By Niall Gartland

CAVAN bowed out of the Ulster Championship with a whimper, and Breffni County legend Stephen King says they need to be on their game from the very start if they’re to have any hope of springing an upset against Westmeath in the first-round of the All-Ireland series. Westmeath are on cloud nine heading into Saturday’s match in Mullingar having claimed a second-ever Leinster title, and it’s a safe bet that the visiting support will be massively outnumbered on the day. Stephen King believes that mightn’t matter too much – Cavan have hardly been in red-hot form at Kingspan Breffni either.

But hope springs eternal that they can still salvage something from what’s been a difficult year. It’s easy to forget that they did manage to stay up in Division Two, and they have the component parts to give it a rattle against Westmeath. The problem is their respective formlines – Westmeath have been absolutely superb. Cavan not so much.

King said: “Individually, players are strong – Ciarán Brady, Paddy Lynch, Dara McVeety, Gearóid McKiernan, all these guys are really, really good footballers. They’d get on any team, but we’re just not getting the mix right. We’re not getting enough scores. We didn’t attack well against Monaghan and we paid the price.

“I still have hope, but in too many games we’ve been beaten out the gate by half-time – and in those games, nobody in the crowd gave Cavan a chance of a recovery.”

King said he was particularly disappointed by the flat nature of their display against their perennial rivals Monaghan. There was a bit of a kick in the side after the break, but Monaghan rolled through the gears when the deficit was reduced to three pages at a stage. By the final whistle, there could be no debate about Monaghan’s overall supremacy. King also detects a general malaise among the Cavan faithful.

“We never got out of the blocks against Monaghan. We were very flat – completely flat – and the disappointing thing is I felt there wasn’t a hand laid on the opposition.

“The crowd is probably voting with their feet. Back in the day, a McKenna Cup match or a National League match against Monaghan would have had 10,000 plus at it. Now, come championship, we’re not getting close to that.

“Cavan are very football-oriented. There’s little else but the football and the weather to talk about, so we need to get back to stuff like that. It is disappointing where we’re at at the minute, but the other way we can go is up.”

By contast, Westmeath are riding the crest of a wave after a successful provincial campaign. King points out that the provicial championships are in rude health and it’ll be interesting to see whether Mark McHugh’s side can carry their form into the All-Ireland race.

“The year has been disappointing for us and we’ve a massive game ahead against Westmeath, and I suppose the scenes following their win over Dublin shows what the provincial championships mean to teams. The euphoria was brilliant and it was the same with Roscommon. I was delighted for them.

“Even Armagh, even though they’re All-Ireland champions a few years ago, it was obvious that winning Ulster meant so much. You had grown men with their arms in the air. Let nobody say the provincial champions don’t matter – it matters so much.”

King isn’t totally despondent about Cavan’s chances though he recognises that it will take a hugely improved performance from their Ulster Championship showing against Monaghan. They’re not quite in the last-chance saloon but time is running out to make something positive out of the 2026 season.

“Going to Mullingar, it’s a good tight pitch. I think if the players want to perform, this is the time to do it. Tickets went on sale online and were completely sold out in five minutes, which shows you the interest – there’s a huge demand but that’s coming from Westmeath. I think it’s a great match for Cavan, a great opportunity to pick themselves up. They’re playing a team that’s playing good football as well, but to be fair the new rules have helped a lot in that regard – the negativity has gone thankfully.”

LAST MEETING – 2025 Division Two Westmeath 0-21 Cavan 1-22CAVAN clinched an important Division Two win against a struggling Westmeath when they met last year in Mullingar. Played amid a gale-force win, Westmeath raced into a 0-17 to 0-5 lead at the interval. The game was turned on its head after the break with the deficit reduced to three points with 45 minutes on the clock. A fine goal from Gerard Smith proved pivotal in the end up as the Breffni County completed their comeback and claimed the victory.

Westmeath: C McCormack; J Gonoud, C Drumm, J Geoghegan; R Wallace (0-2tp), C Dillon (0-1), M Whittaker (0-1); S McCartan, R Connellan; D McCartan (0-6, 2tpf), B Cooney (0-1), K O’Sullivan (0-2); L Dolan (0-1), L Loughlin (0-6, 2tpf, tp, 2f), B Kelly (0-1).
Subs: K Martin for Cooney, E Gaffney for Kelly, D Scahill for Dolan, R Forde for Martin, S Smith for Whittaker.

Cavan: G O’Rourke; N Carolan, B O’Connell, J McLoughlin; P Faulkner, C Brady, L Fortune; J Smith (0-3), E Crowe; G Smith (1-1), D McVeety (0-4, 2tp), O Kiernan (0-1); R O’Neill, G McKiernan (0-5), O Brady (0-4, tpf, 1f).
Subs: C Madden (0-2) for O’Neill, C Madden for Fortune, K Clarke for Crowe, D Lovett (0-2, tp) for Kiernan, S McEvoy for O Brady.

LAST FOUR MEETINGS
2025 Div 2 Westmeath 0-21 Cavan 1-22
2023 Div 3 Westmeath 1-6 Cavan 0-12
2022 Tailteann Cup Westmeath 2-14 Cavan 1-13
2020 Div 2 Cavan 1-17 Westmeath 1-13

SEASON SO FAR

CAVAN

NFL
Cork 0-24 Cavan 2-17
Cavan 1-18 Meath 2-17
Tyrone 2-23 Cavan 1-14
Cavan 0-16 Kildare 0-13
Cavan 1-12 Louth 1-22
Offaly 3-15 Cavan 2-20
Derry 1-20 Cavan 0-19

ULSTER SFC
Monaghan 0-27 Cavan 2-14

WESTMEATH

NFL
Westmeath 2-14 Sligo 1-16
Clare 1-17 Westmeath 2-19
Down 2-15 Westmeath 1-15
Westmeath 1-26 Fermanagh 2-11
Laois 3-16 Westmeath 1-13
Westmeath 4-21 Limerick 3-8
Wexford 2-16 Westmeath 1-18

LEINSTER SFC
Longford 1-16 Westmeath 5-25
Meath 0-25 Westmeath 4-18
Kildare 0-23 Westmeath 2-21
Dublin 0-26 Westmeath 2-28

TOP SCORERS

CAVAN
Paddy Lynch 0-31
Gearóid McKiernan 0-24
Oisin Brady 1-20

WESTMEATH
Luke Loughlin 5-52
Brandon Kelly 6-18
Ronan Wallace 3-26