CAVAN’S 2024: A season that fizzled out

1 Mixed results for the Cavan footballers

THE first year of Raymond Galligan’s tenure in charge of the Cavan senior intercounty football team certainly had its moments. They finished third in Division Two – behind Donegal and Armagh, which is nothing to be embarrassed about – and then they claimed a memorable win over their familiar foes in the Farney in the preliminary round of Ulster. They brought Tyrone to extra-time in the first-round proper, but then it all went a bit wrong, starting with the season-ending injury to their attacking fulcrum Paddy Lynch. Their All-Ireland Group Stage campaign was forgettable in the extreme, failing to land a blow on either Mayo or Dublin before losing out in their third and final encounter against Roscommon. Galligan will be back on the line next year and he’ll be hoping for improved performances in the business end of the season. Elsewhere at inter-county level, their minor footballers lost the Tier Two All-Ireland final, while their hurlers had some great days out, finishing third in Division 3A, no mean feat, and narrowly missing out on a place in the Lory Meagher final.

2 Gowna taken out but it’s Crosserlough’s year

BACK-TO-BACK champions Gowna were dumped out by their bogey team Ramor in the Cavan Senior Football Championship semi-finals, but Ramor couldn’t seal the deal on county final day, losing out to Ryan Daly’s Crosserlough. That game was ruined by the atrocious weather conditions (many other county finals were called off on the same day) but Crosserlough were worthy Cavan representatives in Ulster and could’ve, and some would say should have, overcome a vaunted Kilcoo side in their first round clash. Elsewhere, Arva made it back-to-back championship wins, clinching the Intermediate crown, while Knockbride achieved redemption at Junior level for last year’s final defeat to Arva, overcoming Belturbet on the big day.

3 Ladies make their mark on the provincial stage

LURGAN ladies made history by reaching their first ever Ulster Senior Championship title, a tremendous accomplishment by any metric, but all the same they could have no complaints about their defeat to Clann Éireann, who retained their title with something to spare. At Intermediate level Mullahoran had an even better time of it outside the county bounds, winning the Ulster Intermediate Championship with victory over Carrickmacross but lost out at the All-Ireland semi-final stage by three points to Cavan side BennekennyTinryland.

4 Blazing a trail at underage level

JUST last month, Gaelic Life ran an extensive feature on the fortunes of the Cavan ladies at underage level. It really is quite remarkable when you put it down on paper – the Cavan U-16s retained their All-Ireland title at ‘A’ level with victory over Mayo, a devastasting 15-minute blitz at the start of the game laying the foundations for victory. Up a grade, their Minors won their first ever All-Ireland ‘A’ title while their U-14s were narrowly edged out by Galway at the same stage. If the transition to senior level is a smooth one over the coming years, who knows what they might achieve down the line?

5 East Cavan Gaels lead the way on hurling front

IT was a year to remember for East Cavan Gaels, who not only won their first Cavan Senior Hurling Championship, but became the first ever hurling team from the county to contest an Ulster final, albeit they lost out to Ballinascreen.

The fact the club is only 15 years old and having only had adult hurling for the first time in 2018 makes their historic year even more remarkable. On the intercounty front, there was also cause for optimism as Ollie Bellew’s side did extremely well to claim a third-team finish in Division 3A, and they had a competitive Lory Meagher championship, again finishing third in the table.

Indeed, they will have been disappointed not to have reached the final given how well they’ve beenplaying.