Cavan manager Terry Hyland believes Sunday’s Allianz Football Division 2 Football Final against Tyrone will let him know whether his Breffni boys have become men.

A talented generation of Cavan footballers that won four Ulster U-21 titles in a row from 2011 to 2014 is now coming into its prime. They have yet to deliver on the big stage at senior level though, and Hyland is hopeful Sunday’s game will show they are now ready to do just that.

“Some of these lads have minor medals, some have three U-21 medals in their back pocket but they need to grow on from that and go on to the next stage as well,” he said.

“U-21s is three-year term but seniors should be a 10-year term. You have to get into that and mature and see what you can take out of that. This final next weekend gives us an opportunity to see where we are at in terms of that maturity level.”

Hyland might be hoping for a real statement of progress from his players on Sunday, but he does not think they are the finished article just yet. Many of the team’s best players are still in their early twenties, so as a collective Cavan still have room to improve over the next year or two.

“We probably have,” said Hyland. “There'll be six guys under 22 probably togging out here on Sunday. The next six will be under 26 and then there's probably three lads over that. From an age profile, you know, good footballers get injured and they don't always necessarily hit their potential as sports people.

“So there's always an urgency when you're involved in sport because that opportunity is there in front of you and you want to grab it. That's probably where we are at this point in time.”

The problem for many senior inter-county managers is that they are not given the time to develop and mature a team to the point where they can be serious contenders. Patience can be a scarce commodity at the highest level of the game, and if managers do not deliver tangible success in a two to three-year time-frame they are usually moved aside.

Hyland is preparing for his fifth Championship campaign as Cavan manager, and admits he’s lucky the Cavan County Board have shown such faith in him.

“I suppose what we got was an opportunity to do a long-term project,” said Hyland. “Most people go into football management don't get the thing where they say 'we're going to give you four years and whatever way it falls in the four years we're going to give you the four years'.

“We were lucky that the county board gave us that. That's the mandate that we got. Perhaps we did show increments of improvement all the time in that which left it a bit easier for them. When you go in with that kind of a safety net at your back it's a lot easier to do things and to change things around because, okay, people are going to criticise you but if you have the main backers behind you, you're safe enough.”

It’s a testament to their faith in the job Hyland is doing that they have continued to back him despite underwhelming Championship campaigns in 2014 and 2015. The only teams that Cavan have managed to beat over the course of the last two summers are London and Westmeath.

There was an undercurrent of frustration among Cavan supporters that all their underage success was not translating into senior achievement more quickly, but Hyland insists he has never felt under pressure at any time.

“No,” he said. “That might seem fairly simple. Look, maybe I personally don't get any of the criticism that lads get associated with football. You'd hear people talking in the background and other people will say things to you but personally, nobody in the last four years has ever said anything to me that I should be under pressure.

“As regards the Championship, we were probably disappointing. It's about a balance, getting things right, we probably made getting from Division 3 to Division 2 a priority a couple of years ago. Then we had a good run and we got to the quarter-finals. Our panels probably weren't as strong at the time so we have a stronger panel, a better balance and we feel that we can push on more at Championship level.

“It's a bit like peaking a horse for a particular race that you're in, it's very hard to peak and then peak again unless you have the back up within your system to do that and perhaps four years ago we didn't have the full back up in terms of the squad size and the quality within in the squad but we do feel we have it now.”