After the opening few minutes of last summer’s Division Three relegation play-off the writing was on the wall for the Cavan footballers.
When Marty Reilly - one of the fittest, most assured footballers on the inter-county circuit - hasn’t got a leg under him, you know you’re in trouble.
Perched high in the main stand of Pairc Tailteann, I ignored the other 29 footballers on the field and watched Reilly for a good 10 minutes.
He spent nearly every second of that period chasing back into his own half, trying to curtail the endless stream of Wicklow whippets charging forward.
What he wouldn’t have done to be stationed at full-forward for a couple of minutes just to get his breath back.
Arguably the most consistent footballer in the Breffni County for a decade, Reilly had hit a wall. In fact, every Cavan player hit the same one.
Davy Burke's Wicklow side made a million mistakes that afternoon. They could've made a million more, and Cavan still weren't winning that game.
Mickey Graham’s squad was physically and emotionally spent.
If ever a game was won on legs alone, this was it. Indeed, it was one of those games that captured the pure harshness of the game.
As they tried to save themselves from the dreaded drop into Division Four – and back-to-back relegations - Cavan ran like they were running on sand.
After their fairy-tale Ulster title triumph in 2020, a severely truncated League in 2021 was something Cavan were sorely handicapped by, probably more so than any other county.
Wicklow ran out two-point winners – and Burke and his players savoured the moment.
“I've been in successful dressing-rooms and it's very, very hard to go again if you're not used to it,” said the-then Wicklow manager.
“All respect to Cavan but we absolutely said: 'Bring it to 50 minutes, drawn game, a point up, a point down'…
“We wanted to question Cavan's hunger because they've an Anglo Celt medal in their pockets. We wanted lads whispering it: 'Do you really want to be here, lads?' We wanted to bring it into a battle and that's what we did.”
I watched them again a few weeks later at Healy Park where they bowed meekly out of the Ulster Championship to a Darren McCurry-inspired Tyrone.
That was the last time I saw them 'in the flesh' until last weekend in Croke Park where they went up to Division Three as champions, beating Tipperary by a point.
Since that ugly day in Navan, their rehabilitation has been hugely impressive.
They look more like a Cavan side should look like. Front-footed defenders, a starting XV nicely punctuated by a handful of proper ballers and a couple of quality finishers.
From the days of Dermot McCabe, Larry and Jason Reilly and Mickey Graham himself, who was perpetual motion when he wore the royal blue jersey, Cavan were always an exciting team to watch.
They're already counting the days down to their Championship joust with Antrim at a renovated Corrigan Park on April 23 - the first time the Saffrons can boast home advantage for a provincial tie since Casement Park, somewhat madly, closed its doors in 2013.
After a very encouraging start to their Division Three campaign, Antrim levelled off a little, with Enda McGinley perhaps wondering just how much actual depth he has in his ranks ahead of hosting the resurgent Breffni men.
The Antrim manager will have had a bird's eye view of Cavan in Croke Park last Saturday afternoon and although he'll fancy blowing a few holes in the visitors' defence, he will also be mindful of the scoring threat Paddy Lynch poses.
The Crosserlough full-forward hit five points against Wicklow in Navan last year and was one of Cavan's better performers on the day, but this year he has found a new level.
The great thing about Lynch, a 2017 Ulster minor winner, is that he's not afraid to miss.
On eight minutes in last week's Division Four final, he twisted and turned and probably should have laid the ball off to a team-mate; instead, he screwed his shot wide of Tipperary's posts.
Whether it's a quarter full or at 82,000 capacity, Croke Park is an arena that can swallow you up as soon as you dare tread on its turf.
Lynch, however, wasn't in any way dwarfed by sheer scale of the Hogan and Cusack stands. Despite dropping another effort short, the way in which he finished his first-half goal, and generally the way he carried himself, suggests he has all the physical and mental attributes to make a name for himself in 2022.
Notably, James Smith, Lynch’s club-mate, missed last season through injury but he has shown enough of his boundless ability around the middle of the field, and occasionally at full-forward, that 2020 wasn’t a flash in the pan.
Gearoid McKiernan has turned his short, looping runs into an art-form and is economy personified with either foot.
Wing-back Gerard Smith, a precocious attacker at U21 level, gets on a serious amount of ball, while Conor Moynagh is one of those centre-backs who dictates so much from the defensive point of the attack and Thomas Galligan has the gait of a man who looks dead on his feet before engineering some devastating moments.
Mickey Graham has experienced every conceivable emotion since becoming Cavan senior manager in 2019. From the highs of winning the Anglo Celt to the desperate lows of Navan last year.
Always even-tempered, Graham has been a good man to have at the Cavan wheel.
Watching them last Saturday afternoon in the capital, and despite what their Ulster Council delegates may have felt about travelling into the heart of west Belfast, you get the sense the Breffni Blues will fancy all what Corrigan Park has to throw at them in 15 days’ time.
