THE ELIGIBILITY crisis that has dogged this year's Sigerson Cup has drawn to a close following Cork IT's 11th-hour decision to withdraw their objection to three Garda College players.
The semi-final between Garda and GMIT has been provisionally fixed for Tuesday week (April 8th), with UUJ awaiting the winners in the final, which has been pencilled in for a fortnight later.
The Comhairle Árd Oideachais met last night to address the objections into the eligibility of Kerry All Star Aidan O'Mahony, Cork's Michael Cussen and Graham Dillon of Westmeath, but when they convened they were informed that Cork IT had elected not to continue their appeal against their quarter-final defeat to Garda College.
Meanwhile, the battle against relegation from Division Two of the National Football League could effectively be won or lost this weekend, and given Cavan's position - four losses from four games - the odds are clearly stacked against them surviving.
As if heightening the stakes, they play Cork tomorrow evening under the floodlights at Breffni Park. The unrest caused by the Cork players' strike on the division has been well documented, with Roscommon unsuccessfully appealing the scenario whereby both Dublin and Meath were simply awarded the points from the two fixtures Cork did not fulfil, whereas everyone else had to earn them.
Although the Cavan County Board also sought clarification on the matter, the players aren't letting the controversy drag them down any further. Their last match, against Meath, showed signs of improvement, even though they let slip a seven-point half-time advantage and lost by two.
Forward Seánie Johnston, who hit 0-7 that day and gave Darren Fay a torrid time, believes Cavan's fate rests in their own hands.
"The situation with Cork probably hasn't been totally fair," says Johnston, "and there's been a good bit of talk on that . . . But Cork are back in there now, there's nothing we can do about it, but if we win on Saturday night we'll be happy enough.
"They've come back very well, with a new manager that's eager to impress. But we're just concentrating on ourselves. We don't fear anyone, and we see this as an opportunity to improve again."
After Cork, Cavan then have Westmeath and Roscommon to come, and a win tomorrow evening could do wonders in turning around their league.
"We've just been fading out of games the last five or 10 minutes, but we've been working on that, and I think it's fair to say we have been improving over the last couple of games. But of course this is do-or-die. If we don't win our last three games we're into Division Three. But we're still looking at it positively. If we can finish games as well as we're starting we won't be too far off."
From the outset, Division Two was deemed just as competitive as Division One, and so it's proved. While Monaghan and Dublin are still riding high at the top, there is plenty of room for manoeuvre.
"We know Division Two was always going to be a tough group, with the likes of Dublin, Armagh, Meath and Monaghan. And apart from the Monaghan game I think we performed well enough so far. All these teams were in All-Ireland semi-finals or quarter-finals, and Cork were in the final last year. That helps give them the belief to kick on in the last 10 minutes."
Cork continue to rotate and will start Stephen O'Donoghue and Fintan Gould for tomorrow's game.
CAVAN(NFL v Cork): J Reilly; M Hannon, P Reilly, M Brides; J McCutcheon, A Forde, D Sheridan; D McCabe, J Cunningham; M Reilly, R Flanagan, M McKeever; E O'Reilly, S Johnston, G Pearson.
CORK(NFL v Cavan): A Quirke; D Duggan, G Canty, K O'Connor; S O'Donoghue, G Spillane, O Sexton; N Murphy, A O'Connor; J Miskella, F Gould, K McMahon; D Goulding, D O'Connor, K O'Sullivan.
DOWN(NFL v Limerick): M McAllister; L Howard, G McArdle, M Cole; R Murtagh, L Doyle, P Turley; A Rodgers, D Rooney; J Fegan, R Sexton, D Hughes; P McCumiskey, D Gordon, B Coulter.
TYRONE(NFL v Donegal): P McConnell; PJ Quinn, J McMahon, R McMenamin; D Harte, C Gormley, P Jordan; C Holmes, E McGinley; R Mellon, R Mulgrew, S Cavanagh; T McGuigan, C McCullagh, N Gormley.
FERMANAGH(NFL v Sligo): F Murphy; S Goan, S Lyons, D O'Reilly; D Kelly, R McCluskey, T McElroy; M Murphy, J Sherry; C McElroy, S Doherty, M Little; P Ward, J McGurn, E Maguire.
