Cavan Forum

Ulster Club Championships

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Best of luck to Buttlersbridge and Ramor United in ulster this evening. Hopefully the county will come out to support our champions who will be up against it with 2 very strong Down teams. Down will bring big support so we need to better that as home teams.

BreffniBlue (Cavan) - Posts: 278 - 04/12/2021 09:33:36    2391598

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Very poor showing from ramor. Especially after all the prep that they put into this game. Kilcoo's half forward line contributed most of their scores. Poor decision by ramor management to keep jack brady there when he was having little impact and they needed him further up the field.
Expecting sean mcevoy to make a big contribution Cavan next year.

Well done to butlersbridge, great performance

Overlord (USA) - Posts: 46 - 04/12/2021 22:00:46    2391687

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Ramor totally out of their depth…. The difference in quality and speed in moving the ball forward was massive….

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 3027 - 05/12/2021 08:50:55    2391689

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Butlersbridge had a good win. The forwards were very good. John Fitzpatrick would be an addition to the Cavan panel. An Riocht missed 2 or 3 good goal chances in the first half, and scored 2 in second half. Bridge will need to tighten up the defence

Kilcoo were far too slick..pace and movement led by Conor Laverty was really good. Ranor too slow in the build up to break down their defensive shape.
McEvoy has options to play soccer in Ireland and abroad so unlikely he'll play with Cavan next year

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2824 - 05/12/2021 09:26:53    2391692

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Ramor need to dominate Cavan football for a couple of years if they want to make inroads in Ulster. There is another level in them I think, but whether they will back up this year's title with another win next year remains to be seen.

Cavan_Shambles (Cavan) - Posts: 575 - 05/12/2021 15:45:36    2391736

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Think Ramor had a few light players in comparison to Kilcoo. Their whole team is well built, they obviously do a lot of gym work. Johnsons and Brannigans are strong as an oxe. But thats over a number of years.

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2824 - 05/12/2021 16:38:10    2391747

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Denn and Butlersbridge both playing teams from Derry in the Semis

Denn V Desertmartin Saturday 11th

Butlersbridge V Steelstown Sunday 19th Venues TBC.

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2824 - 05/12/2021 17:30:29    2391756

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Well done to Denn and Butlersbridge on their wins. Hard to know what to make of Ramor on Saturday. Got a really good early goal, that you'd hope would spur them on, but nothing after that for so long. Some very basic errors and missed scores. Players who tore up our Championship looked way off this level at times. And saying all that, the first 5 mins of the 2nd half showed glimpses of what they could do. in fact, I'd hazard to say that the ref gave Kilcoo 2 very very soft frees to get them back in it, and they went back to leading by 3 points, and then Ramor seemed to give up at that point and Kilcoo rammed it home. Weird one in that the scoreboard both flattered and didn't flatter Kilcoo, if you get me.

Bur the wider point, what is the issue with Cavan sides in the Ulster Senior Club? We can barely get a win per decade. We were competitive in the 80s and early 90s, but fell off a cliff since then. Are we actually that bad? I don't think we are. Or do we simply win a county championship, go on the p*ss for 2 weeks including the usual pilgrimage to the Boars Head (any other county do stuff like this?), and don't care about Ulster as long as they won in Cavan. Which I think is wrong, and it is to the detriment of our championship overall. We need strong teams doing well, and this has been a rolling disaster.

Glen Watty Grahams win a first ever Championship, but that wasn't enough, and they went on to take apart a well seasoned and strong Scotstown team and look very good. A championship isn't enough for them. That's how you do it...

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2450 - 06/12/2021 11:47:16    2391828

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Replying To Loughduff Lad:  "Well done to Denn and Butlersbridge on their wins. Hard to know what to make of Ramor on Saturday. Got a really good early goal, that you'd hope would spur them on, but nothing after that for so long. Some very basic errors and missed scores. Players who tore up our Championship looked way off this level at times. And saying all that, the first 5 mins of the 2nd half showed glimpses of what they could do. in fact, I'd hazard to say that the ref gave Kilcoo 2 very very soft frees to get them back in it, and they went back to leading by 3 points, and then Ramor seemed to give up at that point and Kilcoo rammed it home. Weird one in that the scoreboard both flattered and didn't flatter Kilcoo, if you get me.

Bur the wider point, what is the issue with Cavan sides in the Ulster Senior Club? We can barely get a win per decade. We were competitive in the 80s and early 90s, but fell off a cliff since then. Are we actually that bad? I don't think we are. Or do we simply win a county championship, go on the p*ss for 2 weeks including the usual pilgrimage to the Boars Head (any other county do stuff like this?), and don't care about Ulster as long as they won in Cavan. Which I think is wrong, and it is to the detriment of our championship overall. We need strong teams doing well, and this has been a rolling disaster.

Glen Watty Grahams win a first ever Championship, but that wasn't enough, and they went on to take apart a well seasoned and strong Scotstown team and look very good. A championship isn't enough for them. That's how you do it..."
You make a valid point about why our club record at provincial level is so bad. The worst in Ulster I believe. One of the sprots writers in the Celt did a brilliant article about it a few years ago. My own view is that there are too many clubs in a small county, so the talent pool is stretched too far. For example, instead of one strong team in a parish, you end up with 2 average teams or even 3 weak teams.

Good to see B'Bridge and Denn winning, but our senior champions are usually miles off the pace. Even when the Gaels were dominating in the 2000s, they never made any impact at provincial level.

Cavan_Shambles (Cavan) - Posts: 575 - 06/12/2021 13:11:44    2391849

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Gweedore in 2018 also went on and won Ulster after their first Donegal championship in a while.
Warty Grahams had a lot of pedigree, 4 ulster minor clubs. They were going close in Derry before getting over the link convincingly this year under Malachi O Rourke.

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2824 - 06/12/2021 14:00:28    2391863

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Easy to see why we are playing Division 4 football when you see our senior county champions in Ulster club action…..woeful gap in quality

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 3027 - 06/12/2021 22:04:46    2391929

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Replying To ForeverBlue2:  "Easy to see why we are playing Division 4 football when you see our senior county champions in Ulster club action…..woeful gap in quality"
That's a bit silly in my opinion. We know the reasons for falling down to Div4 with fragmented seasons and all that. It's not just down to quality, as we were good enough to win an Ulster title just 12 months ago. And I really don't think it's a huge gap in quality. At times this Ramor team played well on Saturday, and they played unbelievably well to win the Championship in the first place. It goes back to my point of why don't they care? They clearly gave up after Kilcoo pulled away again early in the 2nd half, after they initially got it back to a point. Don't tell me that's no quality, seems to be in the heads of players after they get out of Cavan they just stop. Other county champions always put up a fight, our champions always seem to be happy with the Cavan title and that's it

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2450 - 07/12/2021 11:50:32    2391962

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Replying To FoolsGold:  "Gweedore in 2018 also went on and won Ulster after their first Donegal championship in a while.
Warty Grahams had a lot of pedigree, 4 ulster minor clubs. They were going close in Derry before getting over the link convincingly this year under Malachi O Rourke."
Very true, but we know what a step up to Senior level can be, and they looked to the manor born. How come other sides in Ulster can win a first championship and go on and give Ulster a rattle, while ours can't? Do they just not care?

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2450 - 07/12/2021 11:51:40    2391963

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Must be a mindset thing along with Quality. The Northern Counties all have a great hunger for Ulster Club, and bring a good following

I was at both games on Saturday, and there was a poor crowd from Cavan for 2 clubs. The game was on Rte but still would have expected more.. An Riocht and kilcoo had a big following

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2824 - 07/12/2021 12:03:20    2391969

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I was expecting Ramor to put up a better showing. Thought they were the best Senior winners since the best of the Gaels era of dominance with a good balanced team of marquee full backs and full forwards (for Senior C'ship Level) at either end of the field, and loads of athletism in between.

The difference against Kilcoo was probably the skill levels of the players in between the two full lines, I thought. Kilcoo come from a very small parish so it's hard to make the "too many clubs in cavan" argument just matching them up against a big parish like Ramor.

As an overall point, the number of clubs maybe should be reduced for Senior level now. We have too many teams in the Senior like Mullahoran, Shercock, Lacken who can lift it a bit to be competitive in the Senior C'ship but are only at a level of player that they are losing the occasional league game to Junior clubs in Division 2. Whether these teams are replaced with Amalgamations, or just removed for a smaller c'ship to get the standard up, it is probably time for change now.

If you were picking out county players the other day, Bryan O' Connell and Sean McEvoy certainly still looked it. You would be struggling after. Although he was very good in our c'ship, Jack Brady looked a bit outpaced at the higher level I thought. Same goes for James & Ado Cole, although Cole was marked by a very good Kilcoo FB. Ado being kept quiet probably didn't help James B as he is normally his main supplier of ball also.

Didn't see or hear anything about Denn & Butlersbridge games but hopefully both go well and maybe some of their games will be made available on Cavstream or RTÉ for us to watch and pass comment on.

PatTheDandy (Cavan) - Posts: 356 - 07/12/2021 12:33:34    2391976

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Replying To PatTheDandy:  "I was expecting Ramor to put up a better showing. Thought they were the best Senior winners since the best of the Gaels era of dominance with a good balanced team of marquee full backs and full forwards (for Senior C'ship Level) at either end of the field, and loads of athletism in between.

The difference against Kilcoo was probably the skill levels of the players in between the two full lines, I thought. Kilcoo come from a very small parish so it's hard to make the "too many clubs in cavan" argument just matching them up against a big parish like Ramor.

As an overall point, the number of clubs maybe should be reduced for Senior level now. We have too many teams in the Senior like Mullahoran, Shercock, Lacken who can lift it a bit to be competitive in the Senior C'ship but are only at a level of player that they are losing the occasional league game to Junior clubs in Division 2. Whether these teams are replaced with Amalgamations, or just removed for a smaller c'ship to get the standard up, it is probably time for change now.

If you were picking out county players the other day, Bryan O' Connell and Sean McEvoy certainly still looked it. You would be struggling after. Although he was very good in our c'ship, Jack Brady looked a bit outpaced at the higher level I thought. Same goes for James & Ado Cole, although Cole was marked by a very good Kilcoo FB. Ado being kept quiet probably didn't help James B as he is normally his main supplier of ball also.

Didn't see or hear anything about Denn & Butlersbridge games but hopefully both go well and maybe some of their games will be made available on Cavstream or RTÉ for us to watch and pass comment on."
Too many? We're down to 12 after 2 were relegated this year, which is just right for a county with 39 clubs. Too few clubs, and you don't have enough players exposed to Senior football, and that would affect the county team even more. And what of Mullahoran and Lacken (Shercock are relegated now anyway)? So what if they use the league like that. I know Mullahoran used the League to blood new players, and to have a look at every player in the club who wanted to play Senior. That's what the League is for. And they raised it for Championship? Well yeah, isn't that the point? Championship is the be all and end all, not the League, so of course they raised it for that. Mullahoran have reached the Quarter finals 2 years in a row, and you want to cut clubs like that? Come on now...

Loughduff Lad (Cavan) - Posts: 2450 - 07/12/2021 13:55:36    2391992

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Replying To Loughduff Lad:  "Too many? We're down to 12 after 2 were relegated this year, which is just right for a county with 39 clubs. Too few clubs, and you don't have enough players exposed to Senior football, and that would affect the county team even more. And what of Mullahoran and Lacken (Shercock are relegated now anyway)? So what if they use the league like that. I know Mullahoran used the League to blood new players, and to have a look at every player in the club who wanted to play Senior. That's what the League is for. And they raised it for Championship? Well yeah, isn't that the point? Championship is the be all and end all, not the League, so of course they raised it for that. Mullahoran have reached the Quarter finals 2 years in a row, and you want to cut clubs like that? Come on now..."
Club football in Cavan is pure rubbish and has been for over a decade or more…. Hence our County team is playing in the depths of division 4…. Our Ulster championship win a couple of years ago is looking more of a fluke with every passing week…!!!

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 3027 - 07/12/2021 16:35:10    2392011

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Replying To Loughduff Lad:  "Too many? We're down to 12 after 2 were relegated this year, which is just right for a county with 39 clubs. Too few clubs, and you don't have enough players exposed to Senior football, and that would affect the county team even more. And what of Mullahoran and Lacken (Shercock are relegated now anyway)? So what if they use the league like that. I know Mullahoran used the League to blood new players, and to have a look at every player in the club who wanted to play Senior. That's what the League is for. And they raised it for Championship? Well yeah, isn't that the point? Championship is the be all and end all, not the League, so of course they raised it for that. Mullahoran have reached the Quarter finals 2 years in a row, and you want to cut clubs like that? Come on now..."
Agree the league is for blooding new players, but if Ramor, Gowna, Xlough for example, experiment with 5 new players in a league match they are still a strong Senior team and don't lose to your Knockbride's, Denn's, Killeshandra's.

I am not targeting any team in particular here. Those teams I mentioned in my previous post have punched above their weight in recent years and fair play to them for that. They can look down on the likes of Ballyhaise who are toiling in Intermediate with arguably a better team, or Killygarry who are losing every group game by a point in Senior with a far better team.

But if you replaced those poorer Senior teams with amalgamations, the Cavan Champions standards would be raised from playing against better teams, rather than lowered from being dragged down to the level of the poorer teams.

The Junior & Intermediate Champions would also be stronger because there would be more teams in the competition and it would therefore be harder to win.

Anyone who is good enough to play Senior football that doesn't play for one of the few remaining Senior clubs, plays for an amalgamation, plays Senior football in front of Mickey Graham, and everyone is a winner.

The only issue I see with this masterplan of mine is that the calendar mighn't allow for having to hold off the Senior C'ship so that the Amalgamation players can play with their clubs in the Junior & Intermediate. But I'm sure there's a way around that.

PatTheDandy (Cavan) - Posts: 356 - 07/12/2021 18:44:28    2392029

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Oisin McConville reckons Kilcoo aren't as good as they were 2 or 3 years ago, and tipping Glen for the All Ireland
https://t.co/C2HwB53LhB

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2824 - 08/12/2021 10:46:35    2392056

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Replying To FoolsGold:  "Oisin McConville reckons Kilcoo aren't as good as they were 2 or 3 years ago, and tipping Glen for the All Ireland
https://t.co/C2HwB53LhB"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTVAdkL-E50

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2824 - 08/12/2021 11:33:20    2392067

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