Monaghan clash a “50/50 game” says Cavan boss Bellew

SUNDAY’S championship showdown with old adversaries Monaghan will be a “5050” game says Cavan manager Ollie Bellew.

The sides are the curtain raiser in Clones, with the counties locking horns in the football championship afterwards.

The pair clashed just four weeks ago, at Kingspan Breffni Park in the league and Bellew’s boys came away with the bragging rights, winning 1-16 to 0-15.

It was a dead rubber contest with both teams out of the running for promotion. Cavan also gained the upper hand in last year’s Lory Meagher Cup meeting, with nine points the difference.

The Breffni County went on to compete in the decider at Croke Park as group leaders but lost out to New York, who also ended Monaghan’s 2025 season at the semi-final juncture.

Bannigan: Monaghan and Cavan always a close encounter

“It’s a local derby and there’ll probably be a big crowd in halfway through the game so there’s new aspects to consider and deal with,” Bellew said of the doubleheader billing.

“Monaghan, for long periods of time last year in the semi-final, they caused New York a lot of problems. They’re a very good side and it’s going to be very difficult. It’s 5050 in my eyes at the minute.

“Every game against them is very tight and hotly contested. They have a sprinkling of really good, fit and athletic players, so they’re always difficult to deal with.

“They had an indifferent league campaign where they tried out a lot of players. I’d fully expect their best team to be coming out on Sunday. There’ll be no complacency from us, we’ll have to be on our game.”

Cavan have already a win under their belts, starting the competition in the best possible fashion. They overcame what Bellew deemed a “difficult” outing on the first day, defeating Warwickshire 3-14 to 0-15.

They certainly didn’t have it all their own way on home turf. It took a hat-trick of goals from sharpshooter Mark Moffett to clinch victory and a valuable two points on the board.

Monaghan, on the other hand, will be aiming to bounce back from last weekend’s four-point defeat to Leitrim in their opener.

“We were delighted with the result,” Bellew said of the Warwickshire win. “It was a very difficult game in those conditions. Warwickshire probably don’t get the credit they deserve.

“They were well organised and caused us all sorts of problems in the first half. We settled, the conditions were in our favour for the second half, and we grew into the game.

“It was a tough one for us to get up and running. It had me really worried, it was a real banana skin and that nearly played out so I’m delighted that we navigated it well.”