Cavan ace Smith has no regrets

GARETH SMITH insists he has no regrets about his decision to turn his back on his native Dublin in favour of Cavan, despite Pat Gilroy’s extensive sweep of the Leinster county for new talent.

Smith, known to most as ‘Nesty’, declared for the Breffni County this year and made a notable debut in last weekend’s McKenna Cup opener at home to Donegal when he scored seven points.

Gilroy’s new-look Dubs played Wexford in the O’Byrne Cup less than 24 hours later and Smith would surely have been in the frame for a run-out at some point this month had he not thrown his lot in with the Ulster county.

“A friend of mine rang me and said Cavan might be interested,” he said of the move. “Then a couple of days later Tommy Carr rang me and said ‘Listen, we’re going to give you a good run here, we’d like you to come down’. I took the hand off him straight away and didn’t consider Dublin after that. Tommy Carr rang me and gave me a chance and I’m going to have to repay Tommy in these next couple of games.”

With Cavan so dependant on Seanie Johnston for scores for so long, Smith should be handed another run-out this evening when St Mary’s provide the opposition in another McKenna Cup tie, this time under the Kingspan Breffni Park floodlights.

It could easily have been very different. This time last year, Smith was on Dublin’s O’Byrne Cup squad but the next step was never negotiated and when Cavan came a-calling, they were knocking on an open door.

A previous approach had been turned away in 2006 as, under rules in place at the time, the forward would have had to leave his club, Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh, and join a club in Cavan to be eligible for selection.

That was never a path he was willing to take.

Now, Smith is eligible to feature for the county while remaining with Plunkett’s under legislation which relaxes such regulations for weaker counties who have gone 10 years without any provincial silverware.

“It was one of the big factors this year, to go down and play with Cavan, that I wouldn’t have to leave Plunkett’s. The fact I didn’t have to leave was one of the main factors to go.”

It appears to be a smart bit of business by Carr. Smith was a member of Dublin’s All-Ireland U21-winning side in 2003 and regularly stars for his club alongside other forwards such as Jason Sherlock and the Brogan brothers. The Cavan connection is a strong one. His mother lives in Virginia and his father is a former Cavan junior who hails from Mountnugent.

“I knew a couple of lads before I went down so it wasn’t totally new to me. In fairness to the lads they all made me welcome. They all came over and introduced themselves. After a couple of training sessions I know all the lads and they’re all sound.”

For Smith, it is a case of better late than never. At 27, he admits to thinking that an inter-county career had passed him by but he hasn’t made this commitment just to add a line to his CV.

Cavan is a county with a rich tradition but it is one that has failed to live up to that heritage in the modern era.

Yet Smith believes they are not far away from recapturing past glories.

“I’ve trained with a lot of good teams and these lads are very passionate about their football. They know themselves that they’ve gone too long without an Ulster title. There’s no better lads that want to turn it around this year and get an Ulster title.”

He insists that an Ulster title would mean every bit as much to him as the Leinster equivalent would have but how we handle facing his native county if that situation arose? “I know I’ve grown up with a lot of the lads and there’d be five or six of the club lads playing for Dublin. They’re all great friends but whatever happens in the (70 minutes) I’ll be trying to push Cavan on.”

Meanwhile former All-Ireland winning Armagh defender, Andrew McCann, has been blocked in his bid to join the fifth club of his career.

Armagh’s 2002 wing-back, 35, is attempting to switch from Meath champions Seneschalstown to Slane as he lives close to the village. It’s understood the transfer request hasn’t been signed by Seneschalstown, however, and that it will be looked at by the committee that deals with contested transfers.

McCann originally played for Tir na nÓg in Armagh but switched to Ballyboden St Enda’s in Dublin, then to Leixlip in Kildare and on to Seneschalstown where he won Meath SFC titles in 2007 and 2009.

Elsewhere a request at Monday night’s Meath County Board meeting to alter the structure of the senior championship to include divisional teams was shot down.

The Curraha club brought forward a motion which would have been seen them compete for East Meath in the championship with five other regions to be added in total.

Among their arguments was a claim that the system works well in Kerry and Cork though it was heavily defeated during a vote of delegates.