By Niall Gartland

THE opportunity to pull on a Cavan jersey for the very first time at senior inter-county level is something that debut players should really relish, according to their new manager Dermot McCabe.

McCabe was speaking at Tuesday evening’s launch of the McKenna Cup, which has been restored to the calendar after a one-year break, and their campaign gets underway on Saturday, January 3rd at home to neighbours Monaghan.

McCabe is widely recognised as one of Cavan’s best ever footballers and he believes that the McKenna Cup is an appropriate forum for young players to acclimatise themselves to the demands of senior intercounty football.

“The advantage of the McKenna Cup is that instead of going on the search for challenge matches and the uncertainty that it brings, you have a structure you can work with.

“It also gives lads the opportunity, particularly if they’re debutants, the experience of pulling on a county jersey and playing for their county, and that their first experience of that isn’t an important National League game.

“So it’s a good opportunity for our players but we’re also mindful that we need to look after lads’ bodies.

“They’ve had a block of pre-season so we need to be careful how we use them, because we don’t want to pick up injuries.”

McCabe also said that he enjoyed trawling the club championships with a view to spotting emerging talent in the county.

“We went to go to a lot of games and it was enjoyable. It was nice to get around the place as group stage matches were spread around the clubs, so it was great to go to different places, and see the atmosphere and the buzz.

“It’s a bit different when you’re Cavan manager as your priorities aren’t the same, but in the main we got to see a lot of players and the championships tend to be very competitive in Cavan.”

McCabe also says that it wasn’t a long-standing ambition of his to manage the seniors, though he does have plenty of prior experience of involvement at county level at Cavan.

“It wasn’t on my agenda to be honest. I got involved quite soon after I finished playing, with the minors, and we happened to win an Ulster in 2011, so there was a bit of success with that.

“There were quite a lot of lads who went on to have strong Cavan careers, and a few of the lads – Ciarán Brady and Gerry Smith – are still involved.”