Keaney hopes Ballyhaise can learn lessons of the past

IFC final preview

While some fancied teams fell by the wayside, Ballyhaise did what they almost always do and negotiated the group stages and some tricky knock-out games to advance to this year’s Intermediate final.

It speaks to the Annalee Park side’s resilience that they have returned to yet another decider and, for manager Damien Keaney, it’s a great place to be.

“We’re where we want to be again. It’s great to be in another final, great for ourselves, the players and the Ballyhaise club. It’s not easy getting to finals, there are lots of teams that are not in finals so the experience of playing those finals and being in another final now will hopefully stand to the team next weekend,” Keaney said.

Keaney’s side have competed strongly at Division 1 level in the All-County Football League in the last few seasons and he believes playing the best teams in the county in the early part of the season is a help when it comes to preparing to play Intermediate Championship football.

“Performance-wise for players, it’s great to be playing at that higher level. We learned a lot about the players, we used a lot of our panel in that and fellas have shown that they’re more than capable of handling the pressure and the pace at senior level.

“In that way, it’s a great advantage. I suppose you don’t get to see or play against the other teams that are playing at intermediate level but by and large it’s a real advantage.”

The Killygarry man has been involved in lots of successful teams and represented the county as a player at all levels. His father Brendan was county chairman when Cavan made a famous breakthrough in 1997 and his son Cian is now flying the flag with club and county.

So, there is no shortage of pedigree and know-how there and the same can be said for the Ballyhaise squad, even though they have found it hard to get over the line in this particular upcoming fixture in previous years. Their manager believes, however, that all of the experience amassed in previous deciders can only help his team this Sunday.

“As I have said, the experience of these finals will stand to players. A lot of these lads have won a final in 2015 so it’s not new for them to get over the line.

“There’s an influx of new players this year and I think they’re more than prepared, their commitment levels have really improved over the years since I’ve been with them and it’s good for them to be there and to be in with a shout of getting over the line.

“Just really looking forward to it and hoping that that experience of being in finals will stand to them when the game comes round.”

While it’s a different satisfaction to being in the thick of it as a player, Keaney, who is employed as Deputy Principal at Corlurgan NS, enjoys coaching immensely.

“I do agree with the saying that there’s nothing compares to playing, I think that’s definitely true but managing and helping players to improve, there’s a buzz to that as well and when somebody does something in a game or improves in a game, whether that’s tactically or individually, they’ve crossed a line to something better, that is rewarding and that is what I suppose keeps us going.

“I think the last time they did win, they played senior and probably didn’t do themselves justice in staying in the Senior Championship for a period of time. They’re more than capable of competing at senior level and hopefully they’ll be given that chance.

“But Denn will be thinking the same, they’re an up and coming team and they’ll be feeling that they too can compete at senior level.”

Speaking of Denn, the Ballyhaise manager has been impressed with them thus far.

“They have a lot of talent. Since their league final, they are unbeaten, they have been winning games reasonably comfortably, they have been playing a really good style of football. They’re a tough team, they’re a fast-moving team, they’ve a number of dangerous players all over the field so it will be very difficult to get over the line against them. But I think we’re up for the challenge.”

Lessons, he said, have been learned from the last two Intermediate final losses, by a point and a goal respectively.

“I think it is true that you learn more from losing games than maybe winning games. We tend to analyse and maybe over-analyse games when they go against you so I think Ballyhaise, in the last two years, I think we’ve realised we have to maybe move the ball a little bit faster, sometimes we’re a little bit cumbersome, and the other thing is that there is nobody going to hand you anything. It is sheer hard work that gets you over the line and Castlerahan proved that in the last 10 minutes of the final last year.

“They’re two things that we have tried to improve on and we hope to take them into the final next weekend.”

Away from the club scene, Damien has recently linked up with the Cavan senior set-up where he will have a selector role under manager Ray Galligan.

“How did it come about? I managed Lacken for two years and I would know Raymond Galligan very well. Raymond asked me would I be interested in getting involved.

“He told me that he was impressed with a few things I would have done as manager in Lacken so I have to believe him on that. I’m looking forward to it, Raymond is a very confident young man, he has had serious success on the playing field and he has put together a really good team.

“And between himself and the team around him, it really impressed me and I was delighted to take the opportunity to be involved and to learn myself. I suppose when you’re managing teams and coaching teams, which I have been doing for a number of years, it’s difficult to get that opportunity to learn from really quality and I think I’ll be using that and hopefully bringing something to the table myself as well.”