermanagh and Cavan are gunning for national honours. The competition kicked off last weekend with an outrageously comfortable win for Longford over Louth.

“Longford’s big, big win (8-25 to 3-19) was a freak result; no one saw that coming,” Bellew declared.

“I don’t go along with the notion that the rest of us are chasing runners-up spot behind Longford after their thrashing of Louth. That was a result that just defied logic but it just shows that anything can happen in sport.

“We won’t be thinking of Longford or Louth when we run out on Breffni this Sunday. Our players know they have to keep their mind on the task at hand and nobody in our camp is looking past the Fermanagh game.”

Bellew is anticipating another “dog-fight” this weekend but is convinced that his charges are up for the fight and will be determined to book their place in the semi-final.

“I know that whoever loses gets a second bite of the cherry (by playing the third placed team in the group consisting of Louth, Monaghan and Longford) but we’re treating this as a do-or-die game. It’s a game that means everything to us. We want to be in the semi-finals come Sunday evening.”

According to the Antrim native, the Breffni county will go into this weekend’s derby duel with all players available for selection even though “there is a few niggles in the camp.”

“We have all the players on board and we’ve a couple of selection decisions to make later this week but, for now, we have about 11 or 12 names down to start the game and we know that whoever is selected will do the county proud.

“It’ll probably be a warm, muggy day but our lads have the fitness to execute any game plan we put before them. We’re really looking to go into unchartered territory but I believe the lads are ready and if we stick to the plan and keep our discipline, we’ll be very hard to beat.”