All-Ireland SFC Semi-Final: Cavan Look To Pull Off A Shock Against Hotly-Fancied Dublin
By Daire Walsh
Having upset the apple cart with last month’s stunning Ulster final victory over Donegal, Mickey Graham’s Cavan will once again seek to defy expectations against Dublin at Croke Park tomorrow evening (throw-in 5.30pm).
In what will be just their third championship appearance of the current millennium at GAA HQ, the Breffni County are the latest side tasked with knocking the all-conquering Metropolitans off their perch.
It is all of 23 years since Cavan last featured in an All-Ireland senior football championship semi-final. Current manager Graham was a late substitute on August 24, 1997 when a Maurice Fitzgerald-inspired Kerry claimed a 1-17 to 1-10 victory against the Ulster men.
After going a full 16 years without an All-Ireland series appearance at Croke Park, Cavan found themselves playing there twice in the space of eight days during the 2013 championship. Under the guidance of Terry Hyland – who was sparking a mini resurgence in the county’s fortunes – they defeated London by 1-17 to 1-8 in a fourth round qualifier in the capital to set-up a quarter-final showdown with Kerry the following weekend.
Despite the best efforts of Niall McDermott and Eugene Keating for the Breffni outfit, the Kingdom prevailed on a scoreline of 0-15 to 0-9. This was as far as they had advanced in the qualifier era, but 2019 saw Cavan making significant progress in Graham’s first year at the helm.
En route to reaching their first provincial final in 18 years, they defeated neighbours Monaghan and also overcame Armagh in a replayed affair. They were also relegated from Division One of the National Football League and the loss of their Division Two status in late October of this year looked set to make it a difficult winter championship for the side.
Remarkably, Cavan have trailed at half-time in all four of their championship games to date. In the opening round against Monaghan on October 31 at St Tiernach’s Park, Clones, they trailed the Farney County by seven points before eventually securing a dramatic extra-time success.
Antrim were a point ahead at the midway stage of their quarter-final meeting at Kingspan Breffni a week later, but Cavan eventually came away with a 0-13 to 0-9 triumph. Despite being eight points in arrears during the interval of their semi-final showdown with Down on November 15, they once again displayed remarkable resilience in getting over the line by the slenderest of margins (1-14 to 1-13).
Considering how well Donegal had performed in preceding wins over Tyrone and Armagh, there was no shame in being two points down at the break in their showpiece duel at the Athletic Grounds last Sunday week. The reigning champions were expected to push on after the resumption, but instead it was Cavan who played with the greater self-belief and Conor Madden’s late goal sealed a famous victory.
Despite being the most successful county in Ulster by some distance (40 provincial titles and five All-Irelands), there were lengthy dry spells for Cavan either side of their 1997 success in the north. This ensures that Conor Madden and his team-mates will be remembered as folk heroes, regardless of how tomorrow’s game pans out.
Used primarily as either a full-forward or midfielder in Kingscourt’s march to the Cavan SFC decider, Padraig Faulkner has been a dependable presence at full-back in front of reliable netminder Raymond Gilligan – whose epic free-kick got them past Monaghan in the first round of Ulster. Killian Clarke is another fine defensive lynchpin, while Thomas Galligan (cousin of Raymond), Oisin Kiernan, Martin Reilly and the influential Gearoid McKiernan are others to have stood tall throughout their remarkable campaign.
If Cavan are battle hardened moving into this contest, then the precise opposite is true of Dublin.
While Westmeath produced a decent effort in keeping the Sky Blues to 11 points (0-22 to 0-11) in their opening game of the championship at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise on November 7, Dublin proceeded to record respective victories of 22 and 21 points over Laois and Meath as they sauntered towards a 10th consecutive Leinster title.
Though the absence of inter-county action for a seven month period is something he couldn’t have anticipated – nor the decisions of both Jack McCaffrey and Diarmuid Connolly to drop off the panel – Dessie Farrell has thus far enjoyed a relatively smooth ride in the Dublin hot seat. While the NFL title fell the way of Kerry, Dublin were becoming less dominant in the spring time during the latter stages of Jim Gavin’s reign.
The old reliables continue to lead the way for the six-in-a-row chasing side with Dean Rock (1-15) and Ciaran Kilkenny (0-13) particularly prominent in the three games to date. Niall Scully also has a strong championship tally of 1-5 and while there is a settled look to the team, Farrell hasn’t been afraid to integrate some new faces into his starting line-up.
A fringe player in 2019, Bugler rattled the net against both Laois and Meath, and has already amassed 2-4 in this winter championship. Robbie McDaid is currently filling McCaffrey’s wing-back void and posted two points in their Leinster campaign.
McDaid is one of 10 players on the Dublin panel who lined out against Cavan in the All-Ireland U21 football championship semi-final of 2014. This number would be 11 only for Kilkenny’s absence at the time with a cruciate ligament injury.
Whilst many of these players were already established figures when he took the senior job, the fact that Farrell was also their manager for this game will make them confident that they can play big roles over the course of his tenure. It was a titanic battle between the two counties at the underage grade six years ago, with Dublin edging through by the skin of their teeth (0-11 to 0-10).
Although only a handful of that Cavan squad are in the current senior set-up, 2014 did see them claiming a fourth successive Ulster U21 crown. Later in the same year, the Breffni County also won the All-Ireland Junior Football Championship.
Raw talent has existed within Cavan for quite a few years now and this is something that Farrell and his U21 class of 2014 are acutely aware of.
Cavan are being afforded less of a chance than Donegal would have been given, but the fact remains that Graham’s side are here on merit and will hoping to deliver the patterns of play – often quite direct in nature – that have worked a charm up to this point.
Dublin are relentless in their pursuit of silverware, however, and will understandably be red-hot favourites to come out on top. Cavan have proven themselves to an outstanding second half team in 2020, but will need to hit the ground running if they are to reach their first final in 68 years.