Mixed emotions for Galligan as 2025 journey concludes

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Damien Donohoe

Cavan manager Raymond Galligan was left with mixed emotions after watching his side bow out of the All-Ireland series following a 1-18 to 0-14 defeat to Kerry in Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday. Speaking in the tunnel straight after the game, Galligan admitted frustration at both aspects of the performance and some of the officiating but also expressed pride in the way his side fought to the finish.

“Look, testament to the way the boys showed such character in the second half,” said Galligan.

“We obviously were poor, made a lot of silly mistakes in the first half, but I think coming down the straight with 10 minutes to go, four-point game, you couldn’t ask for more. Obviously, I don’t feel the scoreline reflected the result. But yeah, look, it’s just huge frustration because it’s just disappointing that that’s the end of the road for this year.”

The Cavan boss didn’t hold back when asked about the refereeing on the day.

“It’s not something that I ever highlight or discuss, but I felt today was an incredibly weak refereeing performance, hugely disappointing. Obviously, these are the fine margins at high level. But you bring it back to four points, a glaringly obvious free to Ciaran Brady, an opportunity - it was an obvious score - press the kick-out, who knows.

“But not only that, we got two pointers (not awarded) where I need to look back at the footage, and another point from play was wide. Some of the calls I thought were... I just thought were shambolic really. But that’s what you’re dealing with. You’ve just got to roll with the punches. It’s certainly not an excuse, we weren’t good enough on the whole, but you just want fair play when you come down to places like this. But so it is. We’ve just got to dust ourselves down and learn from days like today.”

Cavan trailed by 10 at the break but rallied well in the second half. Galligan pointed to Paddy Lynch’s late first-half score as a crucial moment.

“Yeah, definitely, a great score from Paddy just to give us a lifeline just before half-time. But yeah, we just gave away some really uncharacteristic balls going into tackles, going down kind of blind alleys. I think we showed probably some of our best football at the end of the first half. We were measured, kept width, didn’t take the ball into the tackle.

“And yeah, as I say, I suppose you can’t take away from the personnel that they have and just how they only need half a chance. Those two-pointers, they’re a thorn in my side. But yeah, they don’t be long making the game go away from four points to six, seven. It was just a bit of a mountain to climb at half-time.”

Galligan reflected on the frustration of not having his key players on the field together during his tenure but praised Lynch’s contribution.

“You know, it’s amazing to think over my two years, big experienced players - James Smith, Gearoid McKiernan, Paddy Lynch, Dara McVeety - we’ve never had them all on the field at the same time. And you know, it was just great to see Paddy. And just so many lads put in a good performance, even though defeat was what it was. So, no, delighted for Paddy and hopefully he’ll go on and have a great (club) championship.

“Because look, he’s just come back to himself. He still has a bit of work to do in regards to fitness, but in front of the goals, I thought he was excellent, and he kept the team in the game with some big scores. That’s what you want from big players.”

Despite the disappointment, Galligan said he is proud of the group’s efforts and believes their progress will take time.

“I’m immensely proud of the way they rolled up their sleeves. As I said to them, this is the only show in town. This is where you’ve got to be. You’re going to have tough days, and we’ve had tough days over the last number of weeks. But you look at teams like the Armaghs and the top teams - it’s a work in progress. There are tough days, and there’ll be more tough days, I’ve no doubt.

“But they’ve got to stick together and realise that there are no hiding places. But also, inevitably, we have lots of work to do. The only way we can do that is by staying at the very least in Division 2, playing those top teams early next year, and then hopefully pushing on to get back to where we were this year.”

The draw placed Cavan in a group with three All-Ireland contenders and Galligan said realistically, their season finished where most would have expected.

“Obviously, when the group came out, if I’m being honest, we would have absolutely taken a preliminary quarter-final when we saw the group and saw where we were at as a team. They were all top Division 1 teams with big ambitions in the All-Ireland series.

“But look, we were very disappointed we didn’t perform to the levels we could over the last couple of weeks. The Donegal game was very disappointing in the sense we were so competitive in the first half, and again, like that, just a few basic errors. That’s the big thing playing these top teams - you’re going to get punished.

“But it leaves us going into next year knowing we’ve got to work and really fine-tune our skill set and our decision-making. I think that just comes from being competitive in training and games.

“Yeah, look, as I say, it’s disappointing to go out, but playing Kerry in Fitzgerald Stadium in an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final is a tough feat for any team. I’m just delighted the lads gave a really, really good show in the second half.”