‘I don’t regret moving but was I bitter to be dropped? Yes’

Interview

Dublin by birth, Cavan by blood. When the ball is thrown in on Saturday evening, at least one man in attendance – former Dublin U21 and Cavan senior forward Gareth Smith – will have mixed allegiances.

The 42-year-old father of two was on a family holiday in Spain when the Anglo-Celt caught up with him but he’ll fly home the day before and wouldn’t miss Saturday’s game for the world. Having won an U21 All-Ireland medal with a star-studded Dublin side including the likes of clubmate Alan Brogan, Conal Keaney, Bryan Cullen and Mossy Quinn, ‘Nesty’ was overlooked for the Dublin senior squad – despite playing O’Bryne Cup in 2009 - and when the call came to play for Cavan, he was happy to take the plunge.

“Pat Gilroy was after taking over the Dublin team, I was 28 and I was after having a really good season, we got to the county final and it was a bit of a shock to me and most of the people around me that he didn’t call me into the squad,” Smith told the Anglo-Celt this week.

“Tommy Carr (Cavan manager) got in touch with me. I have very strong connections with Cavan and he asked me if I wanted to give it a shot, at 28 I was thinking Pat Gilroy was going to be there for three years and if he didn’t pick me then, he was never going to pick me.

“I rang a couple of people close to me and it was all positive feedback so I went for it.”

Smith bagged 0-7 on his debut and soon nailed down a starting place.

“I made my debut against Donegal in the McKenna Cup, I scored a few points. The set-up in Plunketts at the time was excellent, we were there or thereabouts for the county final most years. I think the quality of football in Dublin has dropped dramatically since but at the time it was really, really high.

“We had lads coming in from different counties playing for Plunketts at the time. So no, I didn’t find the step up difficult… I thought we could have given it a better shot.

“I didn’t really understand the club level in Cavan at the time but I know it was really good in Dublin. I thought the set-up in the club was on a par (with the Cavan set-up) at the time.

“Why did we not make the breakthrough? There were really good players there and they were doing well in college football and so on. I don’t know whether it was a lack of belief… I can’t put my finger on why it wasn’t successful. I don’t know, I’ve tired to put my finger on this for a while now.

“I don’t know if everybody took it as seriously as the lads were taking it in my club at club level. There were some really good players there but I don’t know if lads look back and think they gave it 100pc, did they give it 100pc? I don’t know.”

Gareth spent much of his childhood in Cavan so the affinity was strong anyway.

“Mam lives in Virginia and my father is from Mountnugent, just in between Oldcastle and Kilnaleck. Every summer I spent down there, every summer. I went to all Cavan games, I would have gone to more Cavan matches than Dublin matches at that age, Dad would have brought me to all those matches. I would have grown up watching Stephen King and Bernard Morris and players like that.

“I was asked to play U21 for Cavan originally. The chairman was George Cartwright, he asked me to play, through Mountnugent connections or whatever, and I said ‘yeah’ so I was going down to play 21s for Cavan but because Cavan won Ulster in ’97, there was a 10-year rule which meant if I wanted to play for Cavan at that time, I would have had to leave Plunketts and I wasn’t willing to leave Plunketts at the time. I just wouldn’t have left Plunketts anyway because… I just wouldn’t do it.

“Then Tommy Lyons came in and I had a couple of really good seasons with Dublin and he brought me in to the Dublin U21s.”

Ironically, it was a fellow Dublin native, Val Andrews, who dropped Smith from the squad along with several others.

“I played three seasons before Val gave me the gate. Was I bitter about it? I was absolutely bitter, I always gauge things off club football in Dublin and I was still playing at a really high level in Dublin, I thought I was playing well. I really enjoyed my time with Cavan and I’m still really good friends with a lot of the lads. I don’t regret making the move at all but I absolutely was bitter to get dropped – absolutely, yeah.”

Are there regrets that many of his peers went on to win senior All-Ireland medals with the Dubs?

“I don’t like the word ‘regret’, it is what it is. I look back on it and I had sort of peaked when we got to the county final in 2011, I’m my own worst critic but I was playing really good football, I’d know myself whether I deserved to be there or not and I did.

“But absolutely not, I would have went to Cavan at U21 level if I was able to without leaving Plunketts. At 28, time was ticking to be playing at that standard and I wanted to see could I stand up to inter-county football.

“I absolutely don’t have regrets, obviously the stars aligned better for some of them and they won a lot more but it is what it is, no regrets.

“I don’t know what the feeling was around the county about a so-called Dub coming down but the lads were great, we got on really well and there was a great bond there. I really enjoyed my time down there to be honest.”

Watching from afar as what he calls “that golden U21 team that Terry brought through” rose through the ranks, he felt Cavan made a misstep when it came to appointing a manager in 2016.

“There were loads of managers out there, that was the time when Cavan should have went and got a proper big-name manager. I thought going for McGleenan was an easy option, he hadn’t managed inter-county before. I thought that was a golden opportunity to get in a big-name manager who knew how to win.

“I thought the board let the ball drop on that one.”

As for now, he feels Cavan can rattle the All-Ireland champions this Saturday.

“At the minute, I give them a chance against the Dubs. I think they left themselves open against Mayo, if they play a few more men behind the ball, a bit more defensive, I think they’ll definitely give them a game in Breffni Park, absolutely. Keep the ball away from Fenton as much as they can. Bugsy (Sean Bugler) starts a lot of the Dublin attacks and I’d try and mark him further out the pitch and stop him starting attacks.

“If the game is in the melting pot with a few minutes to go, I’d give them a chance.

“Dublin are not on their last legs but they’re not the same team that they were a couple of years ago. But it just seems that all the other teams have come down to that level as well, the Kerrys, the Mayos… I still think they’re favourites for the All-Ireland but there are lads playing on that team that aren’t as good as the lads playing on it a couple of years ago.

“I still fancy them but I definitely think Cavan will give them a game.”

On a personal level, he’s still lining out for his home club but this could be his last year, he says.

“I’m still playing for Plunketts, like an eejit! I’m playing since I was 17 and I’m 42 in August so you do the maths.

“I love it, the body is starting to give out to me a small but so this is probably the end of it but we have got a load of young lads coming through. It’s still really enjoyable.

“I’m back home the day before the match, I’ll definitely go to the match. I’m looking forward to it actually.

“I get down a lot. In Dublin it’s football one week and hurling the next so every second weekend I’m down in Cavan. I was in Mountnugent last week and I be in Virginia a lot to visit Mam. I’m in Cavan still quite a lot and when I give up football next year, I’ll be down even more.

“I love going down there, I’m going down there a long, long time.”