By Niall Gartland

THE Cavan footballers travel to take Andy Moran’s Leitrim in their first league match of the year this Sunday, and Mickey Graham says it’s important they hit the ground running in Division Four.

There’s no guarantee of promotion from Division Four with some decent sides fielding in the division (it was only two years ago that Tipperary lost an All-Ireland semi-final to Mayo), albeit there is an expectancy that Cavan will reverse the slide of recent seasons.

Graham, who is now in his fourth season in charge (where does the time go), said as such in our pre-league interview with the affable Cavan Gaels man.

“I’ve said it in the past – winter football does level the playing field a bit. A lot of teams are still finding their feet a bit, and trying to get lads back from injury, so those first couple of games in the league can be the toughest.

“Teams are trying to find a bit of form and momentum and that can work both ways. We’ll probably see a bit of a pattern after two or three league games in terms of how things are panning out in each division.”

Leitrim are managed by former Mayo forward Andy Moran. He was never the most physically gifted, but used his intelligence to great effect as a player. He also comes across as a thoughtful character in his media gig with Off the Ball, so Leitrim fans will have high hopes of making progress during his tenure.

On their adversaries this weekend, Graham said: “It’s an intercounty job so we’ll be mad keen to make his mark. It’s a local derby, there’s a lot of connections between Leitrim and West Cavan. It hasn’t been a huge rivalry, we don’t cross paths too often. But there’s no doubt Leitrim will have a bit of confidence and will be be looking forward to playing us. It’s there first home game of the season so it’ll be an interesting trip for us.”

Cavan showed well in the pre-season, overcoming a jetlagged Tyrone with plenty to spare before falling a bit short against Armagh. Graham says their new backroom boys – Ryan McMenamin and Seanie Johnston are already making a positive impact.

“Ryan and Seanie are new voices and bring a freshness to it. Ryan brings a wealth of experience. He’s competed at the highest level and the lads are mad keen to learn from him. Seanie has brought great ideas as well, he’s come in really enthusiastic, and this is the first time he’s dipped into coaching at intercounty level too. They’re working well together and hopefully we’ll see the benefit of that.”