‘Dare to Dream' – Seanie Johnston says Cavan's Mayo shock has Breffni dreaming big again

The Irish Sun

31-05-2025

FORMER Cavan attacker Seánie Johnston believes his county can dare to dream again after shocking Mayo.
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Cavan icon Seanie Johnston reckons the Breffni can dare to dream after their shock win over Mayo
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Cavan face Donegal tomorrow as they look to add another major scalp
The last time Cavan beat Mayo in Championship football had been 1948 — in the All-Ireland final.
Breffni icon John Joe O'Reilly lifted Sam Maguire for the second year in a row, having first done so in the Polo Grounds in New York.
Memories of those glory days were stirred a fortnight ago at MacHale Park as Ray Galligan's men sank
All of the focus had been on Mayo in the build-up to the sensational victory.
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Former free-scoring forward Johnston told SunSport: 'To go to Mayo and win was huge. If that was one of the big guns who went to Castlebar and won, people would be raving about it.
'I think the talk around the country has been more about the demise of Mayo rather than Cavan having a very good win.'
Johnston was a selector under boss Mickey Graham when Cavan reached the 2022 Tailteann Cup final.
Now, Galligan's men top Group 1 and have a free shot when Donegal come to town tomorrow.
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Fellow group toppers Tyrone beat Jim McGuinness' men last weekend in Ballybofey, blowing open the race for the last eight. And Cavan's destiny is in their own hands.
Johnston said: 'Ultimately for us, it was a huge win in terms of maybe progressing to an All-Ireland quarter-final or preliminary quarter-final.
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'Then you just don't know what's going to happen or what a win like that will give in terms of the boost of confidence to the players.
'We have a big one coming this weekend, but there's very little pressure on Cavan. There's probably huge pressure coming from the Donegal side of things after their result last week.
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'The first game is ultimately so important because you know generally that one win will get you into that preliminary quarter-final.
'So I think their goal has got to be, if they get through the group,
'Can we make an All-Ireland semi-final?' That means you have to go and win two knockout games but that, to me, would be an incredible season.'
Five years have passed since Cavan toppled tomorrow's opponents in an Ulster final that was played behind closed doors due to Covid lockdown restrictions.
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Their journey to the Anglo-Celt Cup lit up a dark summer as Galligan lifted the trophy.
Cavan proceeded directly to an All-Ireland semi-final, losing to a Dublin side that became six-in-a-row champions.
Five years on, they went to Castlebar quietly confident.
And Cormac O'Reilly, Oisín Kiernan, Dara McVeety, Gerard Smith, Cian Reilly, Brian O'Connell and Cian Madden stood up to the mark as star forward Paddy Lynch made a scoring comeback off the bench after the cruciate ligament injury victim spent more than a year on the sidelines.
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Johnston admits the buzz is back in the Breffni County and he believes the return of Crosserlough forward Lynch is a huge boost, though clubmate James Smith has not yet come back from injury.
Gearóid McKiernan — who returned to the panel this season — also missed the Mayo game, having lined out in the Ulster quarter-final defeat by Tyrone on April 13.
The Cavan Gaels man said: 'One thing I wouldn't like to see is Cavan putting limits on themselves.
'They're after taking out Mayo in Mayo and ultimately, people will criticise where Mayo are at.
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'Paddy Lynch's return is huge. You know, even for that point he comes on and scored, we have to put it into perspective that this lad hasn't played in nearly 14 months.
'He gets that pop-hand pass and he spins on to his supposedly weaker side, and he pings it over from 35 metres.
'He has that quality in abundance, but you'd be conscious of the fact that we can't be expecting miracles off him too.
'The Cavan forward line now looks a lot better. Oisín Brady, who's probably Cavan's second best forward when Paddy was away, is back too.
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'Cormac O'Reilly is playing really well and you're hoping to see James and Gearóid McKiernan added into the fold and that makes your forward line look a lot more formidable than it has looked.
'You expect Donegal to come to town and win, but Cavan are going in with a free shot at another big gun who, if they lose, are in serious bother because you just don't know what you're going to get from Mayo in that last game for Donegal.'
Johnston will be a keen spectator tomorrow, but has stepped back from football for now.
Having made his debut in 2003, Johnston hung up his inter-county boots in 2019, after a long career that included a well-publicised switch to Kildare.
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Coaching led him to join the Cavan backroom team in 2022.
He took the reins of his beloved Cavan Gaels last summer, but stood down after the county semi-final loss to Crosserlough.
FAMILY FIRST
Johnston won ten county titles between 2001 and 2017 but times have been leaner since and for now, family comes first.
He said: 'We have four young kids and it was just causing havoc in the house here.
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'I'm all-consuming. If I'm in, it takes over your whole life and you're away probably five, six nights a week.
'Even when you're here, you're not here, so I just said I was going to take a full break and I'm enjoying it.
'I went back and took our own club last year because the players asked me to do it.
'I didn't want to because it's very hard to do your own club.
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'They'd been at such a kind of low ebb over the last number of years. We lost the semi-final to Crosserlough by a point and we should have beaten them.
"It was probably more annoying that I had to step back from that, because I know they were pretty disappointed that I did. But then, it's just so taxing on time.
'It's also very hard not to be in something that's competitive because you kind of live for that competitive element when you're not playing anymore.
'But it's a lot harder than playing, because you've very little control when that ball is thrown in. You're reliant on all the work that has been done on the training field.
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'And then sometimes you're tearing your hair out at some of the things players are doing. You're like, 'Have I taught these boys absolutely nothing?'
'It's very enjoyable too but just probably not that conducive to having four young kids.'