It was a long time coming for Cavan football.
32 years they’d gone without a home win over neighbours Monaghan.
A galling statistic indeed for the province’s most successful football county but they managed to kill two birds with the one stone on Saturday evening.
And from the watershed comes the uncharted.
Now they’re less than two weeks away from an Ulster semi-final date with Armagh and the Breffni has something to shout about again.
🗣️"Cavan football has been far too quiet for far too long."
Mickey Graham reflects on Cavan's win over Monaghan 👉https://t.co/NuvCuLXtuo pic.twitter.com/5JoTSDyBnW
— Sky Sports GAA (@SkySportsGAA) May 20, 2019
That’s no coincidence. There’s plenty of talent in this Cavan squad and under Mickey Graham they’ve a good man to steer the ship. Relegation from Division One was deemed as the decider going into Saturday’s clash but given Graham’s Mullinalaghta focus back then, there was never any point in reading too much into the league’s struggles.
The championship is the be-all and end-all and they were coming into it with a clean slate. They may have been underdogs from the outside looking in but the Cavan footballers believed.
It’s no wonder why.
In Martin Reilly and Dara McVetty, they’ve two of the finest playmakers around. In James Galligan and Gearoid McKiernan, they’ve a robust presence in midfield.
“He’s very big for a young lad, but he’s very aggressive and he has a good skill-set too,” said Aaron Kernan of James Galligan on Thursday’s GAA Hour Show.
“Game as hell as well. He does give them an option and does give them a good physical presence. He’s a completely different type of player to what Dara McVeety is and to rotate them around is a great option too.”
But it was McKiernan who came in for the most praise. The Swalinbar club man is a towering 6 ft 4 in tall but he’s a space invader who always pops up in the wide open.
“You also have McKiernan, for such a huge man that everyone in the ground can see, he seems to ghost into open space and he gets a shot-off then, off the right or left foot. That’s just his game, it’s a credit to him that he can sneak into those positions,” continued Kernan.
Not many big, physical players can lay claim to that attribute, but McKiernan has raised the bar.
“That was the most organised that I have seen them in I don’t know how long, and the most composed and assured that I’ve ever seen a Cavan team. I’m sure an awful lot of that has to be laid on Mickey Graham’s door,” continued Kernan.
Wooly was also impressed.
“He is and has been an outstanding, brilliant and creative passer and he has a solid engine as well, and when they could afford to put Gearoid McKiernan up front, they had that little bit more umph about themselves then!”
You can listen to the Cavan chat and much more from The GAA Hour Show here.
