As I watched the Donegal vs Cavan semi-final, I thought to myself, the Cavan men really shouldn’t be in the position of dropping into a Tailteann Cup competition.
Some say you get what you deserve in life.
However, I am not sure that you always do.
Cavan went to war with Donegal on Sunday and they displayed the right hunger, desire and aggression expected in Championship matches.
Some other Ulster teams could take a leaf out of the Breffni book.
Cavan may have been a Division Four team this year, but they certainly didn’t play like it.
Mickey Graham and his backroom team (and indeed the players) deserve huge credit for their approach to Donegal’s playing style.
Michael Murphy and co will be waking up Monday morning, knowing they were in a game.
And as the underdog, that’s all you can ask of your team – that they give everything they have to the cause.
We can talk tactics all day, systems and strategies, but the fundamentals of sport are sheer bloody hard work and an aggressive approach.
Cavan have some serious players.
Men like Gearoid McKiernan, The Galligan brothers, Jason Smith and now Paddy Lynch. I could go on.
I never liked the idea of a secondary competition – the Tommy Murphy Cup was a disaster.
I see nothing in the GAA’s approach to the Tailteann that changes this narrative for me, although the proof of the pie is in the eating, so we will see if double-headed fixtures and live coverage is as forthcoming as the authorities say it will be.
I accept though that my arguments against the competition carry little weight when you consider last weekend’s absolute horror show in the Galway v Leitrim game.
In all honesty, a 23-point hammering in a Connacht semi-final is not reflective of a fit for purpose competition.
This is not fault of either Galway the victors, nor of Leitrim – simply it is what it is.
Counties like Leitrim and Waterford, Wicklow and Laois probably know what and where they are in terms of the current footballing pecking order.
With respect, in counties like my own, in Down and in Cavan, there is a feeling that perhaps the Tailteann Cup is beneath them.
Unfortunately the hard truth is that a secondary competition isn’t below any of the counties who qualify.
Down’s record in the Ulster Championship, for close up to a decade now, has been terrible.
Despite the protestations of Barry O’Hagan, Down’s main scoring forward, going on Cavan’s performance against Donegal, I don’t even think, as Down fans, we would be considered as one of the leading favourites to win the Tailteann Cup outright.
Cavan need to approach the next few games in the Championship with the same vigour as last weekend and prove why they are above competing in second tier football.
And I am sure Antrim will be keen to have a crack at the inaugural season’s competition.
Cavan, in particular, have a great chance of getting more games this year and ensuring that, despite how any League campaign goes, next season, they will be playing top tier Championship regardless in 2023.
Fermanagh have been dealt a largely more difficult hand having not kicked a ball since the preliminary round fixture against Tyrone – this long hiatus from competitive action cannot be good for motivational levels.
AS an inter-county player, I always had the hope that you would eventually be playing at the top table.
Thankfully, that came to fruition, albeit, but it took a fair bit of time and to be honest, you had to put up with some very dark days.
My admiration only grows for those county players who continue to wear the jersey in the darker times, when perhaps it is easier to walk away or head Stateside for the summer.
It cannot be easy either to play in a secondary competition – God knows I would have qualified for it at times in the past, having played third division county football at one time.
Players can be spoiled when they inherit good squads to walk into, for example, players within Dublin and Kerry know that they will be close almost every year to an All-Ireland title, that’s without even taking for granted winning a provincial crown along the way.
Kieran McGeeney rightly called it for me, stating that winning in Gaelic football owes a fair amount to the luck of geography and birth.
It works the other way too, as many players in the past have discovered such as Mattie Forde (Wexford), Dessie Dolan (Westmeath) and Declan Brown of Wicklow.
They had little chance of silverware and personal reward but despite this, put their shoulder to the wheel for the county.
These guys epitomise a winning spirit and mindset.
These are the guys, when the going gets tough, you could take them to war with you.
A lot has been made of the comments made by Eugene Branagan of Kilcoo about playing county football over the last week.
His opinion is his opinion and the beauty about football is that everyone thinks differently.
There are some very committed Kilcoo lads who have played for Down and I am sure there will be plenty more in the future.
Conor Laverty is now in charge of the U20 county side and I am sure he will be a senior county manager at some point – his professionalism and attention to detail will be certainly not be lacking in developing a winning mentality.
He will have a significant role to play over the next few years in repairing the fractures apparent between Kilcoo and Down.
'MENTALITY Monsters’ will be important to Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher over the next few weeks as they navigate the Qualifiers.
Tyrone will be buoyed by the U20s qualifying for the All-Ireland final and with a rich bloodline of class, in Canavan, McGleenan and Cush, I would expect a few of these boys to be pulled into the senior squad this season when the U20 competition concludes this weekend.
Ruairi Canavan is for me, a player you could be used at senior level.
His father, or family, might not thank me for saying it, but I don’t care what age he is, class is class and he has it instinctively as a player.
Paddy McBrearty had it as a teenager and so too did Michael Murphy, so for me, why not throw players like Canavan in?
That youthful spirit of not giving a dam and playing on instinct is something Tyrone could certainly use to reignite their defence of Sam Maguire.
The tried and tested method of circling the wagons and laying a siege mentality is something the Red Hands could employ to ensure a more robust defence of their All-Ireland title.
Tyrone management could do worse than throw in some of those U20 players.
For the young fear nothing.
