Cavan's Rory Dunne feels the perception of them being an ultra-defensive side is off the mark.

The Breffni County earned a reputation for funnelling numbers back behind the ball during Terry Hyland's tenure, with RTE pundit Joe Brolly branding them 'the Black Death' two years ago over what he described as "the most horrible, defensive football" in a Gaelic Life column.

However, full-back Dunne believes that the Blues, who scored their first league win under Mattie McGleenan last Sunday against Mayo, are "no worse than anyone else" when it comes to adopting a defensive approach.

"Believe it or not, we'd have always talked about attacking. He hasn't come around and just talked about attack, attack, attack," the Redhills man told The Irish News.

"Compared to last year, there's just a few tweaks in certain things and how we attack. We'll know now over the next two weeks.

"We kicked 1-14 and the attacking play was good, especially in the second half, but we didn't let the defensive side down.

"Cavan have been branded over the last few years as a defensive team, but if you look back to last year in the League, Cavan racked up big scores as well there as minding the house.

"There's a perception that we're such a defensive team - maybe we are at times, but you'll find a lot of teams across the country are too. We're no worse than anyone else.

"We are focussing on the attacking play in training, but you have to. When you're working on it in training and it comes off in games like Sunday, it's nice to see that."

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