Friday deadline for clubs to nominate new senior manager
GAA news
Local clubs have until tomorrow (Friday) to submit nominations for the vacant Cavan senior football team manager position, with a county board sub-committee in place to oversee the process of appointing a successor to Raymond Galligan.
The sub-committee consists of chairman Mark O’Rourke, secretary/Head of Operations Martin Cahill, vice-chairman John Keating, treasurer Tom Moore and former Cavan senior footballer and selector and U21 manager Peter Reilly.
“The clubs have been afforded the opportunity to make nominations, that was sent out last Friday and the return date for that is this Friday,” Cahill told the Anglo-Celt on Tuesday.
“The sub-committee have had one meeting, we wanted to set out the terms of reference and make sure there was a process in place. Now we will wait to see what the clubs bring in, we’d be hopeful the clubs will put forward a number of nominations.
“One caveat to that is that we are under no obligation to be limited to the nominations from the clubs, we will take those on board and look at them.
“At the end of the day, the clubs are the county board. We as officers have no issue seeking out candidates, that’s our job, but we would hope that the clubs show good interest in it and put forward nominations.”
Slightly complicating the job at hand is the fact that an unusually-high nine counties are currently on the look-out for new senior football managers. Cavan are also seeking a new U20 manager after Larry Reilly stood down last week.
In a statement, the board stated: “Cavan County Board would like to sincerely thank Larry and entire backroom team of Selectors – Danny Brady, Declan Farrell, Coach – Andy McGovern, Goalkeeping Coach – Eamon Brady and Analysis – Sean Óg Brady for their work over the last two years.
“Larry expressed his gratitude to all the players for their huge commitment and effort over the last two years.
“We wish Larry and his backroom team the very best for the future and thanks again for the last two years.”
Cavan will appoint a senior manager before looking at the U20 position, Cahill confirmed.
“We haven’t started that process yet, we want to get the senior manager in place, that person may wish to be involved with the U20s or they may not so we will complete the senior process first,” he said.
As usual, speculation is rife as to who will go forward for the Cavan senior role. One name which had been mentioned in despatches was Derry All-Star Chrissy McKaigue but the Slaughtneil clubman distanced himself from the speculation, saying he was “shocked” to hear he had been linked to the role.
“This is the first I've heard about it, I've had no previous contact from anyone in Cavan regarding the job… I'm not that long out of the inter-county game and don't really know how my name has ended up here,” McKaigue, a highly-regarded coach, told the Anglo-Celt on Tuesday.