Daly hoping sparkling season continues

WHY stop now? Cavan ladies have collected two pieces of silverware already this season, and now they’re primed for an all-out assault on All-Ireland Intermediate honours.

After winning nothing of note at adult level since all the way back in 2013, Cavan ladies recently cruised to an Ulster Intermediate title triumph over Down, just a matter of weeks after ending their trophy drought with victory in the Division Three final.

They commence their All-Ireland campaign this Sunday against Monaghan at Clones, a repeat of their recent Ulster Championship semi-final clash, which Cavan won by 2-15 to 3-8.

Emmet Daly’s team subsequently pulverised Down in the Ulster final, blitzing their opponents for six goals, but he still sees room for improvement ahead of the All-Ireland series.

“We put in a super performance from the start against Down, we had two goals early on, so Down were on the back-foot from the get-go. We just kept going and things went well for us.

“There’s always room for improvement, we missed one or two chances that we could have taken – we maybe overplayed the ball a little bit at times. It was still our best performance this year to date so I won’t say anything too bad about it.”

Daly’s message to the team is that the season isn’t over yet and that there’s a big prize up for grabs if they play their cards right. The ladies team is riding the crest of a wave and there’s a palatable buzz around the county after the exploits of recent months.

“It’s another competition and like all the rest of the teams, we want to win it. Whether we will or not, we don’t know, but we’ll put our best foot forward. We’re happy with our two cups but the year is not over yet.

“I’ve seen people I know who wouldn’t normally be at ladies games, start to come to our matches. I’ve also seen a lot more kids at the games this year which is brilliant.

“When you’re successful it’s obviously great, and I think we’re playing the type of football people like to watch as well, so hopefully that’ll encourage supporters to keep on attending our matches as well.”

Their championship opener against Monaghan is no gimme. When they met in Ulster, Cavan endured a torrid start and trailed by 11 points late in the first-half. They produced a remarkable fightback but they know the standard of opposition they’re facing this Sunday.

Daly said: “Monaghan are a very good team and that was probably the hardest game we’ve played all year.

“We didn’t get off to a good start at all, we were 11 points down in the first-half and we got a goal just before half-time which made it look a bit better than it was.

“We missed a lot of chances in the first-half, we were maybe a bit nervous, but we settled in the second-half and played the football we wanted to play.”