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Cavan's unsung heroes impress Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney

Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney praised Cavan's lesser known Dara McVeety and Martin Reilly as key players<br />Picture by Philip Walsh
Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney praised Cavan's lesser known Dara McVeety and Martin Reilly as key players
Picture by Philip Walsh
Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney praised Cavan's lesser known Dara McVeety and Martin Reilly as key players
Picture by Philip Walsh

NEVER mind the headline-grabbing names, Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney has pinpointed two of Cavan’s unsung heroes as key men in the Breffni County’s emergence as a major force.

Captain Gearoid McKiernan delivered some sparkling performances as Terry Hyland’s men earned promotion to Division One, while the returning Seanie Johnston was lauded for bringing a different dimension to a vastly-improved forward unit.

However, it is the relentless industry of Dara McVeety and Martin Reilly that has impressed McGeeney as he prepares his Orchardmen for the May 29 clash at Kingspan Breffni Park.

The Armagh boss likened their importance to the roles played by Diarmuid Connolly and Paul Flynn in Jim Gavin’s all-conquering Dublin side – high praise indeed.

“Seanie coming back in has added something, there’s McKiernan, but I really think two of the biggest factors in the way they’re playing is young McVeety and Reilly on the wing – I really think their work ethic is phenomenal,” said McGeeney.

“I would put it up there with the likes of Flynn and Connolly in terms of what they add to the team. It’s unsung kind of work, but they put in a shift in the 70 minutes on the pitch, so we know we have a huge task in front of us.”

McGeeney admits he made mistakes on the line as Armagh sunk to an 18-point defeat against Cavan during the League, but insists his team is not going into the Ulster Championship meeting hell-bent on revenge.

He added: “It shouldn’t have happened, but Cavan were on the crest of a wave and we played poorly.

“I would take that one on the chin myself, it was the team that I picked, positional sense and all that stuff… it didn’t help matters.

“If you’re going out to try and avenge a defeat of that magnitude, you’re going the wrong way. You have to try and look at where you failed and why, and try to understand that more and change that.

“There’s not too many teams who can do that to you when they get on a run, but Cavan have that quality. Terry, for four or five years he’s been building and building, got plenty of abuse for it, but his work’s starting to come to fruition and he’s got a really good balance now in terms of how they defend and how they attack.”

And although there was some criticism of Cavan in the wake of their Division Two final defeat to Tyrone, McGeeney looks at that result in a different way, saying: “Even with Tyrone controlling the game, according to most people, what did they [Cavan] score, 15 points? If you can score 15 points when someone’s controlling you easily, I’d hate to see what you can do when someone’s not controlling you easily.

“They have quality.”

Meanwhile, captain Ciaran McKeever may be back and raring to go, but McGeeney has been dealt a cruel double blow after confirming that Kevin Dyas and Andrew Murnin are out of Armagh’s All-Ireland SFC campaign.

It had been thought that Dyas - who has been in rehab since having his lateral meniscus removed - could play some part during the summer, but that possibility has been ruled out.

Highly-rated full-forward Murnin, meanwhile, has been beset by hamstring trouble in recent years and McGeeney says he will be given space and time to recover properly.

“The fella’s head’s frazzled so we’re just going to give him the year to rehab it properly and do the thing right,” said the Orchard boss.

“He’s quality, there’s no doubt about that. He has a good rapport with all the players and he makes things happen around him, he’s the sort of player we could’ve done with.

“But at the end of the day you want to make sure he’s right.”