Cavan's new boss - meet Mattie McGleenan

Paul Fitzpatrick

On Saturday morning, we awoke to the news that Séamus McEnaney would be confirmed as the new Cavan senior team manager within 48 hours. We looked into the story; it didn’t check out.

Mattie McGleenan had yet to be interviewed and word quickly filtered out that despite a strong presentation from ‘Banty’, the powers that be were sweet on the former Tyrone footballer.

McGleenan may not be that well-known this side of the county boundary but, in Monaghan, his name is good - his work with Monaghan Harps and later with Scotstown has ensured it.

He comes from the Eglish club in south-east Tyrone and before the late Cormac McAnallen arrived on the scene, he was the first club representative to play in an All-Ireland final, in 1995.

As a player, McGleenan was renowned for his bravery, and the fisted goals that were his trademark.

In the Ulster final in that annus mirabilis of ‘95, he was recalled to the Tyrone attack and landed one of his specials against Martin McHugh’s Cavan.

After the game, he revealed that the Tyrone panel had watched a video of Cavan two days before the game and remarked on the courage of Blues goalkeeper Paul O’Dowd, who was never slow about leaving his line.

“He’ll always attack the ball,” McGleenan told The Anglo-Celt after that match.
“Adrian Cush’s pass was perfect but I was aware that the keeper wouldn’t be too far away. Instincively I flicked the ball over his head and despite a bang, once the ball was in the net I didn’t worry about the pain.”

He’ll need that resilience in Cavan, where the demands of supporters are often unrealistic and where 10 managers (one of them twice) have been and gone in 21 years.

McGleenan cuts an impressive figure. He’s into his fitness and formerly dabbled in some media work, writing a column in the Tyrone Herald and at one time co-presenting a sports show on local radio there.

And he’s served his apprenticeship in the bainisteoir bib, too. He cut his teeth at club level in Tyrone and with St Pat’s Armagh, where he is Head of PE.

A St Pat’s, Dungannon old boy, he learned the ropes manning sidelines on humdrum midweek mornings at deserted grounds on the Ulster Colleges beat and, in 2000, he led the school to a first MacRory Cup title in 47 years.

Soon, he took over as Monaghan Harps manager and the county town side quickly stormed from junior to senior ranks, landing an Ulster junior club title in the process in 2005.

And when they had established themselves as senior contenders, he moved on, taking the reins at Scotstown and leading them to a first title in 16 years back in 2013, an unprecedented famine by their standards.

They won the Mick Duffy Cup again in 2015, going on to the Ulster final and losing by a point after extra time to Crossmaglen, and again a fortnight ago.
Along the way, he has served as a coach and selector with the Monaghan minors, too.

“Mattie is very widely-respected here, he holds a lot of sway and is heavily involved with the underage Tyrone academies,” stated a source in Tyrone.
“He’s meticulous, he’d have teams very well prepared. He’ll be a success in Cavan I would say.”

As for a philosophy on football, McGleenan - who is 43 - favours an attacking style if comments in an interview with The Irish Times last year are anything to go by.

“I wouldn’t be a great advocate of 15 men inside the 50. I would not. I don’t think that is of any benefit to the game,” he told journalist Keith Duggan.

“Dublin, I felt, have played a great brand of football and they had had to adapt to an extent. But some of the skills in evidence in terms of scoring and kick passing and movement and handpassing . . . all that stuff can be coached.

“You can accept that challenge and try and meet the standard or you go 15 behind the ball and you become athletes. Your county almost dictates the style that a club will play. It has bits and pieces but in Monaghan they have a great attitude of coming out and playing football and just going at each other.”

Hopes are high that after the progress Terry Hyland made in Cavan, the board have got the right man to move the team on another step or two. Time will tell. We wish him well.