So far, so good as new competition starts to bed in

Opinion

Damien Donohoe

The Tailteann Cup got underway for Cavan on Saturday afternoon in Kingspan Breffni as over 3,600 paying supporters watched Cavan hammer Down in the opening round. The sun was shining, the pitch looked immaculate and supporters were given plenty to cheer about as Cavan showed no shortage of skill, pace, power and passion.

Mickey Graham’s side won the game in the manner that most Cavan supporters would have liked. As the game entered injury time, Cavan were 11 points ahead, Down did manage to pull back two points but they were little consolation as Cavan's superiority was never really in doubt.

The drive of this Cavan team for winning games was shown in the first half as Down got off to a perfect start but Cavan replied with six points on the bounce. After two penalty saves by Raymond Galligan, the Cavan players rushed in to make sure Barry O'Hagan didn't have a handy rebound to finish to the net.

As the ball went dead with Cavan supporters off their feet and cheering, the Cavan players showed their passion by celebrating with captain Galligan. The half-time whistle followed and again Cavan's fervour was shown as members of the management team run on to the field to have a discussion with referee David Gough. This resulted in a yellow card at the beginning of the second half for Martin Corey but again it showed Cavan's desire for success.

After the final whistle went, it was clear speaking with Cavan supporters that they were energised by and happy with the performance and the result. This got me thinking about the debate around the Tailteann Cup over the last few weeks - the decision to split it up into northern and southern sections, the marketing of the competition, the question marks around the All-Stars and what the winners get in terms of a price and generally whether the competition is worth having or not.

I came away from the game with a view that if the players show that desire, the supporters will get behind them regardless of the competition. Saturday afternoon isn't an ideal time for a game and while the attendance doesn't match some of what we would have seen in years gone by, the loyal supporters that were there will undoubtedly spread the word of an enjoyable spectacle. The last three games that I could find attendances for in the qualifiers where Cavan held a home advantage were in 2013 against Fermanagh where 8,134 spectators saw Cavan win by seven points. In 2012, Cavan welcomed Kildare to Kingspan Breffni and 14,558 supporters saw Kildare come away with a comfortable victory.

And the largest attendance I could find was for the 2011 round one qualifier against neighbours to the south Longford, where 18,243 supporters saw Longford come away with a comfortable 11-point win but this was a double header, with Meath playing Louth as well.

If one of the goals of the Tailteann Cup was to give to weaker counties more competitive games, then maybe looking at the winning margins will indicate if it's been successful so far. In the preliminary round, Wicklow trounced Waterford by 12 while Offaly had the narrowest of victories over Wexford. In round one, Cavan's nine-point win over Down is the largest winning margin while Offaly’s eight-point win over Wicklow comes a close second.

Westmeath and Fermanagh both won by three points while Carlow upset the odds, beating Tipperary by two points. With Sligo and Leitrim winning by two and five points respectively, it means that the average winning margin over the nine games so far in the competition is five points.

Compare that with the average winning margin in the Connacht Senior Football Championship this year (over the six games it was 7.8 points) and in the Munster Championship it was 9.8 points.

The most predictable provincial championship of all is the annual march of Dublin through Leinster and this year the average winning margin was 10.8 points per game. Traditionally, the most competitive province of all is, of course, Ulster but even that wasn’t as closely fought as the Tailteann Cup; the average winning margin this year was 7.5 points.

But maybe the qualifiers is a better place to compare so looking at the average winning margin of round one games in the qualifiers of 2019 across the eight games played, 7.3 points was the gap. To get an even better picture I looked back over 10 seasons from 2019 back to 2010.

The largest average winning margin in round one of a qualifier was in 2013 when it was 10.8 points per game. But on three occasions, in 2017 (4.8) 2016 (4.2) and 2012(4.2), the average winning margin was less than that of this year’s Tailteann Cup to date.

So for seven of the 10 years (2018, 9, 2015, 9.3, 2014, 6.2, 2011, 7.1, 2010, 6.8) the average winning margin in round one of the qualifiers was higher than the opening round of this year's Tailteann Cup.

Does any of this prove that Tailteann Cup is worthy of it’s place in the GAA calendar? Each and every one of us will make our own decision on that but what is unquestionable is that Saturday was a success for Cavan in more more ways than one.

Graham’s side showed pride and desire and the Cavan supporters came away fulfilled. The sense of occasion was created by the way the Cavan players approached the game and performed and those lucky enough to be there witnessed probably one of the best goalkeeping displays ever seen in a Cavan jersey as Raymond Galligan gave a masterclass in goalkeeping.

It's also worth noting the wonderful sight at half-time of seeing young Cavan supporters enter the pitch of Kingspan Breffni to kick football on the field of dreams.

It's a shame that this is the last opportunity for this to happen during a county game in 2022 but hopefully Cavan county board will allow this to happen at all of Cavan’s home games in the future as it's building the appetite of these young boys and girls to aspire to wear the blue of Breffni one day.

So, thankfully, going into June, the journey continues for the Cavan team as they now face Fermanagh and hopefully with the word spread of the passionate display on Saturday, more Cavan supporters will make the trip to Enniskillen to support the boys in blue this weekend.