Carr aiming to bring an end to the Breffni blues

Ten years on from their last Ulster Championship title, Cavan have turned to Tommy Carr who aims to instill a new sense of purpose into the underachieving Breffni Blues. Kevin Carney meets a man on a mission...

Donal Keogan’s successor acknowledges that football is a “results-driven business” and, unless there’s a degree of success, that three-year agreement might come under scrutiny.
Carr hopes that the powder-puff veneer that Cavan exhibit in the eyes of some observers will dissipate once he manages to lend a Dooher-esque hue to his senior squad.
It’s clear the Tipperary native wants the one-time provincial kingpins to emerge, under his watch, with the heart of a lion, stronger teeth and sharper claws too.
“Years ago, teams used to go up to various parts of Ulster and they’d be easy pickings. That has changed, but I want to see Cavan being the toughest of the tough in Ulster now.
“There’s a lot of things right about Cavan football and I’m quite optimistic that there’s a nice bit of talent around and I’m pleased with the level of hunger and desire I’ve seen so far.
“But I would place a health warning on any early diagnosis because we won’t truly know what the players are made of ’til they’re two or three points behind in an Ulster Championship game.
“Still, you’ve got to have ambition and we have to be looking towards playing Championship football in July and getting a game in August.”
After Cavan’s exit in last year’s All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers at the hands of Kildare, eight candidates were initially interviewed for the post vacated by the home-bred Keogan.
Keogan’s appointment had marked the first time in 13 years that Cavan had plumped for a native to hold the reins.
The return to type by the county board took nobody by surprise. The former Irish Army officer has now been billeted in the border county since mid-October.
He says he has already got a ‘feel’ for what gaelic football means to the people of Cavan.
“All counties exude certain characteristics about themselves and Cavan is no different.
“I think, sub-consciously, people in Ireland know quite a bit about most counties and that includes Cavan football.
“The county has a great, proud, tradition and the people are passionate about gaelic football. We found that out in modern times when they won the Ulster title in ’97.
“It’s that passion, principally, which makes it such a great GAA county.”
Interestingly, Keogan’s then admission that it was an “honour” to manage his home county is echoed by his successor who explains that “even though I didn’t apply for the job, it was an honour to be asked to go forward for interview.”
He is wont to talk up the Breffni county’s well of underage talent and sincerely believes that they’re much better than Cavan’s results at minor and U21 over recent years suggest.
Nevertheless, he recognises that a county without an Ulster SFC title win since ’97 and an Ulster MFC since ’74 cannot be teeming with self-belief irrespective of the hard-luck stories that have pock-marked the barren seasons.
One would hazard a guess that in these days of collective responsibility, Carr would delegate the job of addressing this dearth in belief to a trained psychologist: “No, we haven’t got a psychologist as part of our backroom team and I don’t envisage bringing one on board in the short-term at least.
“To my mind, it’s too early to draw conclusions from what we’ve seen of the panel so far.
“But that’s not to say someone might be brought in to fulfill a certain function if we feel the need.
“I would be conscious of there being a void in belief among the Cavan players that they are good enough to compete with the Tyrones and Armaghs of this world.
“That lack of belief would manifest itself in the expectation among the players that they will be going into games as underdogs and that they’re unlikely to beat their opponents.
“We played Armagh in the McKenna Cup recently and there was a feeling afterwards in the dressing-room that, at long last, we’ve beaten Armagh, sort of thing.
“That void in belief hasn’t surprised me because it’s been ingrained in the psyche of Cavan players for the past 10 years.
“It is the job of management to change that mindset.”
In Carr’s mind, he believes that honest toil allied to healthy injections of confidence, ambition and desire can work the oracle for the one-time provincial invincibles turned wannabes.
But will he himself be mentally strong enough to cope with life in the pressure-cooker atmosphere that pertains in Cavan Football Inc?
“I’m sure I’ll feel pressure down the line, but I look upon the job as a challenge and I don’t see why I can’t succeed with Cavan,” he said.
“There’s no point in me trying to engender a belief in the players that they can realise their ambition if I don’t have that belief myself.
“Anyway, I think there’s a realisation among the guys we have that they want to make their mark on the game before time passes them by.
“It’s up to the management to show leadership and help them achieve all they want to achieve from gaelic football.”

National Football League
Division Two

Armagh 0-14 Cavan 1-10
Cavan 0-10 Monaghan 2-12
Cavan 0-7 Dublin 1-9
Meath 0-15 Cavan 0-13
Cavan 0-13 Cork 0-12
Westmeath 0-10 Cavan 0-6
Roscommon 2-13 Cavan 1-15

Ulster Senior Football Championship
Preliminary round: Antrim 1-14 Cavan 1-19

Quarter-final:
Cavan 0-13 Armagh 0-17

All-Ireland Qualifiers round one:
Kildare 1-16 Cavan 1-15