By Niall Gartland

ANY team that scores 3-19 from play in a championship game is worthy of respect.

That’s what a rampant Westmeath totted up against Offaly in their Tailteann Cup semi-final clash, so it’s fair to say that Cavan have been served advance notice that Saturday’s final isn’t a matter of turning up and collecting the trophy.

The Breffni County have been favourites to enter their names into the history books as the first ever winners of the Tailteann Cup since the competition began six short weeks ago with a preliminary round meeting between Wicklow and Waterford.

The strength of their favourites tag prompted Irish Independent journalist Eamonn Sweeney – a man never short of a hot take or two – to suggest that it wouldn’t bode well for the future prospects of the competition if Cavan claimed the trophy.

His argument was that Mickey Graham’s are simply too strong, too high status almost for this particular competition (a glorified All-Ireland Intermediate championship, arguably), but does his argument really stack up?

Yes, Cavan have won an Ulster title as recently as 2020, but they’re still a mid-ranking team who have suffered dreadfully in league football in the last few seasons, and it’s not their problem that they claimed runaway victories over Fermanagh and Down in the opening rounds of competition. Indeed, they were pushed to the pins of their collar by Sligo in the semi-final, finishing strongly to claim a 0-20 to 1-14 victory.

That said, they are favourites for good reason – they’ve lost only two games all season and their panel is exceptionally strong.

Among the subs on their last day out were Cian Madden (who delivered arguably his best performance in a Cavan jersey when thrown into the fray), former All-Star nominee Conor Moynagh and Stephen Smith, all of whom are capable of making an impact this weekend.

That’s without mentioning some of the players who didn’t make the 26 the last day out – Conor Madden and Caoimhin O’Reilly have had injury problems but there’s every chance they slip into the match-day panel.

As for their regular starters, many of them are in red hot form heading into this weekend’s game. Gerard Smith, previously something of a utility player, is showing real endeavour and adventure and chipped in with four points from play against Sligo, Paddy Lynch has been a revelation and Gearoid McKiernan has scored a massive 3-61 in all competitions this year.

On the flipside, stalwart Martin Reilly has bucketloads of big game experience but had to come off against Sligo, while there are also question marks over Ciaran Brady, a tremendous player on his day who seems short of full match fitness at present. But they have the comfort blanket of that formidable subs bench, so strength-in-depth shouldn’t be an issue against Westmeath.

It’s also worth mentioning the man at the helm, Mickey Graham. A boisterous personality, he also knows what it takes to spur teams on in big finals, from Mullinalaghta’s inspirational Leinster final success to Cavan’s unexpected provincial triumph against Donegal two years ago.

The circumstances are a little different this time around as Cavan wear the favourites tag, but that’s something they’ve had to contend with since the beginning of the season and they haven’t really skipped a beat.

Opponents Westmeath have certainly qualified for the final on merit. They finished third in Division Three, gave nothing easy to Kildare in a narrow Leinster semi-final defeat and have played some super football en route to the Tailteann Cup showdown.

They were absolutely ruthless against Offaly in the semi-final, racking up a cricket score of 3-19, all of which came from open play.

Their stand-out performer is John Heslin, an exceptional talent who helped himself to 1-9 at the quarter-final juncture against Carlow (sometimes he’s named in midfield, sometimes in the half-forward line and sometimes at full-forward – it doesn’t really seem to matter), while Sam McCartan is developing into an excellent midfielder.

Their manager is Jack Cooney, and he added two big names to his backroom team this year – Dessie Dolan, a man who needs no introduction, is helping out the forwards while two-time All-Star John Keane is tasked with organising their defensive play.

Both teams have room for improvement – attacking football was the order of the day in their respective semi-final clashes but they won’t want to leave anything to chance at the back this Saturday as it could be the winning and losing of the game.

This could be a very close contest but Cavan have shown enough over the last number of years to suggest that they should take home the trophy. The Tailteann Cup has proven a success so far, and let’s hope the final lives up to its billing, whatever the result.

Verdict: Cavan