By Michael McMullan<\/p>\n
ULSTER intermediate champions Cavan have their eyes on improvement from last season\u2019s All-Ireland run.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the view of Sin\u00e9ad Greene ahead of Sunday\u2019s visit of Roscommon to Kingspan Breffni Park.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s exciting times for ladies football in Cavan. Retaining their Ulster title can inspire the successful swathe of underage players across the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting up to Division One is probably the most exciting thing, it\u2019s something that we\u2019ve never actually managed to achieve before,\u201d added Greene, a key player as they now take aim at the All-Ireland series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very, very satisfying to be part of the team who did manage to finally get up to the top flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in two Division Two finals in 2017 and 2018, but, back then, you had to win it to go up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greene is fully aware of the potential within Cavan but was beginning to question when, as a senior group, they\u2019d push on towards a place at the top table.<\/p>\n
Within a few seasons of winning the 2013 All-Ireland intermediate title, it was a constant battle in relegation play-offs to stay up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did wonder why it wasn\u2019t clicking at senior level, when you have all that success and girls who know how to win,\u201d Greene points out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the minute, it\u2019s coming good. For the first time in a long time, there\u2019s several girls who\u2019ve stepped straight up from minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are starting, and coming on and playing big roles on the senior team, which probably hasn\u2019t happened before.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes from school and club efforts that then grew into the underage ranks before knocking at the door at senior level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t describe how nice it is to be experiencing a little bit of success again,\u201d Greene said of the current footballing experience in the county.<\/p>\n
With the promotion and Ulster Championship boxes ticked, the icing on the cake would be going up the Hogan Stand steps to lift another piece of silverware.<\/p>\n
Greene doesn\u2019t go there. That\u2019s a goal they can only look if it comes around the corner at them.<\/p>\n
For now, they\u2019ve Roscommon this weekend before a second group game against Down.<\/p>\n
Regret<\/p>\n
The regret of not pushing on as Ulster champions last year is fresh in the mind and has been mentioned ahead of this weekend\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were saying the other night at training that we won the league last year and then we won the Ulster title,\u201d Greene explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, we actually only managed to win one more game, which was a group game against Wicklow. That was really disappointing for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to try and make sure that something similar doesn\u2019t happen this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that the talent is there but at the same time we know talent doesn\u2019t win anything for you, there are a lot of other factors. All eyes are on Roscommon, then it\u2019ll be all eyes on Down.<\/p>\n
\u201cFingers crossed, then we can be looking at an All-Ireland quarter-final. We fell at that hurdle last year, so were really hoping this year that we can push on beyond that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other Ulster team in All-Ireland intermediate action this weekend is Monaghan. They\u2019ll be hoping to put the recent Ulster final disappointment behind them when they face Westmeath on Sunday in Mullingar.<\/p>\n
Ulster junior champions Antrim begin their All-Ireland campaign on Sunday when they entertain Offaly.<\/p>\n
The Saffrons were promoted to Division Two ahead of next season but they still have the desire at national level after coming up short in last season\u2019s All-Ireland final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Michael McMullan ULSTER intermediate champions Cavan have their eyes on improvement from last season\u2019s All-Ireland run. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-469173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}