JFC preview: Arva and Knockbride the teams to beat

Junior Football Championship preview

DAMIEN DONOHOE looks ahead to the race for the Sean Leddy Cup.

This weekend will see the start of the MFA Junior Football Championship and given that the last two Cavan winners have gone on to win the Ulster title (Denn) and be beaten on penalties in the Ulster final (Drumlane), the competition has now become a stepping stone to bigger and better things. A strong argument could be made that this year has some of the strongest sides ever to compete in the Junior Championship.

On league standings there are two teams of a Division 1 standard in Arva, who retained their status in the top division a couple of weeks ago, and Knockbride, who crowned off their promotion to Division 1 by lifting the Division 2 league cup. That pair make up the front runners to win the Sean Leddy Cup and it would be a surprise (but not impossible) if a winner came from outside that pair as the closest ranked team on league standings to them is Drumalee who were relegated from Division 2 this season.

The remaining 11 teams all played Division 3 league football and were beaten to promotion by the two intermediate sides in the competition, Drumgoon and Denn. Incidentally, the only sides to beat Drumgoon and Denn in the league this season were Kill, Shannon Gaels and Munterconnaught.

A welcome addition to this year’s Junior Championship is the shield competition which will see the bottom six teams enter a knock-out competition after the group games. This should be a big help to any team that wants to further their development as it will provide more games with teams at the same level. It is hoped that the final of the shield will be played in Kingspan Breffni as a curtain raiser to either a Senior Championship semi-final or the Junior Championship final.

Another interesting stat is that there are seven county panelists playing in this year’s Junior Championship in Cavan which is the same number of county players in this year’s Intermediate Championship. No intermediate side has as many county seniors in their team as either Arva or Shannon Gaels who both have three - and Kildallan’s Ryan O’Neill is the seventh in the competition.

Starting our look into the teams, we’ll begin at the bottom of the league rankings. Corlough made significant progress last year and with a tough draw that saw them face Drumlane and Arva in the group, they came away with credibility, but that progress seems to have stalled in 2023. Kildallan’s slide in 2022 doesn’t appear to have been rectified and even the return of county man O’Neill hasn’t turned their fortunes at the end of the league.

Maghera are on an upward trajectory after earning three points in this year’s league with a first win in many years and a draw. County U20 player Ryan Tobin, Michael Muldoon and Killeshandra native Daniel Luby have been central to their upturn in performance. The Leaguers, who are down to junior grade for the first time since 2007, have struggled with the exit of a golden generation that brought them to a Senior Championship semi-final and a lack of players graduating from underage to adult football. For these four teams to progress to the quarter finals it may take a favourable draw or two.

Munterconnaught have shown that on their day they can be a match for the strongest of teams with their win over Drumgoon in this year’s league a good example. Their problem seems to be consistency as both their scoring and concession varied wildly throughout the league. They have a good chance of making the last eight, but they will have to play close to their best to progress further.

Redhills have struggled to get scores in this year’s league which isn’t a surprise considering they have been without the services of Turloc Mooney and Packie Leddy. Under Rory Dunne as player/manager, the group will give their all but they will need to improve in the championship if they are going to have an impact.

While Shannon Gaels finished seventh in the Division 3 league this year it must be noted that they played most of their games without their three county men in Caoimhan McGovern, Jason McLoughlin and Nevin O’Donnell. Only Arva have as many county players in their team as Shannon Gaels so you’d have to expect a dramatic increase in their level of performance with those players back. It will be a disappointment for Bryan Bates’ side if they don’t make a semi-final.

Kill’s win over Drumgoon and their loss to Corlough in the league show the variation in the level of performance they are currently producing. With everyone fit and available, Barry Crowe’s side should make the last eight and on their day are capable of an upset. It appears that Swanlinbar have addressed the slide in standards over the last couple of years and having won six of the 12 games this year, they will be hoping to force their way into this year’s quarter-finals too.

Drung have consistently made the knock-out stages of this championship in the last few years and made the final in 2021 but the loss of Caolán Reilly, who’s in the Caymen Islands at the minute, and his brother Tiarnan, spending the summer in America, are huge blows. Without their top two forwards over the last few years, it will be an achievement to make the last eight but manager Martin Smith has brought Templeport to a junior final is the past so there will be belief within the group.

Back at the end of 2022 Mountnugent appointed Declan Beard as their manager and the work to turn their fortunes began straight away. Mountnugent are a team with plenty of talent but haven’t been able to transfer that potential into performance consistently in the past.

This year that looks to have changed as they were within a kick of a ball from gaining promotion from Division 3 when they drew with Denn in the league semi-final.

In Adam Reihlll they have one of the best forwards in the championship and he’s well assisted by Ciaran Caffrey and the Brunton brothers whose athletic ability stands out at this level. Given how the league has gone, a semi-final is a very achievable target for Mountnugent and if the draw is favourable they could go further.

Drumalee have had a difficult year so far as they found the going tough in Division 2 but that still has them the third highest ranked team on league standings in this year’s Junior group.

2022 was a good year for Ciaran O’Malley’s side as they unexpectedly gained promotion from Division 3 having sank to as low as the third worst team in the county in the past couple of seasons.

Last year the Lilywhites made it to the last four and gave the eventual winners and Ulster finalists Drumlane a stern test in that semi-final. The team has dealt with a lot of injuries this year but if they can clear up for the championship, the experience of playing Division 2 football should stand to them. A semi-final final place is possible but it would take a big performance in a quarter final for them to get over one of Arva, Knockbride, Mountnugent or Shannon Gaels.

It's toss a coin time now because the deadline is approaching. Before seeing the Division 1 relegation play-off between Ballinagh and Arva and the division 2 league final between Cuchulainns and Knockbride, I had Arva as favourites. Now I’m not so sure and not because Arva aren’t as good as I thought they were but the fact that Knockbride are better than I realised.

Aidan McCabe has led Knockbride to three finals this year and won all three of them which indicates that the group can do it on the big day. League is league at the end of the day but Knockbride are in the habit of winning and that’s a great habit to be in.

Knockbride’s problem is they have become the “should have won it by now team” of the Junior Championship because of their underage success over the last decade.

What’s different this year is they now have a second wave of top-quality players injected into the senior team with three 17-year-olds starting the league final. All three were starting players on the 2022 Cavan minor team. Kyle McCabe in the full back line and Micheál Smith and Lorcan Reilly in the half-forward line have all added to the team.

Knockbride can hurt you in many different ways as they have scorers all over the field, but their biggest asset is that they work tirelessly and now have a bench that can make an impact with former county underage players ready to come in.

Arva found the going tough in Division 1 this year but at times they were down five players who were involved with the county seniors and U20s. Barry Donnelly and Thomas Partington came back to the club having been with the U20s and straight away slotted into the side and found their feet at the top table.

When Ciaran Brady, Johnathan McCabe and Triston Noach Hoffmann came back into the team they comfortably beat Laragh and ran Kingscourt to three points, signaling immediate improvement.

A lot of these Arva players are looking to reach their fourth junior final and seventh county final in total which shows the level of experience within the group.

They also have scores available from all over the field with the midfield pairing of Hoffmann and McCabe and a forward line including Kevin Bouchier and the prolific Conal Sheridan.

If they can get Peter Morris back into the fold it will add another dimension but Dylan Maguire and Partington have put a strong claim on their numbers in their debut season.

Manager Finbar O’Reilly has made Ciaran Brady his captain which shows the energy and attacking desire he wants the team to play with.

When Arva and Knockbride meet, which will most likely happen in this championship, there will be little to separate them. It will be a case of youth versus experience but more importantly, quality versus quality. If either of these sides win the championship, they will fancy a run in the Ulster club championship and maybe even more but they can’t be thinking of that for a while yet.

In a game of fine margins, I feel that Arva’s experience might just be the difference but an injury here or there on either side could tip the scales over.

Main pic: Back (from left): Shane Jenkins, Ryan O’Reilly, Joe Masterson, Sean Clarke, Shane Dolan, Sean McGovern, Brendan Brady, Breffni McKiernan, Niall McCabe, Brendan McConnell. Front: Ciaran Brady, Pat McKiernan, Kieran Callaghan (county board chairman), Michael Fitzpatrick (sponsor), Philip McArdle, Ramon Finnegan.