McGleenan's positive outlook for Cavan football

New Cavan football manager Mattie McGleenan comes to the county in exciting times. The talented group of players are set to compete in Division 1 and welcome All Ireland champions Dublin to their home ground to open the National Football League in February. Here Mattie tells Damian McCarney about his aims, footballing philosophy, and a certain summer’s day 21 years ago.

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The Celt sets the scene: St Tiernach’s Park. Sunday, July 23, 1995.
Cavan’s new manager Mattie McGleenan knows exactly where we’re transporting him to, and exhales a generous laugh.
“I’m trying to build up a relationship with Cavan,” he jokes.
Cavan are chasing their 39th Ulster Championship while Tyrone had a paltry six Anglo-Celt Cups in their petite trophy cabinet, which at that time remained a Sam-free zone. The Ulster final is poised 0-12 to 0-09 in Tyrone’s favour, and although they are dominating play, they can’t shake free of Cavan. There’s 13 minutes remaining and two Tyrone subs seize the initiative - Adrian Cush and Mattie McGleenan. The latter had strained his ankle ligaments weeks earlier and only lasted 20 minutes in a “clinker” of a semi-final against Derry. Ciaran McBride had come in for McGleenan and held his place for the Clones final. According to The Anglo-Celt’s match report of the time, McGleenan had only been on the pitch four minutes when he made his telling contribution.
Cush has possession around the 40, and although it is a straight ball, the weight of pass from the instep of his left foot cuts out the entire Cavan full back line. A diagonal run sees McGleenan ghost into position, and as the ball hops high off the hard chalk line of the 21, it’s a race between the Tyrone forward and the dreadfully exposed Paul O’Dowd in the Cavan goals. Sporting an old-style keeper’s cap - O’Dowd bravely hurls himself at man and ball.
Eye on the ball McGleenan right hooks the size five high into the Cavan net. He launches O’Dowd’s dislodged cap high in the air in celebration and fist pumps his way back to position.
“1995 was really about changing our whole mentality and changing our whole training regime in terms of really giving this a great shot,” recalls Mattie. “Cavan at that time were really starting to come together as a football team. Basically that day it came down to a kick of a ball - now we were very very lucky, we got two goals at the end of the game - at that stage the game was on a knife edge.
“In coaching terms, I would talk about critical moments that decide the future of the game - on that particular occasion, I was very blesssed that Adrian Cush had given me probably a perfect ball... It’s a hell of a place to score a goal in the Ulster final, and it gave us a platform at that stage. I think there was only 12 minutes to go in the game at that stage.
“I had nothing but tunnel vision for that ball. I wouldn’t have seen nothing else - nothing else mattered at that particular point. I suppose it wasn’t making a big decision, it was intuition, I felt it was my trademark to play the ball at all times rather than take the ball into contact. It was just the way the ball bounced that particular day - it bounced high, and it was just a reflex action - I said I’ll just go for it with my fist.”
Swiping with his right fist he was exposed to the on-rushing O’Dowd who clattered McGleenan to the ground with a collision that would shake an All Black forward let alone a Tyrone one.
“At that particular time it was pure adrenaline, it wasn’t even an issue... I would say at that particular stage in my life that was the fittest and strongest I’ve ever been, and the contact just didn’t matter. It was a super hit and we went on about our business.”

Greatest moment
As memorable as that goal was, it didn’t rank as Mattie’s greatest footballing moment. That came in the following game against Connacht champions Galway in Croke Park. At that stage I couldn’t break back into the starting team, and I had a great belief that as a player coming onto the team, you have to make an impact. Just coming onto the team to take part isn’t adding to the team, so I had a great belief that if I had an opportunity that I would always try to prove to a management team that - ‘I’m here and I’m back in the team 100%. If you give me a chance out on the field I’ll help you win’.”
That he did, kicking a right foot point from a horrendous angle, and a more run of the mill left foot insurance point.
“The one with my right that day was under the Hogan Stand and that point would stand out to me because the game was in the melting pot.”
That booked a place in the All Ireland final against Dublin, memorable for Peter Canavan’s virtuoso display, scoring 11 of their 12 points. However, they lost by a point.
“If you lose a game by one point you are always going to look at it and say, ‘If we had done those one, two or three things extra, we could have won the game’. That’s football - we were there at the end of the game, we just couldn’t get across the line.”

Success
The success Mattie tasted as a player has been savoured repeatedly in management - he’s won everywhere he’s been. In charge of St Patrick’s Armagh they won the MacRory Cup 2000 after enduring a wait since 1955. But he’s eager to share the responsibility for success.
“I came along at a very lucky point in that there had been tremendous work done within the school,” he observes.
He also had Sean Cavanagh and Ronan Clarke at his disposal.
“Be honest,” he says, “with two of the up and coming most outstanding young forwards in Ulster and Ireland at that stage, and they happened to fall into my hands - so amalgamate that with another 20-25 young lads who really were prepared to give what they could to win, and you have a seriously potent mix.”
The Celt jokes he could have claimed the credit for the success himself.
“I have a great belief that it’s always about the players - in terms of the work that they put into developing themselves to make themselves better and my job is to continue to develop an environment that allows them to flourish. I’m coming to Cavan and I want to create an environment where all the guys who make the 30-man panel play to their absolute potential, and play their best when they put on the Cavan jersey. I just want to help develop the work that Terry [Hyland] has done.”

Harps
Instant success followed when he took on the Monaghan Harps job in 2005, a junior team. They won the Ulster Junior Championship, and narrowly missed out on a place in the All Ireland final, losing by a point in the semi-final after extra time. An intermediate Championship followed in 2006, leaving Monaghan Harps as a senior team. That time with the Harps helped to formulate his footballing style, and when he arrived at Scotstown - at that time another under-performing club - he found a team receptive to his ideas.
“By the time I got to Scotstown I had an idea of how I wanted to play football, how I wanted to move the ball. In fairness I was very very lucky... I came into Scotstown at a time when the players were extremely hungry for success. For whatever reason they couldn’t get across the line and I came in at a time when the players were just ready to explode, and maybe just a different voice was enough to get them across the line.
“We put in place an environment where the players could go, develop and play and enjoy their football.
“If you are enjoying your football, and you’re training hard, hopefully on the Sunday you’ll see that in how them guys express themselves on the football field.
“The results speak for themselves - those results were achieved by them lads with fierce determination, serious effort and whatever we wanted them to do, it was never questioned. As far as they were concerned, if this is going to help us win, then we do it. That’s the mentality that’s in Scotstown, that’s the mentality that’s in the lads. We just came unstuck in a couple of tight games, but the effort they put in was phenomenal and they got the rewards. Championships aren’t easy won, never mind getting to Ulster Club Championship Finals. I will always be very very blessed that they allowed me to be part of that journey, and to enjoy the run with them.”

Difficult decision
He said it was a very difficult decision to leave for the Cavan job vacated by Terry Hyland, but couldn’t turn down the chance.
“I’ll be honest with you - I couldn’t believe the guys had offered me the job of managing Cavan. I thought it was an absolute honour that they would consider me good enough to take Cavan - I had to turn around and make a decision in terms of Scotstown, because we had four absolutely wonderful years together - great outstanding years and it was a very very difficult decision to go back to the lads and speak to them as a group and say, listen guys this is in my book an absolutely wonderful opportunity. It’s a huge learning curve in terms of the next level of Gaelic football is all about - but I just seen it as an opportunity - I had to go and give it my best shot.
“The Scotstown boys have been nothing but 100% and wished us all very very well - except when Monaghan plays Cavan!”

Brainwave
In a crucial championship match with Clontibret, legend has it Mattie’s brainwave to detail Scotstown’s Kieran Hughes with the unenviable task of marking Conor McManus came from his young son.
“If fiction is better than the truth - go with fiction,” he says in response. The truth’s pretty good too - he brings us back to an earlier game that year, a quarter-final against Latton and Scotstown had a narrow lead, and Owen Lennon was put at the edge of the square. Kieran Hughes came across to his manager and suggested that he could dominate the high ball in defence.
“I said, ‘Right Kieran, you go and win us the game then’ - and that last three or four minutes in that game he gave an exhibition in and around the edge of the square catching ball. That was the start of the catalyst.
“It wasn’t Matt McGleenan - it was all the management team - we looked at all the permutations, what’s the best options we have if we get to the final to play Clontibret? And the one option that we came up with was, if Kieran plays fullback it might just throw Clontibret off - and we were very very lucky that it had that net effect.”
He feels certain the attitudes of the Scotstown players was such that they would have won that particular game regardless of who played fullback.
“That day they gave an exhibition of football that was second to none.”

Positive
The Celt wonders if he will bring such adventurous, positive football associated with Monaghan Harps and Scotstown to the Cavan team.
“That’s the type of football I love coaching. So I’m not going to try to write it up as anything else. That’s the type of football I love coaching and love working with. I think when you stay up the football field and you play, you create a great game of football.
“To go and watch a game where you’ve fifteen guys inside the 45m line it doesn’t encourage the next generation, and it doesn’t encourage children to come out and play. I’ve seen U14 games in Tyrone and coaches playing 14 men behind the ball. I just think - if that is the future of the game, we’re in trouble.”
But blanket defences are not the future, the Celt pitches in, as demonstrated by Dublin winning back to back All Irelands playing adventurous football.
“Their style of football is excellent, and if we’re to play these people... What I’ve seen of Cavanmen - I think they’re great lads with a huge abundance of skill and talent. The way I look at it is, if they are up the field and doing their work at that end of the football field, why turn around and run back down the football field until the other team comes and beats you? Why not go up the football field and do your work further up the field?
“I think it leads to a fantastic game. That’s what the game is all about.”

Love
He insists that this brand of football is also enjoyable for both the players and supporters.
“I think the Scotstown people have thoroughly enjoyed the four years of football we have played. I think the lads have really enjoyed themselves - that’s what I love about football.
“When I leave training I want to know that I enjoyed that training session and the players enjoyed that training session and they developed and made themselves better.
“The next level of footballer - there’s a huge difference in winning and losing - it’s speed of thought and speed of play. If you have fifteen men behind the ball, it’s very difficult to develop speed of thought and speed of play in terms of your movement if you look up the field, and you’ve the football, and there’s nobody there.
“What I would be keen to develop is that speed of thought and speed of play - move the ball fast and early. Defenders - your job is to mark your man, so let’s see can you mark your man, rather than four men helping you out to mark that man? Are there players in Cavan who can mark a man? I would definitely think there is. Man to man - there you are: do your job.”
Mattie’s eagerly anticipating the national league opener against Dublin in Kingspan Breffni Park on Sunday Febraury 5, not to mention the other great Division 1 fixtures with Kerry, Mayo, and his own beloved Tyrone.
“I have possibly two and a half months to get to know the guys, and get them to know how I would like them to play football and then let’s throw it out on the table against Dublin and see.
“A great terminology I learnt was: it’s win or learn. I would have a great belief, if we don’t win that day, what do we need to do the next day that we improve and do better?
“Dublin’s a fantastic game, if you look at all their games in Division 1 this year - we’re going to get a fabulous education, as to where we’re at and where we need to get to. Certainly this year for me, it’s me finding out what this level is about, and every day I have got to learn and bring it back to the training table at the next meeting and say, - ‘Right this is what we’ve got to improve on’.
“What I need at this point in time is 30 really hungry Cavan lads who want to play to their absolute maximum potential and fight for every place on the squad. If I have that, then I will have great belief.
Mattie proudly notes that in all the times he met Dublin as a Tyrone player, he was only on the losing side once - that notable All Ireland final defeat. He “really enjoyed” the Dublin encounters and believes that his new team will relish the challenge too.
“Those were the games I played my absolute best because if you can’t bring your best game to the table against Dublin, well then what are you doing?

Priority
Although he insists he is focused primarlily on the Dr McKenna Cup in the New Year and assessing his panel, he outlines his National League target as keeping Cavan in the top division.
“Everything after that is a bonus. Priority in my book is Cavan stays in Division 1 - I think it’s taken 18 or 19 years to get to Division 1.
“I want to make sure Cavan stay at that level because I think it’s only a positive to you - you have to learn to be consistent in your performances. If you’re going into the All Ireland series, the big thing that separates the teams that have got to the semi-finals every year for the last few years is consistency of performance - that’s what we have to find.
“If one day it doesn’t work for you, you regroup, you reorganise and you make sure that your season doesn’t end at that particular point - your season isn’t over, you go again, it’s back to the drawing board - what did you learn from that particular day and you go and improve. We’ve got to get to a level where we are consistently performing at a high level - when we achieve that, we’ll be a very difficult team to beat.”

Marquee forward
Of course Cavan’s frustration at their Ulster Championship barren spell has been compounded by jealously looking eastwards to Monaghan and their two recent Anglo-Celt Cups. A key factor in the Farney success, in addition to the tactical know-how of manager Malachy O’Rourke, has undoubtedly been the mesmeric performances of full forward Conor McManus. Is there anyone who Mattie has seen who he could nurture into Cavan’s marquee forward?
“Conor McManus is the Peter Canavan of the early ‘90s,” Mattie replies. “He is an exceptional football player. I wouldn’t even be trying to emulate, or push a footballer into that situation - I want everyone to think about scoring, in the modern game if you rely on one player... If you go back to Tyrone - we didn’t win an All Ireland final in 1995 because we relied too heavily on one marquee forward in Peter Canavan.
“You need every player thinking about scoring and that is one of the philosophies I would have - I want every player to be confident on the ball, and confident that if they are in the scoring zone - within shooting distance - they can kick a point for Cavan. If we don’t have a Conor McManus or a Peter Canavan or a Diarmuid Connolly - then just give me fifteen lads who can all score a point - and if you score fifteen points in a game then you become very hard to beat.
“I’m getting to know the players - some of the guys I have met, I think they’re great lads, they have a high skill level and that’s part of our training process - maybe find a guy who can get us five or six points in a game - I think they’re out there, it’s a matter of just a matter of giving them a chance.”
How does he feel about reports of losing Cian Mackey and David Givney?
“Players have priorities in their lives and that takes precedence over everything. They’re not professional sportsmen so there comes a point where you have to decide where your life is going.
“At this moment in time I’m working to get to know the players that I have in front of me and to get the best out of them - certainly if David and Cian, if they can come back in, if they make themselves available again, then fantastic. But my job is to work with the Cavan players, get that 30 man squad together, and get them playing football. I have a lot of work to do without start worrying about who’s not there. My priority right now is to pick a squad of 30 Cavanmen and then get working with them in terms of playing how I would like them to play football - that’s going to take a serious amount of time, a serious amount of effort, and you only have a short period of time to achieve that, because listen - Dublin in February is heading our way, so we have a lot of groundwork to do to be ready for them.”

Step up
While there’s goodwill towards Mattie’s appointment, but the one reservation that Cavan supporters may have is that he’s untried at this level, and they may wonder if he can make the step up from club level to county level? He obviously convinced the county board that he could make that step-up, so the Celt asked him - what can you say to assure Cavan supporters?
“The only thing I can assure Cavan people about is that I will give 100% - I’ll do my best to get the best out of the team. I can’t guarantee you any more or less than that there. What you see is what you get with me - we’ll give it the best shot we can.”
Can you convince the players they’re good enough to win?
“I think they are good enough to win - from who I have met of the lads, they’re tremendous young men who want to achieve. Put it like this we’ll develop our training - we’ll aim towards getting the best out of them, and if we get the best out of Cavan I think it will take a hell of a team to beat them.”