Cavan Championship getting serious

CAVAN SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL

RAMOR V CROSSERLOUGH

Saturday, Kingspan Breffni, 7pm

THE CAVAN championship may seem never-ending, but for Ramor joint-manager Ray Cole, the real action starts now with a block-buster semi-final clash with Crosserlough.

It’s hard to argue against the suggestion that the best four teams in Cavan have made the last four – namely, Ramor, Crosserlough, Castlerahan and Cavan Gaels, and Cole says their ambition was always to make the semi-finals.

The Virginia-based outfit missed out on the party last season as they were defeated by Crosserlough in the last eight, albeit they’ve already inflicted Crosserlough’s only defeat of this year’s campaign back in the group stages.

Ramor seem to be a rejuvanated outfit, but Cole recognises that they’re facing possibly the most talented pound-for-pound team in the county on Saturday.

“Your aim is to get to a semi-final every year. The best teams are always left and anything can happen after that. Semi-finals and finals are like two finals really.

“Crosserlough are the team to watch really. They’re young but not too inexperienced. They’d a few boys away with Cavan earlier in the year but they’ve probably been the best team in the championship.

“They’re very comfortable on the ball and they’ve players throughout the team who can score They showed that when they beat Lavey. They had a corner-back (David Shalvey) who finished with 1-2 or 1-3.”

Ramor have flattered to deceive a little since winning the championship in 2016, but they seem to be back to their best this season. They trounced Gowna in the quarterfinals by 1-15 to 0-8 with forward Conor Bradley the star of the show on that occasion.

Cole commented: “We kind of knew what to expect from Gowna. We expected a tough game and we prepared for that. We targeted their main players and after that we just needed to play our best football.

“We missed a lot of chances and could have won by a lot more.

“We’re always up for it when we play Gowna, they’re one of the big teams in Cavan over the last 10 or 15 years.”

Ramor have so many good players that they even fielded in the Intermediate Championship this year.

They’ll play in it again next season after beating Swanlinbar in a relegation playoff at the weekend.

“We probably used about 55 players this year before to two teams. We had a massive panel and that’s why we went into the Intermediate championship. It worked, they saved their status in the championship and there’s a lot of young players coming through.

“We had a minor team which won the double a few years ago as well so it’s just to give them all a bit of football.”