Breffni camogs set for Laois litmus test

By Niall Gartland

THERE’S a sense that the Cavan camogs are coming full circle as they hone their preparations for Saturday’s All-Ireland Premier Junior Championship semi-final against Laois.

The Breffni County fell to a bruising feat to Laois in their opening group stage clash in late May, but since then they’ve found form with four wins on the bounce, including a recent quarter-final victory over Ulster Junior champions Tyrone.

So Saturday’s repeat meeting with Laois is the acid test for a Cavan side that have shown considerable resilience this season, setting aside their relegation from Division Two in the league and earlier encounter with Laois to embark on a productive championship run.

Their joint-manager Brendan Skehan says that their confidence had taken a hit as a result of their poor run of results but that was then and this is now and they have an altogether healthier mindset heading into their last-four clash.

“The girls are starting to gel better, they have a pattern to their play and they generally feel more confident in themselves.

“The league was difficult and the Laois game didn’t help matters. They downed tools midway through the second half and they know that themselves, it wasn’t nice to see, but there’s a different mentality now, that’s for sure.”

The question of the hour is whether they’ve improved enough to score a reversal of their earlier result against Laois. Whatever happens, Skehan wants his players to know that they gave their utmost for the cause.

“If we’re six points down with five minutes to go, I’d rather we lost by two points than seven or eight. There’s no point in giving up and letting the opposition tag on another couple of scores for the sake of it.

“Laois are a good side but if you let them play they’ll run away with it and look better than they are, and that’s what happened the last day out.

“They’ve plenty of Division Two experience, they hunt in packs and put us under pressure the last day out, but we also played into that and let them move the ball around. It was a poor day at the office but there’s no doubt they’re a good team and we’re not looking any further than this Saturday, that’s for sure.”

Cavan didn’t have it all their own way against a Tyrone side buoyed by their recent league and provincial successes, but they had enough in the locker to eke out a four-point victory.

“I was fairly confident going into the Tyrone game and the first 15 minutes were key, we couldn’t do any wrong and Tyrone’s heads dropped a bit.

“They let them back into it but we were still confident we could kick on and we managed to get back into the swing of things again.”