A poor start but there’s a long way to go yet

End to end

Aspiring to be a leading team is fine but Cavan have no right to expect it, writes PAUL FITZPATRICK.

While it’s fair to say that Raymond Galligan and his players didn’t get the credit they deserved for their results last season, to date, 2025 has been very disappointing.

The context is important. Ignoring the All-Ireland group series which is a relatively new development, finishing third in Division 2 last year, beating Monaghan by six points and losing to Tyrone by a point after extra time easily represents one of Cavan’s better seasons in the last 50-odd years.

A quick trawl through the archives – taking the temperature at five-year intervals in order to diagnose the patient properly - confirms as much. Starting in 1975, Cavan were third in Division 2, with three wins from five, and enjoyed one championship win.

In 1980, against the backdrop of a prolonged row over management, Cavan lost all five league games in Division 1 North, winning one championship match subsequently. For the final match against Down, the Celt reported that only 500 fans turned up, reckoning it to be the lowest attendance ever seen at a competitive Cavan match in Breffni Park.

Five years on, Cavan were promoted from Division 3, scoring just 1-3 (to Tyrone’s 2-8) in the quarter-final. In the Ulster Championship, they had one win, against Antrim.

In 1990, Cavan won one game from seven in Division 2 and the headline on these pages at the end of the league said it all – “Things can only improve”. They went on to endure another winless championship.

Five years later, Cavan were promoted from Division 3 and beat Antrim and Monaghan in the championship to make the Ulster final, losing it to Tyrone.

In 2000, Cavan were second in Division 2B, gaining promotion despite losing three games from seven. The Breffnimen were in with the likes of Longford, Wexford, Tipperary, Waterford and Carlow on that occasion; as it transpired, they lost to Derry (2-13 to 1-5) in their one championship match and no team from their division won a game that summer barring when the draw pitted them against a fellow basement-dweller.

By 2005, Cavan were back in 2B, finishing third but, a 21-point replay loss to Tyrone aside, enjoyed a mid-championship renaissance which took them to the last 12. In 2010, they were fifth in Division 3, lost to Fermanagh at home for the first time in a century, beat Wicklow by a point and lost 1-19 to 0-4 against Cork.

In 2015, it was fifth in Division 2, a one-point Ulster loss to Monaghan, a win over London and a home loss to Roscommon. And, in 2020, Cavan were relegated from Division 2 in sixth but won the Ulster Championship a few weeks later.

This trip down memory lane is important as it provides context and should help separate documented history from hysteria. That – not the county of All-Ireland winners and Ulster kings, sad to say – is who we are now. Cavan’s glorious history at times feels like a millstone around the county’s neck; certainly, it seems to have contributed to an unrealistic sense of expectation.

Yes, Cavan should aspire to being the best they can be but aspiring and expecting are different things and negativity begets more of the same; criticism is warranted and should be heard but when a bleak mood surrounds the team after what was actually a decent season’s work, as we saw last year, it is not helpful.

The reality is that while the 2024 Sam Maguire campaign exposed a gulf between Cavan and teams in the top 12 in Ireland, there has rarely been a season in the last 50 in which that gap didn’t exist.

Judge 2025 by the standard of team Cavan played: they faced five Division 1 teams in championship football in 2024; in the previous nine seasons combined, they played four in total.

So, Ray Galligan and his players do deserve credit for 2024 – it was, by comparison with the vast majority of years in the last 50, a good season. That such a statement is somewhat depressing does not make it any less true.

The problem for Galligan is that the first two matches of 2025 have been poor. It was possible to reserve judgement after the Monaghan game, given the new rules, until we had seen a wider sample.

The trip to Navan ticked that box and it was calamitous. Cavan were disjointed, lacking in confidence, open at the back, wasteful in attack and struggled to execute basic skills at times.

Some of the mistakes at both ends of the pitch added an element of farce to the whole thing. All in all, it was a terrible performance.

But – there’s always a but – it’s only two games in and Cavan can do nothing about that pair of results now. There are only two courses of action open to them – claw their way out of this hole or accept their fate.

The Louth game, then, takes on major significance. A third loss would definitely put paid to any promotion prospects and would greatly increase the chances of relegation (Cavan are currently priced as 4/6 second favourites to go down, behind 1/5 shots Westmeath).

Skills coach Colm Nally, appointed in the off-season amidst a degree of fanfare, is already gone; Galligan stated on the record that it was due to time commitments but the suspicion is that it just was not working out. Regardless, it’s done.

The return of Oisin Brady and Cormac O’Reilly to the squad is to be welcomed; Brady and Cavan parted company just before the league commenced following the Killygarry clubman’s substitution in a challenge match against Donegal. It is a positive to see him back and a boost for all concerned.

O’Reilly did not commit to the panel this year but moved well at times last year and had a good club championship with Mullahoran. So, two extra options in attack and with Gearoid McKiernan making his return last time out, and sure to start from here on in we would imagine, and Cian Madden due back, the Cavan attack is bolstered.

It will need to be. The Blues have done quite well on two-pointers to date but have squandered goal chances and generally looked out of sorts.

At the back, season-saving surgery is likely needed. In their last nine matches, Cavan have leaked 2-21, 2-14, 1-12, 1-23, 0-20, 5-17, 3-20, 2-22 and 3-20, the latter two under the new rules. It’s one of the worst defensive records in the country and that is has gone on this long is worrying.

Galligan is likely to make positional and personnel changes; Niall Carolan, playing well as a corner-back under the old rules at Sigerson level, may be released further out the field. James Smith seems to offer more at midfield, where he played last time having been utilised at full-forward before, and the goalkeeping situation is up in the air.

Some players are not going well; nobody is undroppable and a couple may benefit from a game or two on the bench, recharging the batteries and getting, hopefully, that spark back.

Is it a crisis? It’s heading that way. Cavan have yet to win a home match under Galligan and have been well beaten in all five games since Paddy Lynch got injured, failing to even lead at any stage in four of those.

The project is certainly not dead at this point but it appears to be ailing after signs of promise last year. But Cavan have worked too hard in the last two years to let things fade out with a whimper now; in fact, some have been there 10 or more years at senior level alone. They are battle-hardened by now and have seen worse than this in their time in the dressing-room, as has the manager himself.

Five years ago, Cavan were relegated to Division 3 – within six weeks, they had won four Ulster Championship matches and the Anglo-Celt Cup was gleaming on the table.

This group will know that if corrective action is taken early, the diagnosis doesn’t need to be terminal.

However, a fourth relegation since 2019 would be hard to stomach for all involved; promotion, the stated aim privately if not publicly, would be amazing and would silence the doubters but the bookmakers consider it highly unlikely, a 50/1 shot. So, staying in the division has to be the aim now.

It was felt that Monaghan was a huge game and Meath a must-win. Louth, then, becomes the end-point on the horizon. A win – any kind of win – is what matters now and is the only balm for the current gaping sores.

Get it done and Westmeath await and with them, the chance to move on properly and, in a sort of mental retrofit, downgrade the early losses to ‘wobble’ status rather than ‘collapse’. Winning games does that; in fact, winning games fixes everything in football.

That is the challenge awaiting Cavan now. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

READ MORE - Opinion: Problems with developing players mean senior decline is inevitable