'Football is at the centre of life in Gowna'

Senior Championship final preview

For the second year in a row Ryan McGahern will lead Gowna into a county final this coming Sunday.

“It’s great to get back, that day up in Killinkere (after losing to Kingscourt, while they waited on other results to come through), the last place I thought we’d be was in a county final. It’s a brilliant feeling again,” he told the Anglo-Celt.

The project manager with Gowna Construction had to overcome personal injury setbacks to return to the biggest day of the year in Cavan club football.

“I missed the first couple of games, sat them out and then got back into a bit of shape again. I’m still a bit rusty. It was the same as last year, I didn’t get a great run of it last year but, lucky enough, we have a strong bench and strong panel this year so there’s other lads to fill the gaps.”

In the quarter finals, McGahern marshalled Gearoid McKiernan and then picke dup Paddy Lynch in the semi-final. “They might give me a handy one this time,” he joked.

“Ah sure you want to be marking the top players or the best players. I know some lads would shy away or maybe wouldn’t want them but I’d be putting the hand up and whoever the big name is, I’d like to challenge myself.”

It wasn’t always county finals at this time of year for the 27-year-old.

“Staying up was the big goal. I remember we beat Arva in Lacken in a relegation play-off, which felt huge.

“Not that it was Arva, it was just the fact that it was a relegation battle and you were after achieving something big but when you look back on it, sure it was nothing really - but that was the goal at the time. When you look and you see Mark (McKeever) and Ronan Bannon and these fellas still trucking along, they were the boys who probably kept us up at that time.”

With little prospects in terms of silverware during those barren years, believing a county final appearance could come must have been difficult?

“I suppose but you always know there was good players and good young teams coming. The amalgamations with Southern Gaels were winning minors and U20s and then they went up and they played that St Paul’s tournament where they were playing top teams like Crossmaglen up in Ulster. They were producing great players so you kind of know that the Conor Bradys and those lads were coming along.”

With the Gowna conveyor belt rolling off top players consistently now, McGahern says the formula is simple.

“Keeping breeding I suppose. There’s great coaches at underage and when you see coaches battling to try and get jobs, well that’s a sign that they want to coach and they want to do well. It’s not a case that you’re struggling to get people to take teams.

“It’s a case of, you can only let one lad do it because there’s too many going for it.

“Not that we’d have massive numbers or anything like that but they just seem to stick with them and, as I say, you have coaches there like Laurence Brady that has won championships and played at the top level and they know how to prepare a team for championship or league or whatever they’re playing.”

There’s no doubt Gowna are producing a quality players but is football the most important thing?

“Well, yeah, I suppose and people might say the same about Mullinalaughta because they’re the other half of the parish. I think there are probably not that many distractions for us.

“I suppose there’s a soccer club there now but there’s nothing relse eally, no hurling, nothing really. All you have is football... Most lads stay around and they’ll stick at the football because there’s nothing else to do as such.”

With such a young team, the early championship wobble is being attributed to complacency in some quarters.

“People are saying that but no, I don’t really think that. I think and I know, people are probably sick of us crying about it, but we were missing 10 lads at the start of the year and I think that had a massive bearing, we played the whole league without county men. We don’t have massive numbers and you’re going to training and you’re missing those ten lads, it has an effect on the whole thing.

“So I’m kind of putting that down to a slow start. I wouldn’t say there was any complacency as such or thinking that we should get back into the final because we were in one last year.”

When asked about his role as captain, he said: “I don’t find it any different. I’m not going to treat anyone any different or want to be treated any different. When you have the likes of Mark and Conor Madden and Conor Brady and these lads in a dressing room, I don’t need to be the one lad shouting and roaring what to do. There’s lads all over the field that are filling that captain’s role at times.”

Having made the final last year and won the Division 1 league, an Oliver Plunkett Cup seems like the next step. Does that bring pressure on the team?

“Yeah, I suppose there is but at the same time a month ago, those people would have taken a county final all day. There was no pressure on us a month ago, there might be a bit now. It would be a different story if we had done the same as last year. Unbeaten and back in a county final, obviously you’d be expected to win.

"I’m not saying we’re going in as underdogs but with journey we’re after coming on, I’d say people are nearly glad that we got here without putting any pressure on us.”