CAVAN have been urged to re-discover the spirit of 2014 as they seek to secure a great escape from relegation tomorrow.
Ahead of the Breffni county’s final round NFL clash with the Dubs, current Ballyboden St Enda’s clubman and former Cavan underage star Tom Hayes believes Mickey Graham’s charges should take inspiration from the past.
Almost exactly five years ago, Hayes starred as Cavan pushed Dessie Farrell’s Dublin all the way in the All-Ireland U21 FC semi-final before a controversial late point for the Metropolitans saw the Ulster champions lose out by 0-10 to 0-11 in Portlaoise. Dublin went onto beat Roscommon handsomely (1-21 to 3-6) in the subsequent final.
Tomorrow’s senior tie at Kingspan Breffni is likely to see up to 15 players from that 2014 match cross swords once again.
Current Dublin big-hitters such as Jack McCaffrey, Brian Fenton, Paul Mannion, John Small and Cormac Costello all featured in that penultimate round win over Cavan five years ago while Killian Clarke, Padraig Faulkner, Ciaran Brady, Conor Madden and Dara McVeety are just five of the 2014 graduates who have since become nailed-down Cavan seniors.
“I think something like 12 or 13 of that Dublin team from 2014 are part of their senior panel right now so a lot of our lads will be familiar with a lot of their players,” says Hayes, a former Ulster U21 and minor medallist.
“I thought we were the better team that day in Portlaoise and those lads togging out for us tomorrow will know that they have the ability to go toe-to-toe with a lot of the same Dublin players that they came up against five years ago.”
Hayes accepts that all the stars have to align if the basement bottom side are to ape Lazarus and keep their division one status alive for at least another year.
The simple truth is that Cavan will only succeed in staying up if a number of results go their way, i.e they beat the Dubs, Roscommon draw with Kerry and Monaghan lose to Mayo by enough to fall behind them (Cavan) on points difference.
Rathgar-based Sales Manager Hayes transferred to Ballyboden from his native Cootehill Celtic just this year and last week he lined out for St Enda’s in their south Dublin derby duel against Kilmacud Crokes, thus adding to his insight into Gaelic football in the capital.
“Dublin have a big pool of talent to choose from and the standard of club football in the county is very high,” he said.
“You can see by the way my club mates Michael Darragh McCauley and Colm Basquel have such high standards what’s expected of everyone on the Dublin panel, on and off the field.
“There’s such huge competition for places that all the Dublin players have to maintain such high standards and there’ll be plenty of them wanting to show Jim Gavin in Breffni what they can do.
“No matter how successful Dublin are, there’s always places up for grabs and whoever starts for them against Cavan will be itching to impress even though it's a dead rubber for Dublin.
“Because of the defeats they’ve had, I think the Dublin players will feel under a bit of pressure to get a result tomorrow. They have lost three games already in the league and they won’t fancy losing another one.
“It’ll be a tough game for Cavan but they have a chance if they put in a big performance.
“Pride and morale are big things for an underdog. It would be a fantastic result if Dublin were beaten. There's about eight Cavan players from that 2014 game on the senior squad these days and they should have the belief they can do it.”
