FROM THE ARCHIVE: When Cavan last conquered Tyrone

* Originally published in The Anglo-Celt, June 2016, in the build-up to Cavan's Ulster SFC semi-final against Tyrone. The Red Hands eventually won the match in a replay.

 

Amazingly, 33 years have passed since Cavan last beat Tyrone in the championship. PAUL FITZPATRICK looks back on that match and a campaign which saw the Breffni men reach the Ulster final.

Joe Dillon can well remember his first time in a Cavan dressing-room. It was 1978 and team manager Fr Bennie Maguire was in full flow.

“I remember him saying,” imagine, it’s nearly 10 years since we won an Ulster Championship!” That was an awful thing at the time, Jesus , what was going on, how had we gone so long without winning it,” recalls Joe now, 38 years on.

“Little did I know that I’d play for 12 years and we never won one.”

While Cavan would reach and lose Ulster deciders in 1976 and 1978, 1983 was probably the one that got away. They saw off hotly-fancied Derry and Tyrone sides and easily disposed of Fermanagh before losing the final to Donegal.

And, incredibly, Cavan haven’t beaten the Red Hands when it matters since that scorching June day In Breffni Park. Ask any Cavan player of their stand-out memory from that afternoon and they’ll all say the same thing – Martin Lynch’s uncanny free-kicks which sealed the win.

“Martin scored two from the sideline that day near the end, really tough kicks,” remembers Tony Brady, who lined out at wing-back. 

The win was a fairly seismic upset because Tyrone came in as hot favourites. Then again, Cavan were just repeating the trick from the previous round, when they shocked Derry in Ballinascreen.

While the players themselves were optimistic (“we wouldn’t know what other people were thinking, we always felt we were going to win it, we felt we were good enough,” says Brady) the general outlook was bleak.

The Anglo-Celt described the task facing the team as “formidable”, coming off the back of a patchy league campaign in which they preserved their Division 2 status with a relegation play-off win over Wicklow.

“Going into the championship, we were given very little chance because ’82 was a bad year and things were not good at all. We had a tough assignment to go down to Derry. We didn’t play well in the first half, we kicked a lot of wides but we had a great finish, everyone really upped it and we got out of there with the win,” says centre half-back Joe Dillon.

“That was the start of it, lads stated to believe in themselves. We got a great win in Derry and everyone seemed to get confidence.”

Says Brady: “Cavan football had been in turmoil a bit, we got it very hard to get a management structure in place, managers were changed very often and there was no consistency in what was being done. It took a long, long time to get that.”

After what Dillon describes as “a hell of a game, a fierce tough match”, the Oak Leafers were beaten by 1-12 to 0-11, Derek McDonnell grabbing the goal.

Tyrone came to town on June 20 and the sun shone. Cavan led by 0-6 to 0-5 at half-time and held on, Lynch nailing his frees. 

“Martin Lynch scored a free from the sideline, nearly at the corner flag. I’ll always remember that,” says Stephen King, who came on aged just 20 but already in his third championship campaign.

“It was always rough and tumble, we were after coming off the back of a good win in Ballinascreen. It was a low-scoring game against Tyrone because there were no blanket defences that time.

“They were great times. Nobody fancied us to beat Derry because we were going into the fortress but we got a huge result and there was a massive crowd in Breffni Park – and to beat Tyrone by a point was total euphoria. Games like that you remember, Martin’s frees, those things stick out.”

Dillon lined out in a new position, with a specific job to do.

“It’s funny how some things stick out in your mind. I remember Gabriel Kelly telling me, 'Joe, you’re not going to enjoy this game. Your job is to mark Frank McGuigan, you have to follow him no matter where he goes’.

“Basically, he told me, if he goes into the dressing-room, follow him! As it turned out, I think I didn’t do too bad on him. He was their main man, he was a great footballer but we might have held him to a couple of points.”

That they did, 0-11 to 0-10. In the dying seconds, Tyrone’s star man Eugene McKenna had a long-range free to draw it but it rebounded off the upright and was cleared. King can still remember the relief.

“It was like in ’92 where Martin McHugh got the equaliser and brought us to a replay. Eugene McKenna’s chance was the same back then, thankfully it didn’t go over.”

Beating Tyrone – whom Cavan hadn’t toppled in six meetings – was a huge deal. Because, even then, the Red Hands were seen as innovative and extremely hard to get the better of.

“They were always hardy, tough lads,” says Stephen.

“Eugene McKenna, Plunkett Donaghy, Noel McGinn, tough men but good footballers. McKenna would get his place on any team, he had a tremendous engine and Donaghy had too, it wasn’t just fielding ability, he was noted for his ability to keep going up and down the field. They were an excellent side.”

On the sideline, they had an ace in the pack, too.

“Art McRory was very smart, he’d be watching for things and brought that cleverness to it and Mickey Harte then developed it to a further extent,” remembers Brady.

Dillon agrees.

“The one team that always seemed to pip us – and we were so close on many occasions to winning championship matches – was Tyrone. They always seemed to get the edge on us.

“Why? A few things, they were cute, it was good management, they were very shrewd at making switches and man marking and did their homework at a time when it wasn’t thought of, you were picked on how good you were with your club and told to play to your strengths.

“There wouldn’t have been the same thought in most other camps. They had that intensity too and they hunted in packs, they didn’t play lie other teams in Ulster at the time. They knew how to take the opposition’s best players out of the game, a lot like now. You could say Art McRory was the Mickey Harte of his time.”

McNamee played with the Tyrone players for years in Railway Cup matches and remembers their steely edge.

“I knew them quite well. They were ruthless, Eugene McKenna and Kevin McCabe were absolute gentlemen but the Tyrone players in general were absolutely ruthless on the field, they didn’t care what they had to do to win it.”

So, the momentum grew and with Fermanagh – whom Cavan had beaten well in a pre-championship challenge match – up next, suddenly, Cavan felt this could be their year. The team had begun to take shape and it had a rare blend of pace, physique and firepower.

“Derek McDonnell had one of his best days ever that year, he was one of the main reasons we got to the final. He had a brilliant year – he was the equivalent to the best you’d see out there these days. He was a huge asset and he played fierce well in the final too,” is how Adge remembers the Ramor man.

“We definitely had good forwards. McNamee was always great, he was 100pc every day. Donal [Donohoe] and Ray [Cullivan] were playing very well too.

“And Martin Lynch was kicking very difficult frees against Tyrone, the only display like it I saw was Martin Carney one year up in Donegal when he put them over from all angles.”

Says Stephen King: “Big Mickey Faulkner would normally move in on the square and he was a great target man. We used to say, he’d win the ball and he always was either getting up or going down! He was very accurate and Donal Donohoe was as well.

“It was a very experienced team. Paddy McNamee was outstanding at that time, he was getting on every Ulster team and Jim Reilly the same.”

 

Strong side

McNamee himself reckons it was possibly the best Cavan side he played on.

“It was as good as any team we had in my time,” he reckons.

“Cavan have no-one as good as McDonnell now. The rest of them are as good as any of the rest of us but McDonnell was the man, he could win the ball and score, he was really good. Donal Donohoe was an excellent player, Ray Cullivan was a top class player as well.

“Physically it was a strong team, probably not as big as they are at the minute but a strong side all through.”

Dillon recalls a strong balance to the side.

“I was centre half-back that year. It worked fairly well, even though it wasn’t my natural position. I enjoyed it because big Adge and Danny Finnegan were playing well at midfield. We had a good half-back line, Jim was on one wing and Tony Brady on the other, it was a fairly formidable team and physically strong. Every lad on it could hold his own.”

Adge: “There were good experienced players all over the field. Frankie Dolan was brilliant, he was very strong and his man rarely scored. He should have won a few Railway Cup medals, he was great too.”

If took every one of them to see off Tyrone and Derry, they had it a little bit easier in the semi-final in Clones, winning by 2-12 to 1-7. Again, the forwards were electric, 20-year-old McDonnell scoring 2-5 from play.

The county went wild. Writing in the Sunday Independent on the morning of the game, Tom O’Riordan gave what he called “a very hesistant vote” to Donegal and quoted Cavan manager Kelly, hero of the previous Ulster win in 1969.

“They have made a great effort, always winning to learn; they are a settled side and that extra game against Derry at the start was a boost. I believe their attitude was right also and they will do themselves justice on the day,” said Gabriel.

On the day, though, Donegal proved too strong, winning by 1-14 to 1-11 before a crowd of 26,000. It would be 12 years – then a record – before the Blues returned to the big day; once there, almost inevitably, Tyrone beat them.

“There were great teams in those times that never won Ulster titles and really should have,” says Stephen King, who stayed on and ended up captaining the winning team in 1997.

“When you list names like those, they were high quality players so it really was a pity that we didn’t win one. I probably didn’t appreciate it at the time but definitely, Donegal were there for the taking and we were very disappointed, we had done all the donkey work and still didn’t win the Ulster final.”

His namesake Adge feels the same. He played on the teams which lost the 1976 (replay) and 1978 Ulster finals but 1983 hurt the most.

“There was a lot of disappointment because we should have won. That wasn’t a great Donegal team. We had less chance of beating either Derry or Tyrone than Donegal, I wouldn’t say we were less confident but a lot of people thought we’d beat Donegal. They were good enough but they weren’t winning all round them.”

Donegal manager Brian McEniff pulled a late stroke, switching Martin McHugh to centre-forward before the game, with Brady remembering that Cavan only got wind of the move as they left the dressing-room. McHugh was influential and Donegal won.

In the coincidental way of such things, it would take the Donegal talisman’s arrival as manager before Cavan would get over the line and win the Anglo-Celt Cup again 14 years later.

Maybe Cavan didn’t move with the times. In 1986, Tyrone beat them again and the Irish Independent reported: “Cavan were a disappointment. They flattered to deceive early on as they struck rigidly to catch and kick football in contrast to Tyrone’s more intricate build-up.”

“We changed managers and changed managers and never did anything different, kick it up the field and let the next fella win it,” sighs Brady.

There was plenty of heartbreak in the meantime – “we never got any closer than ’83 in my time,” says Dillon.

But lately, the blue tide has risen close to the level it was at all those years ago. With Tyrone waiting in the wings once more, Cavan people are daring to dream.

“That wasn’t a bad team in 1983. Teams today have plans and massive structures and everyone knows what everyone else is doing. We wouldn’t have had that available to us and I would have even known at the time that we needed more of it,” says Brady.

“But I can’t remember any Cavan team that’s as well structured and organised as the team that’s there at the minute. Everyone knew back then  who’d you be marking and what might happen. Now you wouldn’t.

“We know that Colm Cavanagh will line out at midfield on Sunday but play most of his match at the back but otherwise, we don’t know. And we didn’t have to contend with that in my day.”

 

Ulster minefield

“The only thing about the championship, and it’s only slightly different now,” says Stephen King, “ is it really was a minefield. The league didn’t make any difference that time, your status didn’t matter, come the Ulster Championship, it was very open. Very seldom did the favourites win the Ulster Championship.

“I think the fact that Cavan have played Tyrone in a championship-like atmosphere in Croke Park, there was a trophy at stake, I think we should be cute enough now – players and management – to have learned from it. I expect a wee upset on Sunday.

“We have a very strong bench and I always say that 15 win very little but 25 or 26 win a lot, and Cavan have that this year. I think we’ll be smarter, we may not be blocked off as much with Gearoid and lads like that blocked, and I’m sure we’re not going to let Peter Harte run up the middle like he did the last day. I think Tyrone are going to have to work an awful lot harder to get a result.”

Speed on the break will be key, says Brady.

“We’re only a short time into our process, Tyrone and Mickey Harte have been at it a long, long time. It’ll come down to how quick we can move the ball up the field, if we can replicate what we did after Raymond Galligan saved the penalty and we attacked at such pace… 

“Mackey got the ball as he was running towards the goals and passed it to Johnston and he kicked it over the bar. If Cavan can run more at them with a quick delivery, Cavanagh, will never get back but if we turn around and slow it down, we don’t have a chance.

“It’s brilliant the way we’re going forward so much. Cavan can keep driving forward, they have the ability.”

The lesson learned from staring down Tyrone is, says McNamee, to be meaner than them – not to give an inch.

“I think that’s missing now, Cavan are probaly not dirty enough, to be honest. You could see Donegal against Fermanagh  - when you get to that stage you have to be ruthless,” argues the Ramor man.

“Tyrone have a lot of good players but the likes of Sean Cavanagh has a lot of football played and we certainly have players as good as him. But I still think there needs to be a few changes, I wasn’t talking to anyone but I think there could be some surprises. With the right approach, Cavan have the right stuff to win it alright.

Dillon agrees.

“I’m so happy with the lads there at the moment, I think we’re so, o close. We’ve got size, power, skill but the team that makes the least mistakes has a great chance of winning this game on Sunday. I definitely believe they can do it, a little bit of rub of the green maybe.

“I do, I really do. I think we need to get a very good start and get confidence in that young team. We’re going in a good frame of mind and we’re underdogs.

“Tyrone are a hell of a team, they as all the questions physically and mentally and that’s why they’re so hard to beat. If we get a little bit of luck, get into the game early and get a few scores up, I think we’re well capable of beating them.”

Ulster final appearances are rare – wins over Tyrone even more so. To manage both in the same year would mark 2016 out as a season to remember. Here’s hoping.