Gaels enjoying their new found freedom

THREE words creep up and up again when Cavan Gaels joint-manager Mark Greaney picks through a magical weekend.

Joy. There is the absolute joy of winning the Ulster junior title and making history as the first Cavan team to have their name etched on the trophy.

Relief. That’s always going to be a prominent emotion after turning three Cavan final defeats into success at a fourth attempt.

Freedom. It often sums up the weeks after stepped out of the parochial bubble as county champions.

“I would agree with that,” said Greaney, who manages the Gaels alongside Finian Farrell.

“You still want to win it (Ulster), but it’s bonus territory. I suppose after the disappointment of the three previous years, they want to get the monkey off the back and win the county championship.

“Now they’ve got that hoodoo out of the way, they’re playing with more freedom.

“They’re all comfortable footballers as well, which is great. There’s not anybody on the team that you’re carrying, everybody is comfortable on the ball, they’re very patient on the ball.”

The ball is recycled when the options are scared and kicked when it needs to be. Having a player coming off the shoulder always provides an option.

Farrell’s daughter Ciara is player coach. Alan O’Riordan, Ciaran Flynn and Nollaig Murray completes the management ticket. With the level of detail and work, it takes everyone.

Speaking on Monday, Greaney chats of a possible third night of celebration in Dublin, in the Boar’s Head. Can you call yourself a champion in Cavan if it’s not toasted in Breffni man Hugh Hourican’s Capel Street hostelry? That’s debatable.

While joy dominated the scenes after seeing off Monaghan champions Killeevan, Greaney admits to feeling the job was done within the first quarter.

“I thought we were in control of the game from after about five or 10 minutes,” he said.

“We had our game-plan, we stuck to it and it worked. They had a couple of strong players that we had to be marked.

“We set up to surround in the middle third, turn over and break.”

It worked a treat and they’ll now welcome Kerry and Munster champions Cromane to Cavan for Saturday week’s All-Ireland semi-final.

It’s a young Gaels’ side who have been hardened by losing three county finals. It was a case of win or learn. They chose the latter but were helped with an injection of experience.

Former Armagh star Marian McGuinness, Genevieve Keoghan and Emma O’Reilly came into the squad, giving it an overall balance as they went to the well again.

“Marian has played at the highest level,” Greaney said. “She played for Armagh and she won an All-Ireland (intermediate) 12 or 13 years ago.

“Somebody with experience like that has helped, bringing on players, talking to them, making them understand systems of play.

“To me, it’s also just that extra year of maturity. They came in this year and added a lot more experience to the set-up.

“I think once they got that monkey off their back, they settled down and they’ve been playing really, really good football in the last couple of months.

“The game (Ulster semi-final) against Drumragh in Omagh, a couple of weeks ago, that was a really good game against a really strong team.

“It went to extra-time and we won it with probably more or less the last kick of the game.”