McCabe strongly linked with vacant Westmeath manager's position
Former Cavan great Dermot McCabe is the latest name being linked with the vacant Westmeath senior football manager's position.
McCabe managed Gowna to the last two SFC titles in Cavan and was a All Star footballer in 1997, when the Breffni men won the Ulster championship. It is understood that McCabe's backroom team will include Donegal's Mark McHugh, who is currently coaching Maigh Cuilinn and was a selector with Roscommon last year.
Clubs are due to meet on Tuesday evening in the Mullingar Park hotel to ratify a new senior football manager over two months after Dessie Dolan stood down. It is at this stage a dragged out process and with the Lake County senior side facing a period of transition, not many high-profile candidates were prepared to take on the challenge.
Still, Dessie Dolan did secure promotion to Division 2 of the National Football League last year and leaves the county in good position after some decent displays against top counties in the All-Ireland series. Westmeath will take on Kildare in the Leinster quarter-final next year, with the winners facing Louth, Wexford or Laois, so the opportunity to get to a provincial final has opened up.
Gowna clubman McCabe played at senior level for Cavan from 1994 to 2010, usually at midfield although sometimes at full-forward. He made 132 appearances, including 43 in the championship and 30 in the Ulster Championship and finished with a tally of 16-228 to his name, of which 5-70 came in championship football.
Dermot's brother Martin is very well known and regarded in Westmeath football circles, having led Garrycastle to three senior county titles. He is also a former Westmeath minor football manager and has been heavily involved at underage and adult level with Tubberclair since moving to the Glasson area.
Martin's son and Tubberclair footballer Eoghan was part of the Westmeath senior football panel in 2024.
There had been hopes that Westmeath would have a manager in place before the senior football final, but that has not materialised.
However, a Westmeath GAA county committee meeting is scheduled to take place next Tuesday night, October 15 at 8.30pm in the Mullingar Park Hotel, with a proposal regarding the senior football manager vacancy one of the items on the agenda. There will be work to do in terms of adding Westmeath selectors to the new backroom team.