All-Ireland SFC Qualifying round 2B: Cavan v Tipperary (Saturday, Kingspan Breffni, 2pm)
ULSTER SFC medallist Mickey Graham has backed the Cavan think-tank’s decision to ring the changes for this afternoon’s tilt with Tipp even though club colleague Seanie Johnston is one of the players axed.
Mattie McGleenan and co have made three changes to the team that beat Offaly last time out for today’s Qualifier, with U21 star Caoimhín O’Reilly taking over from Johnston in the right-corner forward position.
“I think the management have made a good move because things needed freshening up,” said Graham of the move to give O’Reilly, as well as defender Niall Murray and Tomás Corr starting places against the Munster men.
“Caoimhín is young but he did well with the county U21s and he deserves his opportunity to impress with the seniors.
“We’ve seen the likes of Tyrone and especially Donegal give young lads their head and the fact is we need to be creating more chances up front and scoring more goals and maybe the management’s decision to shake things up will help the team going forward.
“It’s the right time to throw new fellas into the mix because next year the temptation would be there for the management to stick with the more experienced fellas because of the importance of getting back into Division One at the first time of asking.”
Graham was a noted goalscorer in his time and his penchant for bagging majors proved pivotal in Cavan’s most recent successful Ulster SFC campaign in 1997.
Cavan’s inability to rack up the goals has arguably been the team’s ball and chain over the last couple of seasons, particularly in tight games and it took a special goal from Gearóid McKiernan in the last round to steer the Ulster side to a less than comfortable 1-17 to 0-16 win away to Offaly.
Crucially, it was Monaghan – and specifically Conor McManus – who got the only goal of the game at Kingspan Breffni to oust McGleenan’s men from the provincial Championship.
“I know it’s one of the oldest clichés in the book but goals win matches and it could be that whichever teams comes out on top in terms of goals
will still be in the competition
at the final whistle,” said Graham.
“In fairness to our forwards in recent years, our system of play hasn’t helped them play to their potential or do what they do best.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any tweaking of the system either since Mattie [McGleenan] took over so I wouldn’t be that hopeful of us being any more positive against Tipp than we have over the last few games.
“Scoring goals has been a problem for us for a number of years now. We have been poor at creating enough chances too but when you have only a couple of forwards in the opposition half for long periods in the game and your
half-forwards are in your own half a lot of the time, it means that goals are always going to be hard to come by.”
Graham made quite a name for himself as a rookie manager in charge of Cavan minors 10 years ago and guided Longford club Mullinalaghta to their first county SFC title since 1950 last season.
So how much pressure will rookie Cavan boss McGleenan be under this afternoon to deliver an expected win against an injury-hit Tipp team?
“Cavan supporters always expect big things of the team but I’d say most of them would say that the management should get at least a couple of years before judgement should be passed,” said Graham.
“I think it’ll be a sticky enough game for us and Mattie McGleenan will be happy with just a one point win because Tipp could have beaten Cork in this year’s Munster Championship.
“The Qualifiers tend to take on a life of their own and Mattie will know that a couple of more wins in the competition and the team will be back in Croke Park which is a great carrot.”
While Mattie McGleenan has a full deck to choose from, Tipp boss Liam Kearns will have to plot Cavan’s downfall without injured Allstar Michael Quinlivan.
However, Tipp’s success in winning this year’s Division Three league title will not leave them short of confidence as they tackle Cavan in the Championship for the first time in 82 years.
Cavan: R Galligan; P Faulkner, K Clarke, J McLoughlin; J McEnroe, N Murray, C Moynagh; L Buchanan, T Corr; C Mackey, M Reilly, C Brady; C O’Reilly, G McKiernan, D McVeety.
Tipperary: C Kenrick; C O’Shaughnessy, A Campbell, E Moloney; B Maher, R Kiely, J Feehan; L Casey, G Hannigan; J Keane, L Boland, B Fox; C Sweeney, K O’Halloran, J Kennedy.
