Sport

The Boot Room: Cavan rise built on solid foundations

Brendan Crossan

Brendan Crossan

Brendan is a sports reporter at The Irish News. He has worked at the media outlet since January 1999 and specialises in GAA, soccer and boxing. He has been the Republic of Ireland soccer correspondent since 2001 and has covered the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals and the 2012 European Championships

Former boss Val Andrews saw the bigger picture in Cavan
Former boss Val Andrews saw the bigger picture in Cavan Former boss Val Andrews saw the bigger picture in Cavan

JULY 21, 2008 was supposed to be a quiet Monday evening shift. The day before, Armagh and Fermanagh were involved in a pulsating Ulster final in Clones which finished level.

Lost in the fanfare of that weekend was Cavan crashing out of the All-Ireland series to Kildare. That's what Cavan did most summers - crashed and burned in the early rounds.

On the Monday in question, I put a call in to Cavan manager Donal Keogan for his post-Championship reflections.

What followed registered on the GAA Richter scale.

It turned out to be one of the most hard-hitting, dramatic and controversial interviews.

Keogan cut an angry, disillusioned and frustrated figure. He let rip at the Cavan players.

“The problem with some of these fellas is they think they know it all,” blasted the out-going manager. “I don’t know what happens to to some players in this county after they leave minor level.”

Although he had another year of his deal to run, Keogan added: “I made my mind up [to quit] about three months ago. I was fed up with the players’ attitude. They just didn’t want success badly enough and that’s why we’re out of the Championship.

“A lot of the players wanted the trappings of an inter-county footballer but they weren’t prepared to put the effort in.”

After they won the Anglo-Celt Cup in ’97, there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that Cavan football was suffering from commitment-phobia.

Cavan had buckets of talent but didn’t apply themselves properly. They never got close to fulfilling their rich potential.

Capable of giving any team in the country a bloody nose, they never quite carried concussive power to get anywhere near meaningful silverware.

The late Eamonn Coleman came in and managed to give them a jolt. Due to ill-health, Coleman stepped down and his trusted assistant Marty McElkennon took the reins for a couple of seasons.

Although McElkennon’s side took Tyrone to a second game in 2005 and reached the last 12 of the All-Ireland series, he felt he was running in sand too often.

Tommy Carr came in and was swallowed up by the county’s own narcissism.

Good GAA men came into the Breffni County and left the place with a little less faith than before.

Fast-forward to the present and the Cavan senior football team are on the cusp of promotion to Division One.

How did Cavan get here?

The answer? Hard-nosed pragmatism, ruthless decision-making, ambitious appointments and, as one insider put it, "people who did the right things for the right reasons."

Val Andrews isn't a name that immediately jumps off the page when you consider Cavan's steady rise to prominence.

Like his predecessors, Andrews’ managerial reign was short-lived.

He upset the apple-cart by dropping a raft of high-profile players.

Before he fell to player power Andrews made some key decisions with far-reaching consequences.

Working closely with Terry Hyland, the U21 grade was prioritised while the county board’s appointment of fitness coach Peter Donnelly was of crucial importance in re-establishing Cavan as a football force again.

The U21s almost become a completely separate entity, which justifiably irked members of the senior squad.

All the U21 players' energies were geared towards the Ulster and All-Ireland Championships and were excused from senior duties during those key periods of the season.

One senior player told Andrews in no uncertain terms that the senior team was being “sacrificed again”.

Yet, Andrews saw the bigger picture. Never driven by self-interest, he believed it was about laying foundations in the county.

As a result, the seniors struggled to make an impression in the League and Championship while the U21s won four Ulster titles in a row.

The football might have been ultra-defensive but Cavan were winning games and competing on a national stage. A real sense of brotherhood was fostered among the U21s during those years and they showed they could match the likes of Tyrone and Donegal.

Still, that conscious separation between the seniors and the U21s in the county became more of a fracture. To compound their woes, the senior side weren’t helped in recent seasons when a lot of Ulster U21 winners headed off to San Francisco to play a bit of football.

But they were a tight crew and it's now manifesting at senior level.

The starting team that dismissed Laois last Sunday had 10 U21 Ulster winners: Padraig Faulkner, Killian Clarke, Jason McLoughlin, Ciaran Brady, Conor Moynagh, Killian Brady, Liam Buchanan, Dara McVeety, Gearoid McKiernan and Michael Argue.

Two more came off the bench: Niall Murray and Jack Brady. Also, Alan O'Mara, Brian Sankey, Paul O'Connor were togged out while Niall McDermott, Tom Hayes and Feargal Flanagan will be pushing for places when they return to fitness.

Cavan senior teams over the last decade were often beaten before they left the changing room. But a new culture has emerged.

It has taken time to see the fruits of Cavan’s long-term investment. Terry Hyland knows these players like the back of his hand.

Now in the twilight of their careers, Seanie Johnston and Cian Mackey must see the potential of the current squad and want to be part of the blue revolution. They, too, have huge roles to play in 2016.

And one glance at Hyland’s bench last Sunday said everything.

Niall Murray, Rory Dunne, Eugene Keating, Jack Brady, Cian Mackey and Joshua Hayes were the six used subs.

From a tactical perspective, Cavan’s transition from defence to attack is much sharper than the last few years.

“It takes a while,” Hyland explained after their five-point win over Laois.

“We had to go defensive a couple of years ago because we were leaking too many goals. And then you have to work on transition.

“And despite what people in the media think, that we’re together for eight or nine months, 70 per cent of our training sessions are at night, you don’t get pitches and there’s an awful lot of stuff you don’t get time to work on.”

Ten years ago this week, the Waterford footballers were beating Cavan in a Division 2B game in Breffni Park.

On Sunday, a win or a draw at home to Galway will see Cavan make their long-awaited return to the top flight.