The former Breffni star managed Westmeath in 2025 and returns to his native county for the 2026 campaign
It was an opportunity that Dermot McCabe wasn’t expecting to be available. When the call came, it was simply impossible to turn down.
Cavan were on the lookout for a new manager after the surprise departure of Raymond Galligan following a two-year stint.
A stalwart of Cavan teams in the late 90s and throughout the noughties, McCabe won an Ulster title in 1997 as a player and was part of Mickey Graham’s management team when the Breffnimen claimed a shock provincial title success in 2020.
Having managed Westmeath in 2025, he was initially planning to remain at the helm for at least another season, but Galligan’s exit left a vacancy in his native county, albeit McCabe admits that managing Cavan was never on his ‘to-do’ list.
“I’d say it probably wasn’t – I just probably came straight out of playing and I got involved with coaching minors and stayed involved in coaching,” said McCabe.
“I just enjoyed the scenario of working with this type of player and trying to sort of progress game scenarios and try to get the opportunities to see can we progress as a team and it really just developed from there as regards that.
“I got involved then with Mickey Graham in 2019, with Cavan for a couple of years, and we got to a couple of Ulster finals over that time. I stepped away in ’21 and then got involved with the club (Gowna) and we got to three county finals, winning two of them.
“I suppose the opportunity (to manage Cavan) arose. It was difficult circumstances, I was after doing a year with Westmeath and Cavan sort of came calling to maybe talk and things.
“So it’s very hard after probably playing for 12 or 14 years with Cavan to refuse the opportunity to talk to them about possibly getting involved in management.”
Westmeath were relegated from Division Two in 2025, having lost to Cavan in Round Four, and were knocked out of the Tailteann Cup by Wicklow at the quarter-final stage.
It was a frustrating year for McCabe on the sideline as Westmeath suffered a number of narrow defeats, including a two-point loss to Kildare in Leinster.
“Westmeath at the time were probably going through quite a bit of transition, they had a lot of players that sort of passed through,” said McCabe.
“We probably had a lot of very close runs and were very close in a lot of games. We would probably target elements of the game and target parts of the game, you know, kickouts are massive now, attacks etc and that would be probably to my fore as regards what we try to do, to break the game down and target certain areas, rather than always it being the scoreboard that you’re looking at.
“We knew where we were at and we knew the areas where we could try and progress, and try and push on and that, and I don’t think it’s any different here or any team you’re with. You have to sort of take a bit of a study of where you’re currently at and then see how we can improve from there.”
As McCabe prepares for Saturday’s Dr McKenna Cup opener against neighbours Monaghan, he says a few of Cavan’s more experienced players are still mulling over their inter-county futures while Killian Clarke has retired.
Gearóid McKiernan is back for another season after the 35-year-old opted out for the 2024 campaign.
“Gearoid is there, yes. We had a lot of little niggles and a lot of sort of injuries there, so we’ve tried to get the balance right in these first few weeks to sort of prep them, and you’re trying to manage minutes and manage how you sort of introduce them to the season,” added McCabe.
“Because everything sort of happens quite quickly and there’s a lot of games in an eight or ten-week period that a little niggle could end up missing three games so we try to manage that as best we can.
“I’m sure some lads are still sort of mulling over it and still making decisions but some of the lads I’ve spoken to are very eager to get back and get rolling so they’ve started to try and get their pre-season and get their legs in shape for a new season.”
