Barry Cahill: Cavan won't be beaten before throw-in like Leinster sides

Cavan players celebrate following the Ulster final win over Dongeal. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Former Dublin star Barry Cahill believes that the Dubs have a psychological stranglehold over many of their opponents, particularly other Leinster sides.

Meath were quietly fancied in some quarters to give the five-time All-Ireland champions a decent test in the provincial final but the manner of Dublin’s crushing win suggested to Cahill that, mentally, Dublin now have a huge edge.

“Heading into the game on Saturday, the big thing for Cavan is there's no psychological barrier there which you have with a lot of other teams around the country and particularly in Leinster,” the St Brigid’s clubman told The Anglo-Celtnewspaper.

“Andy McEntee has improved Meath absolutely over the last two or three years and they're well able to compete with all the Division 1 teams in the league. And they were good in the Super 8s as well, up to probably the 50, 55 minutes in a lot of matches, they probably just didn't have the strength in depth or the strength and conditioning under their belt to last.

“There's no way Meath are a 21 points worse team than Dublin so it has to be psychological. As soon as Dean Rock scored that goal, you could just sense it with the players, they became completely deflated and all their bit of maybe discussion and hype before the game about staying with Dublin and doing all the right things, etc, that all just completely evaporated.” 

Barry Cahill of Dublin during the 2009 National League: 'There's no way Meath are a 21 points worse team than Dublin so it has to be psychological'. Picture: David Maher

Ominously for the chasing pack, Cahill believes that Dublin are getting better.

“Unfortunately for the rest of the country, I think they look like they’re slightly improving. It’s hard to believe considering the standard they’ve set over the last five years but it just seems to have been a seamless transition over the last 12 to 18 months.”

While the disrupted preparations were far from ideal for new manager Dessie Farrell, there is no evidence of any slippage, believes Cahill.

“For any management team coming in, what you want is time with the players. You want to get to know the players on and off the pitch. You want to get them familiar with your philosophy of play and your patterns of play and you want to get a good understanding as to what makes these players tick.

“There were a lot of challenges for Dessie but it doesn’t seem to have affected them one bit.

“The new lads who have come in have just seemed to slot naturally into the team which is a credit to Jim Gavin’s system as well. Dublin seem to be in a very good place.

"The second-best team, Kerry, and probably the third-best team in the country, Donegal, are out of the championship now at this stage and they seem to be humming along nicely.”