More kicker than keeper: The second coming of Cavan goalkeeper Raymond Galligan

Cavan goalkeeper Raymond Galligan

During the week, the Anglo-Celt’s Gaelic Games writer Paul Fitzpatrick started spitting out the numbers to his readership. It was part plea for sanity when it comes to expectation in the county, part reality check.

Let us slightly rework it. The President-elect Joe Biden has lived to see Cavan win 14 Ulster titles. Six of these came before he reached his seventh birthday.

At 36, Fitzpatrick has witnessed Cavan put back-to-back wins in the Ulster Championship only twice as a grown-up; this year and last. Clearly, Mickey Graham has an alchemy as they face into an Ulster semi-final against Down on Sunday seeking to make it back to back Ulster finals.

Last weekend, they defeated Antrim, a side that had beaten them in five of their last six Championship meetings across the grades.

“An embarrassment,” was how one fan assessed it.

That Cavan are beating teams with a lack of fuss shows their growing consistency. But Saturday had nothing on the manic finish to the win on the first day out when captain and goalkeeper Raymond Galligan stepped up at the very end of extra-time to drill a 55-metre free over the bar.

At the final whistle he went down on his knees and the tears flowed.

“It’s funny how it works,” he said afterwards. “You take thousands and thousands of frees in training and I suppose you dream of kicking the winner in any type of game – club or county – and that’s why I got emotional at the end.” 

His story has been a long time in the telling. It has percolated and bubbled. Stalled, changed course and took off once more.

At 22 he looked like the next big thing in their forward ranks. In their 2010 National League opener at home to Roscommon, he hit 0-10, six frees and a sideline to help them to a 2-20 to 1-10 win under Tommy Carr.

As things floundered under Val Andrews a couple of years later he drifted off the county panel and yet captained Lacken to an intermediate title from full-forward in 2012, eight years after he won the same honour as a 16-year-old.

He knew that his clubmate Terry Hyland, installed as Cavan manager in the middle of 2012 would come calling again. It took a year and by then Galligan was running a bar in Ballinagh. And he wanted him as a goalkeeper.

“Within the management we would have recognised that the most important thing as a goalkeeper is the kickout,” says Hyland now.

“If you set your team up properly with a good defence, there shouldn’t be any more than three shots on a goalkeeper in a game. Three max. Between points and wides, you are looking at an average of 25 to 30 restarts in a game. And that is your most important part of a goalkeeper’s role.

With that in mind, I knew Raymond was a very talented freetaker. I remember seeing a clip on YouTube of him kicking the ball over the bar with his left foot on the end line, and with his right foot from the opposite corner and putting them over the bar.

"He was a bit reluctant as he felt he might have contributed out the field. I told him if he wanted to come in, there was a position there for him.

But he wouldn’t be coming in as goalkeeping understudy, he would be coming in as third-choice goalkeeper.

Hyland, now with Leitrim and committing to another year in 2021, had an impact and a stabilising effect on Cavan, bringing them to an Ulster semi-final replay against Tyrone and dragging them into Division 1 of the league.

He brought in the expertise of Dundalk’s soccer goalkeeper Gary Rogers to work with the county goalkeepers and they set about filling the gaps in Galligan’s knowledge.

“I had very little experience,” recalled Galligan back in 2015. “I had worked a lot on my kicking. Gary Rogers has helped me unbelievably with regards to shot stopping, the aerial game and also just being aware of what’s going on around me.

“For the first couple of weeks some people thought it was madness and the feedback from outside was that I was mad, it was never going to happen, we already had two great goalkeepers and it was just not going to work.” 

For that league campaign in 2015 he didn’t get a sniff of it. Conor Gilsenan was a graduate from the successful U21 pack and was first choice. Even when he was injured in the final game away to Meath, James Farrelly was the preferred option.

Cavan travelled to New York in April for a pre-Championship training camp. They played New York for ‘The Mick Higgins Cup.’

On a Thursday night against a New York team, Galligan made his second coming.

He saved a few skidders off the plastic Gaelic Park pitch and had a few beers in The Bronx. And if that’s all there was to his second coming as a county man, well then it would have done him the best. But Hyland and assistant Anthony Forde saw enough of him. He started the Championship against Monaghan and lamped over a free in a one-point loss.

From there to here has been one of the more unusual journeys.

“Ray would smile if I said this, but he would have a laid-back mentality,” adds Hyland. “He probably is not your typical manic-type keeper. He is more laid back. Would he be worried going up the field to take a kick? Probably not. That’s the nature of the guy.” 

Cavan’s casual disregard in Ulster has been easy to maintain with their lack of success. But things are changing.

Both themselves and Down still have the tweeds and the feel of old money.

They know it counts for nothing unless they deliver.