Bellew hails confident Cavan win

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Kevin Óg Carney

For possibly the first time in living memory, Kingspan Breffni was smothered in a blanket of hurlers last Saturday afternoon.

Cavan GAA County Board’s promotion of the game and its liaison with the grassroots saw an unprecedented number of juveniles attend the NHL game against Warwickshire and they swarmed, on cue, onto the pitch at half-time for a loose and free puck-about.

For 10 minutes or so, it must have been landscape turned dreamscape stuff for Cavan’s hard core small ball enthusiasts embedded above in what was a strangely, but entirely welcome, atmospheric stand.

The swarm of youngsters had morphed into a more distinct, ordered, hive by the end of the game but Cavan team-manager Ollie Bellew was still buzzing:

“Ah, it’s just brillant,” the Belfast native enthused. Great to put back-to-back wins together. I’m very, very happy. It was a great, positive performance and we were the better team by far and fair play to all the lads for putting in such a shift.

“There was a good crowd behind us which was great to see too. That’s the first time I’ve seen a real good Cavan crowd behind us and it means so much to all of us.

“It’s been a very heart-warming day. The young fellas performing so well for us with fresh, new energy and then we have the same (energy) there among the support too. Fantastic.”

Always one incline to emphasise what the collective has just delivered to the table rather than any individual contribution, the St. Gall’s (Antrim) clubman is a glass half-full person but he did admit that the opening quarter of the game saw Cavan operate off the backfoot.

“To be honest, the first 20 minutes wasn’t that good and, overall, I thought we massively underperformed in the first half even though we went in at the break five points (1-10 to 1-5) in front.

“In the dressing room at half-time we knew we had created enough goal chances for goals and we knew we were doing the right things so there was a lot to build on.

“We reckoned too that we had the legs on them and felt that we weren’t going to tire as the game went on and that we would eventually cash in on the chances that we were creating.

“The lead at half-time was a good buffer but we weren’t doing a lot right but sooner than later we were going to click and kick on which is what we did.”

On a day when Cavan showed an opposition team a clean pair of heels like seldom before, the blues’ management team had the luxury of adding to the mix with several substitutes being introduced. Bellew stressed the benefits of having good talent on the bench.

“There’s good competition for places and that has to be the way if you want to go places even though there’s boys sore on the sideline that they’re not starting.

“We want a situation where fellas have to fight for their place and take their chance when they get it and have fellas having to work to get their chance.

“In years gone by, it might have been different but we don’t want the Cavan hurling squad to be like a drop in centre where fellas come and go whenever they please.

“Nobody is guaranteed their place. The beauty of it is that these fellas are knitting together and experienced lads are trusting the younger lads and we’re in a good place.”

As good a Cavan display as he has overseen in his two stints at the helm to date?

“I’m not sure. The first thing in our head after a match is to focus on the things we have to fix but maybe when we look at the video we will see we did better than we think we did right now, immediately after the match.

“We did a lot of things right like our movement inside was fantastic; we had a target man who produced today but there’s plenty more to come.

“There’s no doubt the Longford win (first round) gave us that bit more belief and confidence to produce that display today but I don’t see the lads getting carried away with this win.

“As a management team we’re focussed as much on the players’ personalities as their hurling ability. We want them to be sure of themselves but there’s no room for arrogance or over-confidence.

“It’s all about improving and a lot of the focus this coming week will be on what didn’t happen right for us today.

“As far as we’re concerned there’s every bit as much analysis to be done now with a win under our belts as if we had gone down to Warwickshire.”