Useful work-out for Cavan in challenge match against Derry

Senior football challenge

Damien Donohoe

With less than two weeks to go until Raymond Galligan’s Cavan welcome Monaghan to Kingspan Breffni for the opening round of the Allianz league preparations are in full flow. On Saturday afternoon last they travelled to Derry to face the current Division 1 league champions and All-Ireland quarter-finalists.

Derry, under new manager Paddy Tally, sent out quite a strong side that included Brendan Rogers, Shane McGuigan, Niall Toner, Diarmuid Baker, Ciaran McFaul, Lachlan Murray and Conor Glass. Anton Tohill also played in the middle of the field as he’s back in the Derry squad having returned from AFL side Collingwood to complete a Masters degree in Queens Belfast.

Cavan played without usual regulars Ciaran Brady, Niall Carolan, Padraig Faulkner, Killian Brady and Gearoid McKiernan but still had a strong team out with Jason McLoughlin, Luke Fortune, Oisin Kiernan, Killian Clarke, Gerard Smith and James Smith starting from the Ulster winning team of 2020.

A number of new additions to the panel this year played. Former county minor captain Evan Crowe started along with Luke Molloy and Sean McEvoy. Thomas Edward Donohoe from Denn also started having overcome the injury that ruled him out of the latter stages of the Intermediate Championship last year.

Nevin O’Donnell, now back in the Cavan squad, played the second half in goals while newcomers Ruairi Curran (Swanlinbar), Darragh Dolan (Drumlane) and Michael Brady (Ballyhaise) all came off the bench.

With the new rules, players, management and officials are still finding their feet and Cavan were caught on three occasions without three players in one half of the field which cost them dearly in a close contest. Cavan made better use of the solo-and-go rule, creating a number of goalscoring chances. At times Cavan cut through the Derry defence but only managed to finish one of the six goal chances created.

With Gary O’Rourke in goals in the first half, Cavan performed well with their kick-outs, winning 85% of those restarts. Killian Clarke and Luke Molloy battled well in the air and edged the contest overall. Cavan were well set up for Derry’s kick-outs and won half of them in the first half through breaking ball.

Cavan started well with their first score putting them two points ahead as Thomas Edward Donohoe hit the back of the net. The chance was created when Sean McEvoy was fouled, allowing Gerard Smith to think fast with a solo-and-go and set up Donohoe for the finish.

With Cavan ahead by two points, they were reduced to 14 players with Dara McVeety shown a black card and Derry took the opportunity to hit the front. Shane McGuigan started the comeback as they hit five points in a row to lead by two but McVeety levelled the game on his return with a wonderful two-pointer.

Niall Toner bagged Derry’s only goal of the game before Oisin Kiernan showed his long-range scoring ability with a third two-pointer for Cavan, with Oisin Brady taking the other. Two further tap-over frees for the home side after Cavan hadn’t the correct numbers left up saw Derry lead by four at the break.

In the second half, Conor Madden sent over two points from play after being introduced at the break with Oisin Kiernan, Gerard Smith, James Smith and Sean McEvoy all adding scores for Cavan. In the final few minutes, Conor Glass showed the advantage of having a long-range point scorer as he sent over a monster two-pointer which sealed the win for Derry.

The battle between Brían O’Connell and Shane McGuigan was a spectacle in itself. McGuigan has proven he is one of the best forwards in the country on his day but O’Connell held him scoreless from play and forced McGuigan to come out the field to get involved in the action.

Overall, despite a narrow defeat – as is often the case with challenge matches, the final scoreline was not recorded but Derry won by a couple of points - Cavan will be very happy with the work-out but will have to improve on their conversion rate. The attacking play created enough chances to win the game but failure to take scores, especially goals, will be something to improve on.

The side look in good physical condition and put together some really good passages of play. When the ball was played with a foot pass or long hand pass to the inside forwards, more often than not it resulted in a shot. Oisin Kiernan and Dara McVeety showed creativity on the counter-attack with that little bit more time on the ball and space to attack.

The value of the two-pointers can be a game-changer and Cavan had three different players take two pointers in the game. Add into that the prospect of Gearoid McKiernan and Paddy Lynch and the hope is that the opposition will not be able to defend deep against Cavan for fear of being caught by two-pointers.

With just one more weekend before the league begins, Cavan have almost all their challenge matches played. There are different trains of thought around pre-season challenge matches – go and play teams you’re expected to beat and build confidence even if that turns out to be false confidence or play the strongest possible opponents and experience the level you’re trying to get to.

The fact that Raymond Galligan has played Kerry and Derry in the last two weeks says it all about his and the group’s ambition. These tough tests should give the players the belief that they aren’t too far away from the top table.