Championship is different animal, says Ramor joint-boss McNabb

By Niall Gartland

RAMOR did the business against Gowna in their Division One final clash on the final weekend of July, but joint-manager Pat McNabb recognises that their opponents have the happy knack of producing their best stuff in the business end of the championship.

Back-to-back Cavan Senior Champions Gowna take on Ramor for a place in the final on Sunday afternoon in Kingspan Breffni, though they’ve failed to notch a competitive win against the Virginia-based side for 11 years, a stark and surprising statistic.

Ramor, who are managed this year by Tyrone natives Jude and Pat McNabb, ended their 28-year wait for a Division One title when they defeated Gowna by 3-8 to 0-13 in the height of summer, but Pat says the championship is a completely different animal in Cavan.

“Myself and Jude are very happy with how the boys have fared, we’d a great run in the league, we had county boys missing with injury but tried out plenty of players and finished top of the table.

“We beat Crosserlough in the semi-final and Gowna in the final but admittedly there were men missing on both teams.

“Nevertheless it was a first league title in 28 year and we were happy to get a wee bit of reward for the boys’ efforts. The championship has been a different kettle of fish, it’s been a tough campaign with the four randomly drawn rounds in the group stages, a lot of questions have been asked of us but we’ve found ourselves in the semi-finals.”

Ramor qualified for the semi-finals with a 2-13 to 1-8 victory over Castlerahan, a victory which was noteworthy for the return of some key figures to the team. Liam Brady was back in between the sticks while Mark and Matthew Magee recovered from injury to play a substitute role. Adrian Cole was also back to play a starring role at full-forward while Enda Maguire made his first start of the season. It’s very good news in one sense but McNabb is mindful that they mightn’t be at full pitch just yet.

“We aren’t at full strength yet but we are getting boys back. The only worry is that they’re lacking a serious amount of game-time but we’re happy to have them back.”

Gowna were off-colour in the group stages but looked more like themselves in their quarter-final win over Ballyhaise.

And the previous seasons have taught us that they tend to come to the boil at the right time, so this is a massive challenge for Ramor, whatever about their strong record against the champions of 2022 and 2023.

“Gowna have followed a similar pattern to the last couple of years, they appear to find their feet in the knock-out stages and they’ve that quality a lot of good teams have, where they know how to get across the line when the going gets tough. I suppose that’s the big challenge we face, they know how to dig out wins.

“Both of us had a tough run of fixtures in the group stages, we’ve both been well road-tested going into the semis. We’re under no illusions but we’ll prepare and see where it takes us.”