1. Will Cavan put it up to Tyrone?
THE NUMBERS ARE promising.
A third competitive victory for Cavan over Armagh this season. Eighteen scores in an Ulster championship match. Five of the starting forwards scored from play. An eight-point winning margin.
Terry Hyland can rest easy tonight in the knowledge that his team are moving in the right direction. But, such is the nature of Ulster football, his focus will quickly turn to Tyrone for the last four encounter.
The county’s U21s annexed four Ulster titles between 2011 and2014 and the seeds of underage success are beginning to sprout at senior level. Cavan gave a glimpse on Sunday of the incredible ceiling this team has.
With those figures comes expectation.
Hyland rolled out a sleek gameplan against Armagh. Cavan combined a solid defence with a lightening fast counter-attack. The speed of their breakaway didn’t quite hit Tyrone-levels, but they weren’t far off either.
Cavan looked like a team that learned a lot from their five-point league final defeat to the Red Hand on 24 April. Their transition from defence to attack has sped up significantly, with numerous attacks spawning in their own full-back line.
The raw pace of Martin Reilly, Cian Mackey and Dara McVeety, combined with the physicality of Gearoid McKiernan, David Givney and Michael Argue, and the poise of Seanie Johnston makes this Cavan side a tricky outfit.
McKiernan kicked three wonderful points from play in the opening half. Johnston was deadly accurate, posting 0-7, including three from play. He has fitted seamlessly back into this team.
Jack Brady came in off the bench and from three possessions, he kicked two excellent points.
Cavan’s fast attacks meant they were taking high percentage shots in front of goal, while their defenders forced Armagh to shoot from the perimeter. Ethan Rafferty and Tony Kernan did land a couple of strikes from distance, but that’s an unreliable route to victory.
Cavan’s defence was safe as always, but they’ve really added to their attack. They are a better side than the one that went down to Tyrone in Croke Park. The trouble is, Tyrone have stepped things up a notch too.
The Ulster semi-final will throw together two teams with similar styles. Both can go the direct route into the full-forward line, with David Givney and Sean Cavanagh two of the best ball winners in the country.
Cavan’s forward unit was good enough to rip Armagh’s defence apart at Breffni Park, but Tyrone in Omagh is a different prospect entirely.
Mickey Harte, who watched today’s game from the stands, will set up his defensive wall on their own 45 and Hyland’s team will have to find a way around that. Going direct to Givney is certainly one option, although Colm Cavanagh will be stationed in front of him looking to cut out the supply.
With both teams looking to soak up pressure, turn the ball over and launch a fast break, it may be a game where the counter-counter becomes more threatening than the counter-attack.
Throwing bodies forward for a breakaway leaves you vulnerable at the back. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
“We put massive work in all year and learned a lot from a training camp we had in Portugal,” Cavan skipper McKiernan said after the game.
“We have three weeks now to prepare to play Tyrone and we’ll want to put in a good performance at Clones.
“We lost to them in the league final because they played like a Division One side and we played like a Division Two side.”
That is the level Cavan now need to get to. They’re on the right track.
***
2. Have Armagh got the players?
Armagh’s loss to Cavan wasn’t exactly a surprise. They shipped a 17-point beating to the Breffni men in the league. Their form since didn’t exactly suggest that they’d offer anything different today.
But where was the fight from Armagh? Where was the backlash after that hiding they took in the league?
The glory days of the noughties are fading out of sight in the rearview mirror. The seven Ulster titles and an All-Ireland that they amassed in those 10 years feel like light years away these days.
Just like Down, Armagh patently do not have their best players on the field this year. Kevin Dyas, Caolan Rafferty, Jamie Clarke, Aaron Kernan, Paul Hughes and a few more Crossmaglen lads were not part of the squad today for various reasons.
Armagh have been on a steady slide since their one point defeat to Donegal in the 2014 All-Ireland quarter-final. Next season they’ll be plying their trade in Division 3.
Question marks hang over Kieran McGeeney’s ability to get the best out of this group. Whatever the reason, their standards have slipped since he’s taken over. They scored just two points from play in the first half and struggled to put any coherent attacks together.
With 10 minutes left here, they had already given up.
Armagh will need a couple of morale-boosting wins against lower-grade opposition in the qualifiers to resurrect their season. On this showing they’ll be having a short summer.
***
3. The GAA’s first fly-goalie
Armagh win the award for the most curious tactic of the season so far. Ballyhegan’s Paul Courtney made his championship debut between the posts as an unorthodox goalkeeper.
Courtney, who made his name as a ball-playing midfielder at Queen’s in Belfast, opted not to wear gloves and spent most of the afternoon operating as a fly-goalkeeper, for want of a better expression.
His kick-outs were even more fascinating. As Cavan started to turn the screw on his restarts, Courtney started to play them short and move the ball up to the 45 himself through a series of little one-twos.
It was a clear strategy from McGeeney to allow Armagh run the ball from deep and restart the game quicker.
His unconventional play often times saw him venturing up as far as the opposition’s 45. Armagh did drop a defender back on the line to cover Courtney and while they lost the game, the goalkeeper shouldn’t take any blame.
An interesting left-field ploy by McGeeney. Don’t be surprised to see it again before the year is out.
***
4. How will Clare approach Kerry?
Clare did just about enough to get past Limerick but they’ll be perfectly aware that a similar level of performance against Kerry in the Munster semi-final won’t end quite as well.
Clare stuttered past Limerick without displaying any of the free-wheeling attacking play they dished out against Kildare in the league final. But Colm Collins is no fool. He knows that they simply can’t operate with such attacking abandon against a powerhouse like Kerry, so Clare trialled a more defensive style of football on Sunday.
The Banner dropped 13 or 14 men behind the ball but they creaked offensively, especially in the first half where they scored just five points, and often lacked an outlet in attack. David Tubridy and Gary Brennan were short of their best and Clare won the game without ever really turning on the style.
They’ll need to mix it up a little bit more and really test the legs of Kerry veterans Marc Ó Sé and Aidan O’Mahony if they are to trouble the Munster champions.
***
5. Confidence very low in Limerick
If winning games is a habit, so too is losing. Limerick haven’t won a game in Munster since 2012 and drop into Division 4 for next season.
Confidence must be pretty low inside the dressing room and, just like Armagh, it will only return if they manage to string together a few wins in the qualifiers. That looks unlikely at this point.
The thing is, Clare were there for the taking today. Limerick didn’t have the self-belief to go and snatch a victory.
There were plenty of positives but ultimately they made too many mistakes. Limerick lost too much ball in the tackle and didn’t give enough quality passes into their forwards to win this game.
***
6. Mayo leave plenty of room to improve
Mayo slipped out of Ruislip with the win and lots to refine. The work continues as they stay on in London for a week-long training camp, and one thing they’ll need to improve is their shooting.
The Connacht champions kicked 15 wides in a game that saw four players making their first start in the championship.
Mayo did what was needed without much fuss and did so largely without Cillian O’Connor, who was black-carded on six minutes. His replacement, U21 All-Ireland winner Conor Loftus, scored 1-2 while fellow youngster Evan Regan posted 0-7, including five frees.
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