'As the year has gone on, we've learned a lot about ourselves'

SFC final preview

When the final whistle sounded on Gowna’s round four match against Kingscourt, signalling a defeat to the Stars, it seemed like that may have been the end of the road for this season.

However, word began to filter through that results elsewhere had gone Gowna’s way and once they were handed a reprieve of sorts, they have made it count in impressive fashion.

“We didn’t know where we were, I think most people in Gowna thought that was it over but we got the lifeline and thankfully we grabbed it with both hands,” is how joint-manager Fintan Reilly described it this week.

The Redhills clubman has previously managed Templeport and Drumlane to Junior Championship success. Asked about his experience of county finals, the former county goalkeeper stated: “Well, I don’t know whether you’d say experience or luck but I’ve been there before. A manager’s job is easy when you’ve players who are willing to commit and good footballers round you, it makes things easier and that’s what I had when I was with Templeport and Drumlane and it’s no different with Gowna.

“There’s a good crop of players there that are willing to learn, they’re willing to do whatever it takes and that’s probably what stands to this Gowna team. They’re learning every day they go out. They probably had a rocky start to the championship but as we have gone on, we have learned a lot about ourselves. That’s probably all standing to us at the moment but come Sunday, it won’t count for a whole lot if we haven’t learned from the mistakes we made last year in the final.”

The spectre of last year’s replay final loss clearly still hangs over the team and they are determined to put it right.

“You can’t take away from Ramor, they were worthy champions last year. A lot of people probably felt we did leave it behind us, we had a couple of chances to probably win it at the end but it didn’t happen for us. That’s what football is, there is a winner and a loser every day.

“So we just have to try and learn from those mistakes. The second day, they got a great start and we were climbing a hill the whole way through the match. And then losing Oisin as well to a bad injury compounded the whole thing but as I said, we can’t take away from Ramor’s result last year, they deserved to win the championship.

“We’ll know Sunday if we have learned from what happened last year or not.”

That goes for players and management, he said.

“Everybody had something to take from it, there were things we looked at as management that we probably thought we could have done differently. Hindsight is a great thing but when the game goes live, you’re just in that mode, in that bubble.

“Gowna, this year, are no different to any other team in Cavan. The aim for most teams is to get to a final and then we’ll see what happens after that. Our aim this year was to get back to a final and then to try and go one step further.”

Reilly and Dermot McCabe share responsibilities as joint-managers and it works well, Fintan said.

“For anybody taking over any team now at the moment, the workload is phenomenal. We disagree on things and we agree on things and we have to compromise but we split the workload. There are different things that I do and Dermot does and that’s the way it has to be.

“We get on well together. The workload is phenomenal, it’s constant, it’s every day and I have no doubt that Jody Devine and Keelan Melaniff are the same with Killygarry. We get on very well together, we work together as a team – we have disagreed on things but at the end of the day, it’s not about Fintan Reilly or Dermot McCabe, it’s about the Gowna senior football team.”

This year’s Senior Championship has been extremely tight; both semi-finals were decided by a point and two of the quarter-finals went to replays. Gowna idled in the group stages – Reilly is not sure why – but they have found their groove since.

“Killygarry beat us by two points, we beat Laragh by a point, we drew with Lavey and Kingscourt beat us by a point. If you look through the whole games, apart from maybe Mullahoran and Cavan Gaels, the rest of the matches, with 10 minutes to go, were very, very tight.

“We definitely were down players (in the group) but that’s not an excuse. We thought we had a strong panel but when you start eating into it – when you lose two forwards of the calibre of Conor Madden and Oisin and Robbie Fitzopatrick, who can play in the middle of the field as well – when you take them out of your squad, you don’t be long eating into your bench.

“We are getting them back, Oisin is probably still not 100pc but you just have to go with what you have. The underage structure in Gowna has been phenomenal, there is a conveyor belt coming through and there are players there who are willing to step up.”