'This is the culmination of years of work ' - O'Hanlon

Minor Championship final reaction

Cavan Gaels “lost their way” at underage level for a few years, according to minor manager Ed O’Hanlon, but they are certainly back now as the town club picked up a very impressive first Minor Championship title since 2011.

Former player O’Hanlon mentioned the passing of JJ Reilly as a turning point in the club’s juvenile fortunes – JJ was the architect of an unrivalled underage production line which made the Gaels a real powerhouse prior to his untimely passing in 2015 – but after a lot of hard work, the Terry Coyle Park club are back in the winner’s enclosure.

“It’s been 13 years since we last won the Minor Championship, today is the culmination of a huge amount of work by a lot of people in recent years. It’s notable that it very recently was the eighth anniversary of JJ’s passing and the truth of the matter is I’d say we lost our way as an underage club for a couple if years after that but we have got ourselves together now and I’m very, very confident that there’s some very bright years ahead,” stated O’Hanlon.

A close decider was anticipated but the Gaels built up a nine-point half-time lead which stood them in good stead.

“Listen, the truth of the matter is we have been playing very consistently in the championship, we have a very solid defence, we conceded two goals in the entire championship and one was a penalty.

“We are very hard to break down, we had a lot of respect for Mullahoran coming in here but we did feel that we matched up well to them and that’s how it proved really.”

The Dreadnoughts came roaring back in the second half, which didn’t surprise the Gaels’ manager.

“They’re Mullahoran so what do you expect? We’re no way shocked at that. To be fair, we dropped off and we probably dropped our shape a little bit in the first 10, 12 minutes of the second half. We spoke about being composed with a lead and I thought we showed great composure to see the game out.

“I’m not sure it’s always pleasing for the spectators to see a team that’s winning well hold the ball but it certainly gets the job done.”

Asked about the performance of Man of the Match Joshua ‘Mini’ Shehu, he said: “We’re blessed to have a number of wonderful footballers on the team. Mini is one but I thought our two boys inside, Jakob and Finn, put in a great shift in the first half, Jakob came out and worked hard in the second half.

“We were confident coming in and one of the reasons was if the focus goes on to Mini or Ben (Tully), we have a group of very capable footballers and it’s hard to mark everybody.”

How many of this Gaels crop are ready for the step up to senior level straight away?

“I’m not sure you’re asking the right man, I have a very strong view that’s it’s too big of a gap for the average footballer to make it from a 17-year-old to a senior. I don’t mind going on record saying I’d be disappointed with the circular that came out from the Youth Board, I think it lacked balance, and I think the majority of counties, the vast majority in Ulster, have made the move to Under 18 and I dearly hope, for the better of Cavan senior football, that Cavan see sense and make that move,” he said.