WINNING has become a good habit for Arva and Cavan’s pocket rockets can make history if they win again on Saturday.
No club has won the Ulster junior championship and returned the following year to win at intermediate level and that’s what the Breffni county outfit will do if they beat Derry’s Ballinderry in Omagh (5pm).
So history beckons for the Cavan club where the good times keep on rolling.
They’ve put four trophies in the cabinet since the start of 2023. Last season brought county, Ulster and All-Ireland junior championships and Arva have added the Cavan intermediate title this year.
Victory on Saturday will add a fifth piece of silverware and complete 25 championship wins on-the-trot for Finbar O’Reilly’s insatiable team.
“They’re all on the crest of a wave and everyone’s enjoying every moment of it, it doesn’t come around too often,” said O’Reilly.
“We’re enjoying it, the supporters and people of the club are loving it all and hoping it will last at least one more time, one more game.
“We basically take each game as it comes. We don’t start talking about the belief or think we have things mastered or that we’re in control of things.
“We give each team we play the absolute utmost respect and we have a fear of getting beaten each week and that keeps us grounded. We put the same amount of effort and energy and analysis into each team.
“Once we went into the knockout stages in Cavan, it’s basically: ‘We must perform in this game and if we don’t, we’re gone’. That’s sort of our thinking and our mentality.
“We don’t think we’ve mastered anything, we just want to win and get into the next phase, whether that’s into a semi-final or into a final. We’re back in another final, it’s our fifth final in 14 months and we’ve won the previous four.
“The opposition itself is enough to keep you grounded, not to be thinking you’ve anything mastered so the mentality is the next game and that’s it. We’ll get over that and move on.”
ARVA have sailed close to the wind at times and had to come through tight battles throughout their remarkable winning streak. This year’s Cavan semi-final against Cuchulainns went to a replay and Monaghan’s Magheracloone looked to have their number in the Ulster semi-final 10 days’ ago before Tristian Noack-Hofman and Barry Donnelly changed the game with goals at the death.
“We didn’t play particularly well, we started both halves well, but we didn’t push on and Magheracloone pretty much, for large periods, bossed the game,” O’Reilly admitted.
“So, there’s a lot of learning to be taken but we still got the job done.
“I think the big positive was that, when the game was in its most stressed, high-pressured situation, we didn’t just fold up and go home and we scored 2-3 unanswered.
“A lot of credit has to go to the boys for not folding the tent, for really driving on and getting the critical scores. People may say we were lucky and we were fortunate and we robbed it and stole it and all that. I see it that we stepped up and we had to step up.
“We got the critical scores at the most critical moment and that’s the big positive, but there’s lots of things to improve on, without a doubt.”
With 58 minutes gone, Arva trailed Magheracloone by four points in Crossmaglen but Donnelly assisted Noack-Hoffman for the first goal and the midfielder returned the favour for the second to complete a dramatic turnaround.
“That’s really leading and stepping up at the most critical time,” said O’Reilly.
“Because it did look like the game was gone, but the heart and that refusal to lose and refusal to give up is something that’s either in a dressing room or in a group or it’s not.
“Thankfully, it’s in our group. I feel it’s in our group, but you don’t want to be having to press that emergency button too often.”
ARVA played Division One league in Cavan but their small numbers categorised them as a junior club for the championship. They have used their playing resources remarkably well as a potent mix of young legs and old heads has gelled together under O’Reilly’s management.
The Morris brothers – Peter and James – have been soldiering on for 15 years now while Thomas Brady, elder brother of team skipper Ciaran, made his debut back in 2006.
Thomas Brady won an All-Ireland in his 17th season and, contrastingly, there are youngsters who did so in their first and have yet to taste defeat in a championship game.
“We probably have three groups within the team,” O’Reilly explained.
“You have Ciaran Brady’s group around the 29-30 mark. You have a good cohort of boys at that age and then you have a good cohort of boys in their mid-20s.
“Then we got three minors in last year, Dylan Maguire, Stephen Sheridan and Thomas Partington (an injury doubt for the final). They came in with a lot of energy and they are high-quality footballers so that kind of lifted the thing onto another level.
“Arva have been dropping a bit between senior, intermediate and junior in the last 10 years, they have been up and down. They have had emigration and injuries and different things. I think it’s the coming together of a really good group at the right time.
“The age profile is good, the experience, some of the guys have county experience, county under-age experience. Their attitude and application and the management team are very ambitious and hungry and try to do things right and the club are fully behind us and support us.
“You probably have the coming together of those three stakeholders at a really powerful moment. We’ve come from the bottom; we started in junior last year but winning is winning. We were lucky to come through the junior and kept going.
“You go into Intermediate and haven’t done what you’ve done. You’ve won so many matches and yes, it’s a step up in grade, but that confidence and that belief is embedded and you’re just trying to lean on that from game to game and hope it’s enough to get you through.”
STANDING in Arva’s way on Sunday is a Ballinderry side that will contest their club’s first provincial final since the class of 2013 beat Donegal’s Glenswilly to win the Ulster senior championship.
A restructuring of the Derry championships saw Ballinderry drop to intermediate level this year and Jarlath Bell’s side has prospered in the new environment. The Shamrocks captured the county title after a replay win against Faughanvale and since then have taken out Armagh champions Carrickcruppen (by five points) and Tyrone’s Derrylaughan (by one).
“I’ve seen a bit of them and they’re a typical Derry side,” said O’Reilly.
“They’re a big side, big, pacey, athletic fellas. They’ve a couple of boys with a lot of senior championship experience, indeed some of them might have Ulster senior club medals.
“Ryan Bell would, (Gareth) McKinless has one too. They’re a storied team, their currency is senior championships in Derry and going back 20 years ago when they won the All-Ireland, I remember that so well.
“This current version is an up-and-coming team. I know they took the drop last year, but they’ll have ambitions to get back and they are back obviously but they’re smelling an Ulster title and that’s the mentality that’s in the club.
“That’s how they judge themselves is winning Ulsters and competing for All-Irelands. They have the two McKinless’s (marauding goalkeeper Ben and Gareth) and Ruairi Forbes, Ryan Bell and Shea McCann. They’ve a lot of pace, a lot of running power, a lot of scoring power so well understanding what’s coming down the tracks.”
Ballinderry’s undoubted championship pedigree has helped them negotiate some challenging hurdles throughout their campaign. Faughanvale pushed them to the brink in the Derry final and, with extra-time looming, it took a Shea McCann point to edge out Derrylaughan in a low-scoring Ulster semi-final.
“They have that reputation of winning big titles, winning senior titles in Derry whereas Arva don’t have that, we don’t have that history at senior level,” says O’Reilly.
“But I think what we’ve done last year counts for an awful lot. Being able to win your county, leave your county, win in Ulster, leave Ulster, win in All-Ireland, that’s massive.
“It gives huge belief, huge confidence to the team. So that’s what we have but this is a big step-up now. Every step from Drumgath to Magheracloone and now this has been a huge step on the mountain for us when you compare it to last year.
“But we’re still standing and we’ll be ready to go.”
