CORMAC O’REILLY revealed Cavan went big-game hunting in order to prove they are kings of the Division 2 jungle.
Sunday saw Raymond Galligan’s men take the scalp of Roscommon at Dr Hyde Park by 0-22 to 0-20 to keep themselves in the promotion chase.
It was Cavan’s fourth win on the bounce after beginning their second-tier campaign with thumping losses to Monaghan and Meath.
Those disappointing defeats came with a combined losing margin of 18 points, with the Ulster side shipping a whopping 5-43 — leaving them at a low ebb.
To add salt to their wounds, there was a long injury list.
Oisín Kiernan, Jason McLoughlin, Darragh Lovett, Conor Madden and Killian Clarke joined long-term absentee Paddy Lynch on the sidelines.
But the 2020 Ulster champions hung in there and while they did not so much put Down, Louth and Westmeath to the sword — rather, by the width of a razor’s edge — it was a testament to the spirit in the group that they found a way.
Consequently, while few pundits gave the Breffni men a chance in Dr Hyde Park, O’Reilly revealed that within the camp, they did not just travel in hope — they wanted to make a statement.
The Breffni full-forward — who struck 0-4 — explained: “We came into the game in good form and in good spirits.
“We’ve turned around this league season after the second game and we came in knowing that we had a good opportunity to lay down a marker. There was a lot of talk about Roscommon, that they were a top team and this was our chance to show that we’re right up there with them.
“There was a great work ethic from everyone and that was what made the difference, we worked harder than them and that comes through in attack and defence over the course of 70 minutes.”
The Breffni, Rossies and Royals are now all locked on eight points ahead of the final round of games this weekend.
O’Reilly and Co welcome Cork to Breffni Park with Division 1 promotion in their sights.
And he continued: “We’ll go into the Cork game the same, with the heads down and ready to go.
“We got a good work load in last week and I’m sure that next week it’ll be the same.” On a day when supporters all over Ireland were keeping tabs on goings-on elsewhere, Roscommon’s 0-11 to 0-9 lead at half-time seemed to signal business as usual as, so far this year, the resurgent Rossies had been a strong second-half team
Explaining their opening-half tactics, O’Reilly — who converted two crucial points when it looked as though their promotion rivals’ high-flying attack was going to take off — said: “We saw that the wind was going to be a bit of a factor so we tried to work the ball through the hands a bit more.
“We probably could have scored a bit more in the first half.
“Maybe on another day you’d hope that we would take one or two of those goal chances.
“But I think we were clinical. The lads at the back worked hard on getting good ball into us and when we got that supply, a few shots went over.”
The Mullahoran clubman — whose father Damien won an Ulster SFC medal with the county back in 1997 — has the same keen attacking instinct as his dad.
And he was delighted to make hay in just his second start of this year’s league, and his second chance to relish this new world of Gaelic football.
O’Reilly added: “The new rules are great.
“There’s a lot of talk of how it’s changing the game and it is — it’s making it a more attractive game and a better game to play and watch.
“Everyone’s enjoying it and the boys that are out the field are delighted to have the option again to kick the ball in!
So when the ball is being kicked in to us in the forwards, it’s up to us to deliver”.
