4 days ago
'We're one of the teams that two years ago the GAA was talking about pulling out'
If you take a look through the Cavan 26 for this afternoon's Lory Meagher Cup final, you'll find 11 starters from the 2021 decider.
Cavan lost that final to Fermanagh and for a team on the fifth rung of hurling's championship ladder, holding onto so many key players amounts to impressive retention.
Captain Enda Shalvey is one of the 11 and says it's pretty straightforward what has kept them all together, 'unfinished business'.
Four years after losing that final to neighbours Fermanagh, Cavan will this time face the novel challenge of New York.
"There's a core of guys there who it's probably unfinished business for them to a large extent ," said Shalvey, who has overcome a hamstring niggle to take his own place in defence. "So we're hopefully going to try to rectify that.
"People say you have to lose a final to win a final so hopefully that's the case. If you go back to 2021, Fermanagh had been in our shoes and had lost the final previous to that so they were probably better equipped and knew what to expect from playing in a stadium like Croke Park.
"Maybe there was an element of fatigue with that final too, from the game the previous weekend. That was a contributing factor as well I'd say. Or maybe we were just a bit overawed by the occasion as well, it's hard to know.
"People say, 'Oh but sure isn't it a moral victory to get out playing in Croke Park?' It is at the time but it's four years on now and you want to try to rectify that as best you can."
According to the odds, 4/1 shots Cavan have little chance of redemption.
New York have 2017 All-Ireland SHC medallist Jonathan Glynn in their ranks, as well as former Cork senior Sean O'Leary Hayes. Tipperary native AJ Willis hit 1-8 on his own against Monaghan in last weekend's semi-final.
The feeling is that New York, parachuted into the Lory Meagher Cup competition for the first time this year, at the semi-final stage, may just be too strong for the grade.
In reality, the Exiles, managed by Kerry man Richie Hartnett, are an unknown quantity.
"You see the headlines and the names and stuff associated with them," said Shalvey. "We're just treating it as another game. I hate putting tags on teams but you have Cavan going in as underdogs so it's maybe no harm to take the pressure off you to an extent. You can kind of go out and perform in the way that we know we're capable of doing, without the pressure maybe."
Cavan have their own top talents too. Attacker Nicky Kenny was part of the Cuala team that claimed back-to-back All-Ireland club titles in 2018, netting in that year's final replay win over Na Piarsaigh. Canice Maher is another Kilkenny man with a high skill set now playing for the Breffni. Ahead of him in attack, Sean Keating scored a goal in each of Cavan's first four group games, securing their place in the final with a game to spare.
Finishing the job now and claiming the cup, as well as promotion, would amount to a giant shot in the arm for Cavan hurling.
"We're one of the teams that two years ago the GAA was talking about pulling out," said Shalvey.
"It's hard to put into words what that feeling was like for a team like Cavan. The reality is that we're working out of two or three senior clubs in the county, a limited resource pool, albeit a very committed resource pool, but to get success on a national level would be a huge thing for us, huge."
