McCabe needs to be held accountable for underperforming in his role of games development manager, county board need to appoint Finbar OReilly at once as academy manager, its an absolute disgrace that he hasn’t been given the job yet and kingspan funding it! What is wrong with them? Wake up county board it’s already late.
McCabe basically ran the dressing room during Keoghan’s reign, a stint which included him basically telling new members of the panel in front of the whole dressing room that they’d never make intercounty players because they were too small. Members of that panel have told me his nickname amongst the other players was “bully”.
Yeah fair play to Fitzpatrick he is calling it as it is and not skimping around the main issues and calling out the county board. Is McCabe related to Keoghan I heard at the time that he got the job that that Keoghan was pulling his money unless McCabe got the job.
It's great to see Fitzpatrick showing the courage to do what our county board has been too hesitant to address.
He got the job through a backroom deal with his fellow clubman who was chairman, despite lacking any obvious qualifications for the role. Now, he's looking to hand-pick his own successor, all while dismissing the most qualified person in the county. Has anyone asked why all the coaches have left? What coaching is being done at all schools?
I found the 5-year plan on the county board website, the headings are listed but the link to the actual document doesn’t work. It's amateur hour all around.
https://www.anglocelt.ie/2025/02/07/problems-with-developing-players-mean-senior-decline-is-inevitable/
A public cut at mc cabe
Interviews with him have always been in the off season or just after/before a game. This interview is in the middle of a two week break and comes just after the two podcast hosts openly criticised how closed off the camp was in the run up to the League starting.
Gallogan had also already given an interview after the Meath game. There’s no way whatsoever this can be passed off as a normal interview.
Damage limitation is what it is. Get word out quickly about Nally walking away, try to get a poor excuse for it out and get word out that two players are back.
It was also put on the free podcast rather than behind the pay wall so as many people as possible can hear it.
Interviews with him are regular enough to be fair. This isn't a once off. But maybe mid week and a few changes is maybe
I haven't listened to the podcast yet but i find it strange that he agreed to go on it.
Last year though you had players like Paddy Lynch & Oisin Brady in the full forward line. This year that quality isn’t there.
The interview screams of panic to be honest. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. On one hand, it’s good they are realising the level of discontent within the county.
On the other, it sounds like Nally walked away even before the Meath game and they’re peddling a very weak excuse about his commitments with the FRC.
Did Galligan have to go cap in hand to two players, one of whom had walked out of Breffni after allegedly having verbals with him?
It appears the talk within the county is so bad that our senior manager had to go onto a local podcast to try and get a message out.
It's a bit of a mystery to me as I felt last year Cavan were trying to move the ball into forwards quickly. Now we have new rules which should increase the opportunities available to kick it in early and we seem to be adverse to doing it.
Well said. The bottom line is, no matter who is up top, we are far too slow at transitioning the ball.
Football for the last few years has been all about the speed of the counter attack. Direct ball, moving quickly. Even if you have to play a running game, run it directly and quickly. Not sideways and backwards. Unfortunately , our players don’t look capable of doing that so you could have David Clifford inside but he’d still be swallowed up when the ball eventually gets to him.
That's good news indeed On their day Brady and Reilly are both players who can win their own ball, take on a defender and stick it between the posts. Ball winners inside are a real commodity and Galligan isn't exactly spoiled with options. When all else is equal it's hard to beat pedigree. I caught the Sigerson semi on GAA Beo and wasn't overly impressed with young Lovett for DIT . He kicked a some good frees but a few things stood out. He only took the frees close to the goals and didn't take anything on or near the 45' . Secondly, when the match was in the balance he tended to stay on the periphery of play allowing others to win primary ball. He then touched the ball on the ground late on and it allowed UCD draw the game on the brink of normal time. In the eventual penalty shootout he kicked his penalty into the keepers hands. I felt bad for him. The two corner backs for DIT were young Cian Reilly from Killygarry and Niall Carolan of Cuchulainns who both gave very good accounts of themselves. Carolan in particular is a forceful defender and a strong carrier of the ball going forward. He was as good as anyone on show that day and was clearly central to their attack. Again it's hard to beat pedigree. Would there be any value in having him in our halfback line ?
That's it. Nally away too. No harm, skills went backwards with him it seems. Maybe they can work on skills and ball playing in
All needed but the ball needs to be played into them. No point in them making runs and no ball kicked in.
Pod has it that Oisin Brady and Cormac O'Reilly are back in. Lynch close too, although earlier in the week they said he had a small setback. Think this is huge news. We've been missing forwards. It was disappointing Oisin walked a few weeks ago, but good it's been sorted to get him back in. Cormac after last year stepping up is needed too. Both could go straight back in and are badly needed
That's poor. And worrying. Smart people usually steer clear of an egotist. And we'e in dire need of administrative and coaching talent in the county.
Well said. However, re the underage team position - I think you are only partially right. I think I mentioned it before but the story I heard was our GDM wanted one of his own men in the role and he and the chairman couldn’t come to an agreement so the whole thing was just abandoned.
The squads are an absolute mess. Even the group just assembled, it’s well known around the county that one father/trainer from an older group wasn’t happen when his younger son was dropped from the group being assembled & got him reinstated by threatening to end his involvement with the older group.
The players are all old enough to hear this themselves and it just devalues the whole process.
It’s no wonder our county team is staring into the abyss with the shambles that is our county board.
We have a board that’s afraid of the GDO—a man who’s double-jobbing and prioritising another county over ours. This is the same person who drove all the school coaches out while he remains in place. When will someone finally say enough is enough?
Take the job advertised to oversee all underage teams. Only one person applied: Finbarr O’Reilly. He was ready to switch careers and fully commit. His track record is incredible. And yet—he was deemed "not suitable" simply because there wasn’t another candidate to compare him against. Or, more likely, because the GDO didn’t want another strong voice in the room, especially someone with a proven track record in underage development.
It’s a disgrace.
As I’ve said before, Health and Wellbeing, Scór, the stadium—they’re never priorities. It’s all about football and winning, and always will be. End of.
Just look at our underage development squads. It’s a complete mess. Compare the current situation to the days of Peter Donnelly. Now it’s just a wraparound service run by a few parents, with gym sessions declining compared to 15 months ago.
Wake up, county board. Do your job. People don’t want musical chairs at the top table or fantasy projects. They want real action.
Be highly embarrassing to say the least for the county board if Westmeath bate Cavan & relegate them & McCabe on the payroll
What sort of twine is McCabe getting as GDM with the co board ?
I can’t find it mentioned in the convention report.
For the craic there i just looked up the Cavan Gaa Website https://cavangaa.ie/coaching/ and wasn't suprised that there no no content on it.
I then went to the Mayo website https://mayogaa.com/coaching-resources/ which has lots of good content including some excellant videos.
There is not alot of interest within the County board to do a whole pile in relation to coaching and development. I know they did some workshops last year with club coaches and i would commend them on that but when you hear what is going on now with developments squads it's easy to see thats not where priorties lie.
There is more promoting going into raffling a generator.
Don't think much has changed with the u-20 setup this year either! I heard they wanted to let him go after last year but then did a last minute u-turn.
I listened to the WAC this week and wish I hadn't as only made me more annoyed about the development in Cavan- apparently a fully funded role put up by Kingspan for a development/Academy coach in Finbar O'Reilly wasn't allowed to happen. Mind boggles at how Cavan football being ran at moment.
I will reserve judgement on the Galligan appointment until I see how he reacts. This is now where good managers are worth their weight in gold - confidence low, poor start, must win game etc. Can he get it turned around or will we go into freefall like Glenn Ryan did last year. My boss at work once told me its easy to be a captain in calm seas - its how you perform in rough seas which is the measure.
It demonstrates a lack of confidence. Not in the players but in his own ability. To mentor a crop of debutants through the league, and retire a couple of his old teammates. And be able to stand by those decisions in the face of doubt and criticism while his unique vision *eye roll* takes shape. That type of confidence usually comes with the bitter experience. But my gut tells me that it'll be another case of chopping and changing the old faces until he bows out and we're back travelling to places like Portlaoise and Ennis. I never liked the appointment and I think you're right in saying the CB went with a low cost option. A weak attempt to mimic what Monaghan done with Vinny Corey.
As someone said to me recently, we must be the only county in Ireland with novice managers at senior, U20 & minor level.
The U20 setup was, by all accounts, nothing other than a complete sh!tshow last year yet the manager was allowed to remain.
The one good experienced manager they did have, Seanie Smith from Mullahoran, unfortunately walked away before taking the Mullahoran ladies to an All Ireland semi final.
Are the county board now going with the cheap option at all grades to save funds for Breffni?
Raymond is at this stage in danger of becoming the Steve Staunton of Cavan GAA - ruining a superb playing career with an ill fated managerial stint.
The policy of leaning into the older players rarely leads to success. Whereas blooding youth and culling the panel seems to be the secret sauce of a healthy setup. You read about the great managers making the brave calls on selection and the tough phone calls to keep things fresh. This is the complete opposite.
Listening to We Are Cavan, you’d think Killian Clarke was Michael Murphy & Bryan Fenton rolled into one.
I’d heard one member of the management team, who has now moved on, was particularly critical of the players we were relying on last year and that a revamp of the panel needed to start. It appears he was correct.
On present form, this is another year we’ll be back to the Tailteann Cup & it won’t be third time lucky either.
I don't think we have the personnel on the sideline to develop a style of play within the new rules. If you see how we played in the last couple of games its basically the same as last year. Except we are keeping Beenie and Carolan back, two men who can run the ball and gain ground.
Slow build up play with two men inside begging to receive the ball in space, McEvoy and Lovett have pace that will hurt teams but again so risk adverse pissing about hand passing is preferred option.
Its not just us though, theres plenty of county management teams waiting for Armagh, Dublin, Galway, Donegal or Kerry to come up with a tactical approach so they can copy them next year.
Look there is still hope, Louth, Down, Westmeath and Cork are all beatable but on reality I don't think we have a game plan and also think the management team do not have to he ability to come up with one to get the best out of who is available.
I do wonder if the challenge games that were played which seems to have been all against Divison 1 teams did anything for the teams confindance and abilty to work on a system of play.
If anyone can see a plan out there in the first two games, good luck to you.
It's almost as if the Monaghan and Meath had time to review the "game enhancements" and in both games we only heard about them before throw in. We are open at the back and ponderous in attack. That's two local derbies where we've been taken apart and we have shown the structure and intensity of a challenge game. I absolutely cannot understand this.
This is like Kildare last year or Down a few years ago. I'm not naturally pessimistic, but I think we've got the look of a doomed team that is going to get beaten by everyone. I really hope I am wrong and that there's a kick in us, but after Sunday I really can't see how.
