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LAVEY
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PLENTY OF PROMISE
avey’s senior championship hopes may have went up in smoke at the quarter-final stage in 2013, but it wouldn’t see the club finish the season entirely empty handed, as chairman Paddy Reilly explained.
Starting the year as dark horses in the race for the Cavan senior football championship is never a bad place to be, and that’s exactly where Lavey found themselves when the ball was thrown in for 2013. With former Cavan senior Ray Cullivan joining their ranks, many felt that John Brady’s team could surprise a few in the summer’s championship and their form in the ACFL Division 1A didn’t suggest otherwise as the went about guaranteeing their league safety in the early summer months in the build up to a round one showdown with Crosserlough at Kingspan Breffni Park in mid-August. Coming off the back of some outstanding underage success, chairman Paddy Reilly explained that things were on a high between Lavey, Cavan U21 (the club had three representatives on the team) and Cavan senior triumphs. A
LTS
2013 RESU
SFC Lavey h 3-6 0-13 g Crosserlou rbet ltu e B 1-5 Lavey 1-13 avey L 0 -1 0 -7 s0 l Cúchulainn quarter-fina – y -7 Lave 0 0 -1 0 h g u Crosserlo ion 1A ACFL Divis 1-6 Lavey 0 -1 1 Kingscourt oran 0-12 Mullah Lavey 0-15 avey L -8 1 0 -1 d1 Ramor Unite ve 3 2-7 La y Lacken 0-1 aels -5 Cavan G Lavey 0-7 1 han ra le st a C 0-2 Lavey 1-16 inns la 1-12 Cúchu Lavey 2-11 urt o sc g 1-8 Kin Lavey 1-10 y ve a L -8 0 2-9 Mullahoran ited n U r 0-15 Ramo Lavey 0-11 n e ck -8 La Lavey 1-9 0 1-11 Lavey 2 -1 1 h g a Ballin d y – not playe Denn v Lave 0 0-11 Lavey ls 3-1 Cavan Gae nagh 4 0-12 Balli -1 1 Lavey nn e D -9 1 Lavey 1-11 avey s 0-9 1-10 L Cúchulainn avey L -6 0 n 3-16 Castleraha
narrow defeat to the Kilnaleck men would soon see them brought back down to earth, as another loss could spell possible relegation trouble. “We wanted to retain our league status in Division 1A and try and progress further in the championship than we did the year before. We did one but not the other, unfortunately, after losing to Crosserlough in the quarter-finals of the championship in a game that we could have won,” Paddy explained. The loss of Shane Tierney and Oliver Smith to Canada was certainly a blow to Lavey’s chances, while a bad injury to Finbar Jordan would see the former Cavan minor defender ruled out of action for 12 months. The latter loss, in particular, would be a cruel blow to the New Inns men, as Jordan has been a leader for them on the field since first breaking into the senior team as a teenager. “We were lucky with missing so many players that we managed to retain our league status for next year,” the chairman conceded. “We had three players involved with the Cavan U21s – Karl Duke, Chris Conroy and Gerard Smith – and they’d have been missing for a few games early on, but we did have Ray Cullivan. He came in at midfield was a big addition to us,
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Joey Jordan
along with Sean Maguire, who came back to us for the championship from London.” Cullivan’s transfer from Ballyhaise to Lavey would be cited as a major boost for Brady’s team, as the ex-Cavan star could be deployed at either centre-field or full-forward, and with the return of Maguire in the summer Lavey were set to be a formidable outfit come championship. The team’s league form would be hit and miss from March until August, but with safety guaranteed “We were up and down all year in the league and I suppose that’s no surprise with the injuries we had and then players coming back,” said Paddy. “Our form was decent coming towards the championship. We were winning games that we shouldn’t have been winning but when we met Crosserlough the goals they scored killed us. They came at bad times for us even though we still played well on the night.” The sides met on August 17th under lights at Kingspan Breffni Park in entertaining game, which saw Crosserlough race out of the traps, but it was a late goal from Pierce Smith that settled the issue for the winners, whom never relinquished their lead once talisman Barry McKiernan handed it to them in the fourth minute.