Plenty of hope as Donegal come to town again

Preview

Damien Donohoe

The tests don’t get any easier for Raymond Galligan’s Cavan in the All-Ireland series with the back-to-back Ulster champions coming to Kingspan Breffni this Sunday afternoon, but the Lacken man, I’d imagine, wouldn’t want it any other way. He has been consistent in his view that playing the best teams regularly will bring his squad closer to the top.

Cavan played Kerry, Derry and Donegal in challenge matches before the league this year which says a lot about the standard Galligan wants his team to play at. The Cavan supporters (myself included) may not have believed a win in Castlebar was possible but it’s clear that within the set-up, they have been preparing for these games against the best teams.

Being mentally prepared for sides like Mayo, Donegal and Tyrone is, at a minimum, the starting point for beating them. If Cavan players don’t imagine or see situations in their mind where they have successful outcomes against the best teams, then they are beaten before the ball is thrown-in.

Beware of a wounded animal. With Jim McGuinness’ side after suffering only their seventh championship defeat in six seasons with him at the helm, there is sure to be a reaction. In 2023 after losing to Cork in round two of the group, they bounced back with a 23-point win over Clare.

Interestingly, in 2013 when Monaghan handed them the only Ulster championship defeat that McGuinness has suffered as manager, they beat Laois in the qualifiers by six points but lost to Mayo in the quarter-final by 16 points which was the single biggest championship defeat they have had under the Naomh Conaill man’s watch.

Maybe when coming up against a wounded animal you must keep attacking the wound to take advantage of the opportunity. There must be doubts in the Donegal players’ minds after losing to Tyrone so to allow them to regain confidence would be criminal. What worked well for Cavan against Mayo was the bravery shown on both sides of the ball.

When defending, we hunted turnovers to such an extent that we created numerical overloads in open play around the ball. When we had the ball in hand, we attacked with pace all the time. To come away with no regrets from the game, regardless of the result, Cavan, in my opinion, need to try to play with a similar mentality. It has to be a little bit risky rather than cautious in attack. It has to be aggressive defensively in closing down the space Donegal players have with ball in hand.

Defensively, we will have to get the match-ups right with the number one role being set out to curtail Michael Murphy’s influence. The former All-Ireland winning captain has been very rare to give Cavan praise down through the years and particularly in his role as a pundit in the last couple of years so motivation should be high to do this job.

The other player whom Cavan certainly must tag is Michael Langan after his attacking display against Tyrone. The 28-year-old scored seven points from midfield with a variation of medium to long-range kicks.

Shaun Patton missed last weekend’s game and it emphasised just how crucial he is to Donegal’s success. The distance and variation of kicks off the tee for Donegal weren’t up to the normal level and it was clear reserve goalie Mulreany wasn’t overly comfortable or confident, particularly when dealing with the high ball for Tyrone’s first goal.

Even with the last two crucial kick-outs when Tyrone had taken the lead after Peter Harte’s two pointer, Mulreany went for Donegal’s safe kick-out option in Murphy but the distance wasn’t there to give Murphy the advantage. If Patton isn’t available this weekend, it is a positive for Cavan.

The tactical approach to this game by Cavan is going to be interesting. Given that McGuinness was in Castlebar and his defensive tendency, it’s unlikely that Donegal will leave themselves as exposed at the back as Mayo did but I don’t think that should change Cavan’s approach to attacking too much.

I don’t expect Cavan to win as many turnovers against Donegal as they did against Mayo but when we do, a fast counter-attack is our best chance of getting a score. Knowing when that Donegal defensive door is about to close on you is going to be important because you don’t want to be caught out by their counter-attack.

When Donegal do get their 11 out-field players set up in and around the 40-metre arc, it’s going to be important to move the ball at speed to shift their defence enough to open a gap.

When the gap appears, we will need speed to get into the scoring zone and get the shot away and we will need our two-point kickers ready to pull the trigger.

Luckily, we have several good two-point kickers. Dara McVeety, Oisin Kiernan, Oisin Brady and Paddy Lynch are all comfortable from that range. That’s not to mention James Smith and Gearoid McKiernan if they are fit to play. It will take an even better performance than Castlebar by Cavan to get a win this weekend but after watching Tyrone open up a wound, it feels like anything is possible right now.

The last time Donegal came to Kingspan Breffni, their media came away writing about how subdued the Cavan support was. Some excuses could be made for a poor and quiet blue army that day, but none are available this weekend.

It’s a home game against the recently-crowned Ulster champions and we are coming off the back of one of the best performances and results by a Cavan senior team in the last 20 years. If you don’t show up and support the team now, can you really call yourself a supporter?