Football

Martin Reilly banking on energy levels to see Cavan home against Monaghan

Martin Reilly says Cavan can't keep talking about potential at the expense of achievement  
Martin Reilly says Cavan can't keep talking about potential at the expense of achievement   Martin Reilly says Cavan can't keep talking about potential at the expense of achievement  

Martin Reilly is bruised but far from broken ahead of his latest Championship campaign with Cavan. Kevin Óg Carney writes...

IF WORK rate and intensity are the modern day staples of football success, then Cavan’s Martin Reilly really ought to make the Elysian Field pulling up. However, the thing is, Reilly’s native county remains stuck in a long and painful rut at senior level and the odds are against the Killygarry Collossus being justly garlanded.

Ahead of another local squabble on May 18, Reilly is a bruised man, but he professes to love football and his county and he’ll go at it again this Championship season like a stag butting in the woods. Reilly is Cavan’s second-longest serving player of the current squad. He was already a seasoned campaigner by 2011. In that year, the Breffni boys laboured in Division Three of the NFL, later lost out to Fermanagh in the Ulster SFC quarter-final and were hammered (0-4 to 1-19) in the second round of the Qualifiers by Cork. Nobody in Cavan took umbrage when the Blues were ranked 23 in the country by year’s end.

Successive Cavan senior teams have flattered to deceive in Reilly’s time, but the naturally left-footed defender-cum-attacker has stuck with it through thick and thin. More to the point, he has been his county’s 'Mr Consistency' for more years than your Cavan fan can rightly remember.

Ahead of his upcoming derby duel with Monaghan, the Killeshandra-based engineer is hoping 2019 will prove to be a case of ‘lucky for some, 13’ as it’s very nearly 13 years since the Killygarry clubman made his bow with Cavan in an All-Ireland SFC Qualifier against Mayo.

The legacy left by the gaping wound carved out by an unforgettable 2011 season hasn’t gone away. Indeed, at this juncture only the balm of a triumphant Ulster SFC campaign will mend it according to seasoned true blues. The versatile Reilly doesn’t disagree:

“I suppose on the back of our U21 Ulster titles [four], our supporters are expecting us to come good every year the Championship comes around but, for different reasons, it hasn’t happened. It’s hard to believe we’re waiting since 1997 for another Ulster title to come our way.

“At this stage, everyone in the county is wondering when are things going to click into place for us at senior level because they know that it’s four years since our last U21 win and nearly all those fellas that came through up til 2014 have been given their chance. It’s not a case of now or never this year, but it’ll be difficult to get to grips with another year without Championship success.”

By the time Monaghan arrive in Cavan town, for the teams’ upcoming Ulster SFC shoot-out, Reilly will be all of 32 years and 15 days old. More than most, he has borne witness to his county’s modern-day, grim narrative. Naturally, he wants his native county to end the barren times and regain its glorious past sooner rather than later.

“I was only 10 when Cavan last won the [Ulster] Championship and so almost a whole generation has grown up without ever seeing the county lift the Anglo-Celt Cup, which is a shame. Hopefully, we can deliver this year on all the hopes and expectations that are out there because it’s no good saying every year ‘we’ve a good, promising, young team’ if nothing comes from it.

“Our supporters might be talking about winning another Ulster title and I can understand that but, as players, we can’t be looking any further than the Monaghan game, even though the target the management and players have had since the start of the year has been to make the Ulster final.”

Reilly’s rare combination of style and substance has endeared him to Cavan supporters. A skill set that had him togging out for Ireland underage soccer teams in times past alongside such luminaries as Shane Long, Darren Randolph and Anthony Stokes is complemented by a dervish-like appetite for the fray.

Despite his barren times with Cavan at all levels – save a Leinster provincial junior medal in 2012 - he has no regrets about turning his back on Burnley and a possible professional soccer career, especially in times when the noisy neighbours are just about to pay a visit.

“The Championship is what everyone looks forward to and you can’t beat a derby game in particular and Monaghan is the big one for most people in Cavan," Reilly adds.

“They’re gonna be a tough nut to crack though. They’ve done so well for so many years in the Championship and in Division One of the league. They’re a hardened bunch of players and no team ever gets anything easy from them. We will have to pull out a performance from the top drawer to get the better of them. Nothing less will do.”

Reilly eschews the invitation to finger who he believes is likely to reach the summit in Ulster this year, but he reckons most pundits wouldn’t be looking past the triumvirate of Monaghan, Tyrone and Donegal. He believes such a train of thought suits Cavan: “People will look at us getting relegated again and with a change of manager and some new players coming in and they probably won’t be fancying us to do anything this year, but morale wasn’t hit by us going down in the league and playing in Division One was a great experience for the younger lads and we learned a lot, as a squad, from playing against a lot of quality teams.

“Monaghan will be favourites to go through to the next round, but games between us are always tight and you never know what way they’re going to go. All I know is that there’s great energy and enthusiasm in the [Cavan] squad and we all know there’s no better time than now for us to finally make it count at senior level.”

The bar of expectation in Cavan has never been higher. Trust Reilly to be Cavan’s best, bar none, in the oldest derby in Gaelic football.

Cavan have lacked a strong man in defence since the departure of Fergal Flannagan  
Cavan have lacked a strong man in defence since the departure of Fergal Flannagan   Cavan have lacked a strong man in defence since the departure of Fergal Flannagan  

STRENGTHS

Since returning from injury in the dregs of the NFL, Gearóid McKiernan has been playing out of his skin. The Swanlinbar ace has been posting some incredible scores at club level and may be key as county boss Mickey Graham seeks to improve on his team’s disappointing scoring returns this year.

On form, McKiernan is virtually unplayable and, if he can last the 70 minutes-plus against Monaghan – and in the absence of Darren Hughes - there is every chance that Cavan can compile a match-winning tally, especially if they can afford to leave the 6’5” schemer close to goal.

McKiernan is Cavan’s talisman and the team’s general, but he has a few reliable lieutenants he can call upon. Men like ‘keeper Raymond Galligan, defenders Martin Reilly and Dara McVeety plus Killian Clarke, Cian Mackey and Niall Murray have bags of experience and football nous. The current Cavan squad boasts a plethora of underage provincial medallists who don’t lack for self-belief, courage or ambition. Gone are the days when Cavan teams were beaten before they left the dressing-room.

Above all, Cavan boasts some mighty engines under its bonnet. Men who could run for Ireland, which is just dandy in the context of the modern game. Monaghan won’t hide, but they won’t out-run their hosts either.

WEAKNESSES

Cavan’s inability to win ‘dirty ball’ in the full-forward line has been the team’s ball and chain in the last third of the field, hence the county’s relatively poor return in front of goal over the last five years or thereabouts. Goals win Championship matches and Cavan sport one of the poorest records of any team in the country in that respect and it’s a problem that doesn’t seem to be going away. Against a glue-like Monaghan defence, a goalless Cavan could prove fatal.

The Breffni men have been accused of lacking steel in defence and there’s little doubt that, since the retirement of Fergal Flanagan, there hasn’t been a ‘strong’ man at the back, while the physicality elsewhere that players like David Givney and Eugene Keating once brought is now gone.

Ideally, Cavan would have the luxury of playing Gearóid McKiernan exclusively on the ‘40 but, given the inconsistency of the team’s various midfield pairings this past year, the chances of that happening are slim. Once again, Cavan fans are likely to see the Cavan manager rob Peter to pay Paul with a subsequent loss of punch up front.

Cavan’s poor goal scoring record and the absence of a thoroughly reliable free-taker could cost them in a game that is expected to go to the wire.