Cavan face Kingdom with quarter-final spot at stake

GAA news

The draws don’t get any easier for Cavan with an away trip to Killarney this Saturday (3.30pm, Fitzgerald Stadium) for the All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final. Manager Ray Galligan didn’t speak to the media after the loss to Tyrone, explaining yesterday (Tuesday) that he needed to talk with the players and amend plans for the week ahead.

“That was my first initial thoughts, to try and get straight in with the group to make sure that we addressed the situation, but also put plans in place for a quick turnaround obviously, albeit now it's a six-day turnaround,” Galligan said.

“I think what was mainly within the group and I suppose as a whole was just frustration, because it's easy to be disappointed and feel sorry for ourselves after what was a very poor return but it was the frustration of missed opportunities and not really taking the chances that probably presented themselves in front of us.

“So I know, on a personal level, for a lot of the players, they just kind of felt they just didn't show or didn't perform. And that's probably the overriding feeling for the group.”

Cavan went out with the intention of being brave and taking shots if they were on, he said, but the radar was badly off on the day.

“Yeah, well, I suppose as a whole, our mantra has been, over the last number of months, just keep backing yourself, keep shooting. And look, there will be days that you're going to miss opportunities, but if you don't take the shot, you're going to continue to question whether or not it was the right decision.

“Obviously, we want to be taking shots from the high percentage zone and making sure that you give yourself the best opportunity. But certainly when we look back on the data, even the first 15 minutes, we had six shots, yet returned two points. And they were very scorable opportunities.

“I think we actually had the exact same amount of attacks as Tyrone. We had two less shots, maybe three, I think it was 34 shots they had, we had 31 and then, obviously, the score was the score. So there's definitely a lot of work we can do and an improvement.

“But I suppose when we dig deep enough, I don't think we're playing that badly. I think it's a combination of, yes, we're not taking our scores and we're just not breaking the momentum when a team gets, you know, two, three points...

“In the last two games, I thought we did some great work in the first quarter, I think we were very competitive. I think we were ticking a lot of boxes, but all of a sudden it's seven points down. And that's the piece there that we just have to really not only address but find ways to make sure doesn't happen.

“And I suppose with the new game, that's the difficult piece, because the old cliché was to secure the kick-out and make sure you get hands on ball and slow the attack but now you can have the best will in the world but if someone puts four or five men in the front line and you're forced to go long, it's a contest.

“And we've seen that with games throughout the country. And then with the two-pointers, I think Tyrone got two two-pointers, which is four points in, you know, 90 seconds.

“So for us, yeah, it's about controlling what we can and certainly getting the scores on the board would be a huge piece over the coming days.”

Saturday’s match will be Cavan’s 10th against top-flight opposition in the last two seasons.

“We’ve had, I suppose, challenging teams in the sense that both years in the All-Ireland series we've played all Division 1 teams. And now, obviously, we've got the league champions away this weekend. So, yeah, we know it's difficult, but look, this was what we wanted. We've spent, a long number of years and having been involved as a player, playing Tailteann Cup and down through the divisions, and our ultimate goal has always been to compete in the All-Ireland series - and we're now in the last 12.

“I feel we deserve to be in the last 12, albeit, yes, the two last two results, but we beat Mayo to get there. And you know, if you're in Derry or Roscommon, or any team yesterday morning, they would take your hand off to be in the last 12. And I think we're going to embrace now playing Kerry, because, yes, they are a formidable force but look, we feel we've been doing a lot of good work behind the scenes, and we're very confident we'll bring a really good performance, because I think the players deserve that.

“They've worked so hard, and they're a great group, and we saw only last night when we came together again, the hunger and the willingness to do well is there. So that gives us great confidence.”

Cavan have been leaking too many scores of late, he agreed.

“If we look back to the Mayo game, for example, we were so efficient that day, I suppose Mayo struggled to get hands on ball in the first quarter. And if we look back on the game Sunday, for example, we had seven dropped short, which turned into six scores for Tyrone and they got nine points off our kick-out.

“So as much as we broke even on each kick-out, there were 16 points that came from being on the back foot. And I think they are areas that we can control. We can tidy up and get more bodies for the kick-out and give your keeper more options.

“But also, seven drop-shorts is just not good enough, because you're all of a sudden scrambling back. And I definitely think, as a whole, our defence has worked well. And I agree, the score we conceded the last day is just not good enough but I think there's so much there we can control, because a lot of it was our own doing, if that makes sense.”

Galligan is hopeful Gearoid McKiernan, who picked up a calf injury in training last Friday, will be available, with Jason McLoughlin and Conor Madden also back in contention. However, James Smith has been ruled out for six to seven weeks with a calf injury.

“We'll definitely be looking at trying to freshen things up as well. We were delighted with the likes of Ruairi (Curran) making his championship debut, and he gave a really good account of himself.

“It is continuing to make sure that we're trying to bring through players and giving them that taste of championship football. Because it's challenging at times for players, but this is where we want to be and making sure that these younger players, the likes of Evan Crowe, who I thought was super, I think Cian Reilly and Niall Carolan, Sean McEvoy, Oisin Brady, the younger players are certainly, embracing this exposure of playing top Division 1 teams and hopefully they're going to thrive again next weekend, because that's our ambition going down there, to bring a really big performance.”