Two-horse race as McCabe and O'Reilly nominated for manager position

Breaking

The race for the position of Cavan senior team manager appears to be a straight shoot-out between two former county teammates in Dermot McCabe and Finbar O’Reilly after both were nominated for the position.

McCabe and O’Reilly were the only two candidates nominated by the clubs ahead of last Friday evening’s deadline, the Anglo-Celt can confirm - and the county board favour the appointment of a local man if possible.

“The two candidates were nominated by the clubs in Cavan and we will be meeting both in the next week to 10 days,” Head of Operations Martin Cahill told this newspaper today (Tuesday).

“If one or other of these is a good fit, we’d love a to appoint a Cavan person to the role. If that isn’t the case, we will explore beyond that.”

The board do not wish to limit themselves to the two candidates nominated but it is thought unlikely that neither McCabe nor O’Reilly would be ratified so it seems to be a two-horse race between the Gowna and Lacken clubmen.

McCabe is currently in situ as Westmeath senior team manager and is also employed as full-time Games Development Manager with Cavan GAA.

“We would hope that one of the two people will be appointed, we have to be respectful of the fact that one of them is involved in another county,” Cahill said, reiterating that “if neither fits the criteria, we will explore beyond that”.

O’Reilly was nominated by his home club; it is unknown which club nominated McCabe, with Cahill stating it would be “wrong to say what clubs nominated them, both were nominated by clubs within the county”.

See tomorrow’s print edition for more – and our special 24-page championship preview supplement.