Let’s call them Cavan’s outstanding Savers of the past decade, 2010-2019.
We’re talking about the ‘keepers who saved the day by defying the odds to keep the ball out of the Cavan net at one end and their team-mates who scored at the other end of the field to help the blues achieve their goal(s).
So let’s honour them.
The thing is, the best saves and best scores of a royal blue hue over the past decade have been chiselled into the annals of Cavan GAA far from the madding crowd. They’ve been executed many, many 45s away from the bright lights of Croke Park which spawns all but a very small percentage of football’s fabulous footage.
And there’s the rub as Cavan’s appearances at HQ between 2010 and 2020 could be numbered on one hand. Dublin, Galway, Tyrone, Kerry? Compare and contrast.
So let’s start with the saves which saved the blushes of many a flat-footed, ball-watching, slow-out-of-the-blocks Cavan defender.
Raymond Galligan is the current Cavan ‘keeper. 2020 marks his sixth season in between the sticks for the county seniors after his clubmate and former county boss Terry Hyland shocked a county, if not a nation, by converting his then sometimes number 14 into his nailed down number one and starting him in Cavan’s 2015 Ulster SFC clash with Monaghan at Kingspan Breffni.
One year after making his bow in the nets, Galligan began to come into his own. Two brilliant saves (to deny former Celtic starlet Paul Cahillane) by the Lacken Celtic clubman helped Cavan to a penultimate round NFL win (1-17 to 0-15) over hosts Laois and almost certain promotion from division two.
But it was in the Ulster SFC a few weeks later that Cavan’s newest number one came of age as a county ‘keeper with his second half penalty save 12 minutes from time denying Stefan Campbell and a Armagh a goal and helping the blues run out 2-16 to 0-14 victors.
Even though his mentor (Hyland) stood down as Cavan boss at the end of 2016, social worker Galligan remained his county’s go-to ‘keeper for 2017 and to date.
In 2018, certain sections of the media dubbed him ‘Spiderman’ as they detailed his heroics at Dr. Hyde Park on St. Patrick’s Day when Roscommon hosted a Mattie McGleenan-managed Cavan side in division two of the NFL in what was a rehearsal for their subsequent meeting in the league final.
Cavan trailed by 0-6 to 0-9 at the interval but the game came to life in the second-half with Cavan drawing level within eight minutes of the resumption with two Caoimhín O’Reilly points and an effort from Ciaran Brady doing the necessary.
Roscommon quickly regained the initiative though and they could have found the net in the 49th minute but for a brilliant, back-tracking save from the salmon-like Galligan just when it looked like Donie Smith’s looped effort would bypass the Cavan ‘keeper and creep under the crossbar.
Galligan’s expertise from frees and 45s has helped keep him in the limelight but he remains an underrated shot stopper.
During the course of Cavan’s 2019 Ulster SFC semi-final replay win (0-23 to 0-17) over Armagh in Clones, Cavan’s captain was a very wall of defiance.
After Rian O’Neill scored Armagh’s first point from play after 25 minutes, they were already chasing the game and desperately looking for a leg-up but Galligan’s superb reflex save with his feet from Mark Shields’ low angled effort helped Cavan retain an important 0-9 to 0-2 lead.
Winding the tape fast forward, Galligan was enjoying arguably his best season to date ‘till a certain Covid-19 came calling.
In this season’s NFL, Cavan chalked up a 1-17 to 1-13 win against division two rivals Westmeath at Kingspan Breffni but not before they had slumped to a 0-3 to 0-8 half-time deficit.
Westmeath might well have put the issue to bed by the interval had Galligan not made a double save in the 26th minute when Westmeath’s John Heslin let rip from point blank range. Galligan blocked Heslin’s goal-bound effort and then seconds later clawed the ball off his own goal-line in the scramble that ensued.
And, finally, did we mention Galligan’s penalty save against Laois that followed the aforementioned Westmeath tie?
Cavan led in Portlaoise by 1-8 to 1-3 at the interval before substitute Stephen Murray grabbed a second goal within seconds of the restart for the Ulstermen. Laois tried to force their way back into the game but they knew their luck was out when Gary Walsh’s penalty was superbly saved by Captain Fantastic Galligan.
Galligan has been a revelation in goal for Cavan since his relocation from attack but the man he replaced in nets for the blues, Conor Gilsenan, also pulled off some stunning saves in his time (2011-2015) on the intercounty stage
Bailieboro Shamrocks’ clubman Gilsenan made his name at the Athletic Grounds in the 2014 Ulster SFC following the infamous ‘parade-gate’ pre-match shemozzle between the Armagh and Cavan players.
Cavan trailed from early on and eventually lost by 0-9 to 1-12 to the Orchard County. Gilsenan shone though. At the beginning of the second half, he didn’t buy Jamie Clarke’s dummy right footed shot and, instead, dived full-length to push out to safety Clarke’s subsequent left footed daisycutter.
In the spring of 2014, Gilsenan again performed heroics to help Cavan nick a draw (0-19 to 1-16) against Roscommon in the NFL.
In the final five minutes of the game, the Rossies’ Senan Kilbride rifled in an exocet. Worse still, the shot took a deflection off Cavan full-back Ruairí Dunne but Gilsenan’s amazing reflexes saw him somehow dive and bat the ball away. Two minutes later, the Cavan ‘keeper was at it again; racing across the square to tip away a hand-pass destined for Diarmaid Murtagh at the far post.
Cavan folk will also remember Gilsenan’s excellence against Fermanagh in their most recent All-Ireland SFC Qualifier at Kingspan Breffni. The Ernesiders looked odds-on to find the net in the 22nd minute when Sean Quigley put Thomas Corrigan through but the latter’s drive from 18 metres was brilliantly tipped away for a ’45 by the cat-like Gilsenan.
Gilsenan’s erstwhile team-mate Seanie Johnston has scored some of the best points ever seen from a Cavan senior footballer.
In the 2010 All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers, Johnston came off the bench to hit six points against Wicklow and eke out a victory from the jaws of defeat. One point by the Cavan Gaels’ man was particularly luminous. It was an utter gem, scored from the right corner forward position, at the town end of Breffni Park after he dummied the Garden County defender Ciaran Hyland.
Three years later, Cian Mackey sprinkled his own piece of stardust into the hill end of Breffni Park in an Ulster SFC quarter-final tilt with Armagh. The Castlerahan man collected a pass 65 metres from the Armagh goal, raced through the middle away from three desperate defenders before dropping the ball and side-footing the ball to the top corner of the net. Class!
In the same year (2013), in Celtic Park in an All-Ireland SFC Qualifier against the Oak Leafers, Cavan engineered a fantastic goal in extra-time. A great move was started in Cavan’s own half by Mark McKeever. A brilliant ball from him found Kevin Tierney who squared it to Mackey and with a terrific turn of pace, the last named broke through before blasting the ball to the net.
Then in 2018, a cracking couple of points sealed promotion for Cavan after a NFL Division Two final round tie against Tipperary at Breffni.
Cavan were a point down in injury time but Gearoid McKiernan to land over a whopper from all of 55 metres and then, with the last kick of the game, Conor Madden split the posts to send the Cavan fans into delirium.
Last year, Conor Moynagh’s produced an outside-of-the-foot point to beat the band! Moynagh arrowed over his effort with all the precision of a nuclear clock in the 18th minute, on the run, against Armagh in the teams’ drawn Ulster SFC semi-final tie.
Plenty of quality to behold then from Cavan at both ends of the field over the last 10 years.
No silverware in the last decade but maybe a few words from the past by former Cavan manager Val Andrews may prove prophetic.
“There’s 10 years of work needed to get back to the top,” the Dublin native told the media in 2011.
