 | |||
| Sport: | Football | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Irish: | An Cabhán[1] | ||
| Nickname(s): | The Breffni men[2] The Breffni Blues[3] | ||
| County board: | Cavan GAA | ||
| Manager: | Raymond Galligan | ||
| Captain: | Padraig Faulkner Ciarán Brady | ||
| Home venue(s): | Breffni Park,Cavan[1] | ||
| Recent competitive record | |||
| Current All-Ireland status: | Ulster (QF) in2024 | ||
| Last championship title: | 1952 | ||
| Current NFL Division: | 2 (3rd in2024) | ||
| Last league title: | 1947–48 | ||
| |||
 Current season | |||
TheCavan county football team representsCounty Cavan in men'sGaelic football and is governed byCavan GAA, thecounty board of theGaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; theAll-Ireland Senior Football Championship, theUlster Senior Football Championship and theNational Football League.
Cavan's home ground isBreffni Park,Cavan. The team's manager isRaymond Galligan.
The team last won the Ulster Senior Championship in2020, the All-Ireland Senior Championship in1952 and the National League in1948.
Cavan is the most successful football county in theprovince ofUlster, having won theAll-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) five times, theUlster Senior Football Championship (SFC) 40 times, and theNational Football League once.
Between 1893 and 1899, neitherConnacht nor Ulster took part in the All-Ireland SFC. Cavan, however, played in the preliminary round of theLeinster Senior Football Championship in1895, losing toLouth.
In the1933 All-Ireland SFC semi-final inBreffni Park, Cavan beatKerry with a last minute goal from Vincent McGovern, ending their five-in-a-row bid.[4] Cavan later defeatedGalway by one point inthe final to become the first Ulster county to win theSam Maguire Cup.
Two years later, Cavan defeatedKildare in the1935 All-Ireland SFC final to win a second title in three years.
Cavan reached1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final after defeatingRoscommon in the semi-final. The concluding game was played at thePolo Grounds inNew York City, the only time the final was held outside of Ireland. Kerry scored two early goals, but Cavan settled and goals fromJoe Stafford andMick Higgins meant they led by a point at half-time.Peter Donohoe kicked eight points over the hour to seal a famous victory for Cavan on a scoreline of 2–11 to 2–7, to bring Sam Maguire to Cavan for a third time.[5]
Cavan followed this up with a one-point win overMayo in1948, to win back-to-back titles. The county reached its third successivefinal in1949, but was denied a three-in-a-row byMeath, losing by four points.
Cavan responded to that defeat by overcoming Meath after a replay in1952 to win the county's fifth, and most recent, All-Ireland SFC title. It remains Cavan's latest appearance in an All-Ireland SFC final.
Donegal All-Ireland SFC winnerMartin McHugh was appointed as senior manager ahead of the 1995 season. At this time, Cavan had not won a game in the Ulster SFC for the previous seven years.[6] Cavan won the1997 Ulster SFC final, after beatingDerry by a point.Stephen King wascaptain.[7] Cavan substituteJason O'Reilly scored the game's only goal.[8]Martin McHugh was manager; he later described the aftermath as follows: "It was crazy, like something you would see out in Argentina. I was worried that someone was going to get killed under the bus, they'd gone mad".[7] Cavan supporters throngedHill 16 for the All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Kerry, King acknowledging that — despite the early goal fromFintan Cahill — Kerry "deserved their win".[7] After the semi-final, McHugh stepped down as manager having served three years. He cited putting his family first as the reason for leaving.[9]
WithVal Andrews as manager, Cavan once again reached the Ulster SFC final again in 2001.[10] A goal fromJason O'Reilly had Cavan leading at half time, but a strong finish from Tyrone meant they ran out winners on a 1-13 to 1-11 scoreline.[11]
Cavan's most notable achievement in the early part of the 21st-century was endingSeán Boylan's long spell as manager of Meath in 2005.[12][7] Less than a year after this success,Waterford defeated Cavan in the league to halt its push forpromotion.[7]Cian Mackey was among several players who were "rested" for the game and not included among the substitutes.[7] The Waterford win was inspired by a line in the Cavanmatchday programme that Cavan's defeat would be akin to the "sinking of theTitanic", with Waterford managerJohn Kiely using this to stir the away team into action.[7]
Mackey later said: "One game turned the whole thing on its head for years. We didn't really recover from that for years, from pushing so close to promotion".[7]
Manager Donal Keogan got the county promoted the following year but league restructuring landed Cavan in Division 2 instead.[7]Relegation to Division 3 quickly followed. Cavan lost toAntrim in the2009 Ulster SFC.[7]
The county narrowly avoided relegation to Division 4 in 2012 following a loss by a scoreline of 4–6 to 0–12 to Antrim, surviving because already-relegatedTipperary defeatedOffaly when an Offaly win would have sent Cavan down on the head-to-head result.[7][13][14]
Under the management of Mattie McGleenan, Cavan's defence was not strong.[15]
Former senior playerMickey Graham was appointed as manager ahead of the 2019 season.[16] Fellow CavanmanDermot McCabe and Monaghan's Martin Corey joined him.[17] Cavan reached the2019 Ulster SFC final in Graham's first season as manager, losing toDonegal. In 2020, Graham led Cavan to consecutive Ulster SFC finals for the first time since the 1960s.[18] Cavan won and, because of theimpact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gaelic games, went straight into the All-Ireland SFC semi-final, the county's first appearance at that stage since 1997.
Cavan's biggest rivalry has been with nearbyMonaghan. Cavan also shares rivalries with teams from the neighbouring counties ofFermanagh,Meath andLongford. At All-Ireland level Cavan had a rivalry withKerry. The county stopped Kerry's bid for a five-in-a-row in 1933 and also defeated Kerry in the1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final at thePolo Grounds inNew York City.
Team as per Cavan vs Monaghan in the Ulster SFC preliminary round, 7 April 2024
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As of 2024 season.[19][20][21]
Cavan often appoint outside managers, includingLiam Austin, from Down;Val Andrews andTommy Carr, both from Dublin;Mattie Kerrigan, from Meath;Eamonn Coleman, from Derry;Eugene McGee, from Longford; andMartin McElkennon, from Tyrone. ButMartin McHugh was the most successful appointment, the former Donegal footballer led Cavan to the1997 Ulster SFC (a first in 28 years).[22]
Willie Carolan, from the Virginia club, played for the Cavan team that won the 1905 Ulster SFC.Paddy andEdwin Carolan were part of the1952 All-Ireland SFC-winning team, which defeated Meath after a replay which was brought about by a controversial Edwin Carolan point. Pady Carolan became the last surviving member of the 1952 team, and thus the last surviving All-Ireland SFC winner from Cavan, when Brian O'Reilly died in November 2021. Piddy Carolan's sonRonan played for Cavan between 1986 and 1999, winning an Ulster SFC in 1997, thus giving three generations of the Carolan family Ulster SFC medals. Niall Carolan, grandson of Paddy and nephew of Ronan, was part of Cavan's2022 Tailteann Cup Final squad.[23] Niall Carolan started that game.[24]
Charlie Gallagher was also named on the Team of the Century of players without an All-Ireland medal.
          2014–16 |    2019–20 |  2021–22[26] |   2023– |
The following is a list of sponsors of the Cavan county football team (seniors):
Cavan has had only four sponsorship deals since the GAA first permitted sponsors on jerseys in 1991. There was no sponsorship on GAA jerseys until the second game of the Meath v Dublin four-in-a-row in 1991 so only a handful of teams had sponsorship in 1991. In 1992, Holybrook Construction sponsored Cavan's jerseys, although it was only for one game. For the 1993–94 seasons, Cavan Co-op Mart took over sponsorship. Kingspan has continuously sponsored Cavan since 1995.
Cavan has won theAll-Ireland SFC final on five occasions — all five victories came between 1933 and 1952.
Meanwhile, the county has won theUlster SFC on 40 occasions. All bar the 39th and 40th of these came in the 1960s or earlier. The most recent one came in 2020 after a gap of 23 years. The previous one came in 1997 when Cavan defeatedDerry by a scoreline of 1–14 to 0–16. That was the county's first Ulster SFC title in 28 years.
Cavan has won theNational Football League once, in1947–48.
Runners-up (1):2022
Winners (2): 1927, 2014Runners-up (1): 1941Runners-up (3): 1988, 1996, 2011Winners (2): 1937, 1938Runners-up (2): 1952, 1959Winners (40): 1891, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1915, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1997, 2020Runners-up (23): 1888, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1916, 1922, 1929, 1930, 1946, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1968, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1995, 2001, 2019Winners (11): 1936, 1940, 1943, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1962, 1968, 1988, 2000[failed verification]Winners (14): 1914, 1915, 1916, 1924, 1927, 1932, 1936, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1957, 1962, 1984Winners (2): 2012, 2014[failed verification]Winners (6): 1988, 1996, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014Runners-up (10): 1963, 1965, 1970, 1977, 1978, 1995, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2022Winners (6): 1937, 1938, 1952, 1959, 1974, 2011Runners-up (14): 1939, 1941, 1951, 1955, 1958, 1964, 1965, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1985, 1988, 2015, 2017The Breffni Blues goal arrived just before the break when Martin Reilly flicked a delivery from Gearóid McKiernan to the net.
