Galligan return “a great lift” says McCabe

By Shaun Casey

HAVING 2020 All-Star Thomas Galligan back and available for selection was a huge boost for Lacken in the Cavan Championship, and he’s sticking around for their Ulster campaign, says manager Aidan McCabe.

Galligan helped the Breffni Blues win the Ulster Championship in 2020 but has been in Australia for most of the period in between.

He returned to club action this season and helped Lacken, along with his cousin and fellow All-Star Raymond Galligan, win the Junior Championship in the Breffni County.

“Thomas has spent pretty much the last four years in Australia, so he hasn’t really been around for Lacken or for Cavan,” McCabe said.

“We got him back for round three of the championship and that was a great lift, we already had two good wins under our belt at that stage so to get a player like him back in was great.

“He’s getting married next year so we’ll not be letting him run off, we’ll take the passport off him!”

The Lacken club has provincial experience from 2012 when they won the Cavan IFC title and beat Derry’s Swatragh in the first round before losing out to Doohamlet of Monaghan.

McCabe himself has plenty of recent provincial knowledge having guided Blackhill into Ulster back in 2019 and then Knockbride in 2024.

“Ulster is a different animal at this stage in terms of promotion and everything else and I’d say the novelty has worn off,” he added of the clubs entrance into the competition.

“In 2012, it was still the early stages, the competition itself was maybe only ten years old so there was a bit of novelty attached at that stage but definitely not now.

“It’s not bonus territory for us because we wanted to win the Cavan Championship and we knew what was on offer after that.

“We would have said that if we were good enough to get out of Cavan, we were going to knuckle down again, and I feel we have done that in the last couple of weeks.”

Doire Trasna of Derry are their opponents in the preliminary round and having already witnessed the Oak Leaf County’s representatives up close and personal, McCabe recognises his team are in for a battle.

“We were lucky enough that our final was the week before the Derry final, so we got a chance to go and watch Doire Trasna,” he continued.

“They were very, very impressive and you’re looking in at a club that you wouldn’t have been too familiar with, and you get a sense of what they are about.

“Their footballing history, most of our boys would be the same age as their club or a wee bit older so it’s fascinating. They have some really good characters and most importantly of all, they’ve got some really good footballers.

“We know that we’re going up the road to Owenbeg, it may not be their back garden, but we know the challenge that they will pose.”