By Shaun Casey

THERE aren’t too many tougher tasks than heading to Killarney to take on a wounded Kerry and former Cavan footballer Ciaran Brady hopes the Breffni man can play with pride for that famous blue jersey.

Raymond Galligan’s men are coming in off the back of two chastising defeats to Ulster foes Donegal and Tyrone while the Kingdom suffered their first championship loss of the campaign the last day out against Meath.

Jack O’Connor was missing a host of regulars from his starting team, including the likes of Seánie O’Shea, Paudie Clifford, Paul Geaney and Diarmuid O’Connor, but Brady is wary of Kerry’s ‘bouncebackability.’

“Any team that’s missing five or six of their guaranteed starters, it’s going to weaken them,” said Brady. “The flip side of that is that Kerry would have been expected to beat Meath and yet Meath beat them convincingly.

“Like when Cavan played Donegal, Donegal were coming in after losing to Tyrone, and that game is going to be a wake-up call for Kerry. They’re exceptionally hard beat down in Killarney, they don’t lose many championship games down there.

“Obviously if they’re missing a couple of players it’s going to weaken them, but Cavan are missing a few players too and at this stage of the championship with consecutive games, it’s going to be the teams with the strongest squads that can fill in for these injuries.

“At the start of the year, if Cavan were given the opportunity to play a preliminary quarter-final in Killarney, Cavan would have seen it as progress to get out of the group.

“There’s no pressure on Cavan, nobody expects them to beat Kerry, but what we would be looking for is that they’re competitive because it’s going to be tough. They have to go down and they have to play with pride in the jersey.”

Following their first-round win over Mayo, Cavan have failed to push on and Brady puts it down to their efficiency in front of the posts.

“There’s a strange feeling in Cavan,” added the Gowna clubman.

“Obviously after the first round when Cavan put on an excellent performance and beat Mayo. Everyone was buzzing, and it was great to have a win over one of the top five or six teams in the country.

“To go down to Castlebar and beat Mayo a lot more comprehensively than the scoreline reflected, there was a great buzz around the county but then the Donegal game ended in a large defeat.

“Cavan had five or six good scoring opportunities early in the second half that would have kept us in the game and when we didn’t get them, Donegal went on a run and ended up comprehensive winners.

“The Tyrone game, we missed a lot of chances and there were a number of two-pointers that went very close and again, if we had have got them, they would have kept us in the game but we’re just not getting those clutch scores when we need them.

“That’s allowing the likes of Donegal and Tyrone to get those five, six, seven points in front and then that becomes ten and we’re always chasing. When you’re chasing at this level, you’re leaving areas for top teams to exploit, and those teams don’t miss.

“When you see the scoring efficiency of Tyrone and Donegal, it’s at the highest possible scale. It’s not through a lack of endeavour, but we’re just not taking these chances that keep us in games and keep the pressure on opponents.”

The fact that the Breffni Blues have been plying their trade in Division Two over the past few seasons hasn’t helped their cause, Brady points out, and he believes they must compete at Division One level if they are to dine at the top table.

“Any defeats like those are not good for the confidence of the team. Confidence comes from winning games and being competitive and we’re aware that all these teams have been operating in Division One for a sustained period of time. That’s where you need to be.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been in Division Two for the last two years, we were down in Division Three before that. We need to get exposed to playing the Kerrys, the Dublins and those top teams on a consistent basis in league football and surviving.

“That’s what Monaghan did for ten years, staying in Division One and being battle hardened so that when you come up against these teams – you’re not overawed by them, which you can be when you’re unfamiliar with them.

“For me, Cavan have to get back up into Division One and stay there, not just get up to Division One and be relegated again the following year. We need to stay there and get battle hardened against these teams.”