Cavan All-Star Raymond Galligan has no fear of the Tailteann Cup suffering a 'sophomore slump' as the Breffni County attempt to go one step better than last year.
In the inaugural running of the competition, Mickey Graham’s side were favourites to be the first ever side to lift the trophy and secure Sam Maguire football for 2023 in the process.
They were caught by Westmeath in the final though, the Leinster side hitting 1-04 without reply late on to come out on top.
That meant a return to this season's launch for Cavan, and at the Croke Park event GAA President Larry McCarthy said it was vital for the competition’s future that it didn’t suffer what he labelled a ‘sophomore slump’ - tailing off after a promising first season.
Galligan though is confident that it’s a tournament that is set to stay the course as they prepare for Saturday’s opening group game against Laois at Kingspan Breffni.
"I remember the Tommy Murphy many years ago and it [the Tailteann Cup] was kind of compared with potentially being another Tommy Murphy. The way that fizzled out, I could understand the views this time last year.
"I think the way the competition was run, the way it was promoted, the way Croke Park invested in it, the opportunity of getting games in Croke Park - the addition of silverware but also that pathway to the All-Ireland series, it brings so much value.
"It gives teams the opportunity to play outside of their province. For us to be playing Laois, London and Offaly, teams you wouldn’t primarily play too often, it’s great to be able to test yourself against other teams from outside of Ulster.
"I definitely think it’s here for the future."
That Westmeath defeat stung Galligan. It’s not the lowest point of his career in blue and white, but the Lacken man still plays the defeat over in his mind.
Is this the score that decides the Tailteann Cup final? Kieran Martin comes in off the bench, slaloms his way through the Cavan defence and rifles the ball to the back of the net to put Westmeath firmly in charge. #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/dSTgIDXVS9
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) July 9, 2022
"I lost an Ulster final in ‘19 to Donegal, that was very disappointing. I lost an All-Ireland semi-final to Dublin in 2020. I think they’d still be higher up the order.
"It was a very, very difficult day losing to Westmeath because we thought we were in a good place. Westmeath were the better team on the day, we had no complaints.
"Hopefully, that hurt will fuel us. It’s a fantastic competition and it’s a competition we really want to win. Losing it, we feel, really isn’t an option at this moment in time."
That defeat to Westmeath meant that despite Cavan's Division 3 promotion this season, they needed to reach an Ulster final to enter the Sam Maguire race.
The path looked walkable anyway. Home to an Armagh side who had only ever won one championship game at Kingspan Breffni [2008] and what would ultimately be a semi-final against a Down side who they defeated in Division 3.
They were expected to bring blood and thunder against the Orchard County. Instead, for 35 minutes they brought tepidness meaning that a late second-half surge counted for nothing.
"We had a great finish to in the end to the Fermanagh league final and we did a good bit of work going into the Armagh game," the 2020 All-Star goalkeeper continued.
"We felt both physically and mentally that we were in a really good place.
"Armagh brought a level of aggression that we probably weren’t just maybe familiar enough with in Division 3.
"Looking back at it, that step up in leagues did come home to hurt us. They had been playing at that higher level, Division 1 football against a higher quality opposition week-in, week-out whereas we probably thought we were ready and we weren’t.
"It wasn’t really until we got going in that second half that we knew we could actually win the game. It was too late and to be fair to Armagh they had the work done by half-time."
Graham is currently the third longest serving football manager behind Clare’s Colm Collins and Armagh’s Kieran McGeeney, and Galligan is hopeful his winning habit can shine through again in the coming weeks.
"Mickey has done a fantastic job and unlike other managers he has actually won stuff.
"We’ve got to two Ulster finals, we won one. We’ve been to the Tailteann Cup final, we have two league titles. He’s a proven winner.
"He’s changed up his backroom team, we have a fantastic coach in James Burke, we also have ‘Ricey’ [Ryan McMenamin] who brings a lot of added value to the team.
"He’s also built the resilience. Going down through the leagues, we’ve been very fortunate that everyone’s stuck together. It’s built a real togetherness.
"In regards to management, we couldn’t be happier."
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