By Cian O’Connell

Important matches are arriving thick and fast in the Allianz Football League with Cavan manager Mickey Graham looking forward to Kerry’s arrival at Kingspan Breffni on Sunday.

Cavan suffered an opening weekend defeat to Galway, while Kerry secured the spoils against Tyrone with Graham adamant that another demanding test awaits for his own team.

“Yeah, it is our first home game in the National League,” Graham says. “Again it is another huge game, we have Kerry coming to town.

“They are a team looking to prove a point, they are an up and coming team and they will be talked about as regards All Irelands. We will just have to make sure that we dust ourselves off, get back to training to look forward to the visit of Kerry next Sunday in Kingspan Breffni.”

Graham acknowledges that the highly competitive nature of the League makes it extremely difficult to accumulate points. “Without a doubt, every point is going to have to be worked for,” Graham says. “You will have to work your socks off, they are so valuable. Every team will take points off each other as they go along.

“We are disappointed because we felt we should have got something out of the Galway game, but it is what it is and we just will dust off to lift ourselves now for next weekend.”

One area of encouragement for Graham is the response of players in Cavan with several returning to the panel for the 2019 campaign. “Yeah, we have lads back in that haven't played in a couple of years and we have five or six lads out injured at the moment,” Graham states.

“When we get them back it will all strengthen it and add to it. The lads that are there at the moment, they are working hard.

“I have to give them great credit. Against Galway they never gave up the ghost, at one stage we were five points down, a lot of teams might have thrown in the towel, but the lads just rolled up the sleeves, worked hard, and we got ourselves back into it. Unfortunately the clock was just against us.”