Grimley a football man with no regrets

Interview with Cavan assistant manager Paul Grimley:For five fruitful years Paul Grimley was the man behind the man in the Orchard county. Being Joe Kernan's number two is hardly an enviable job but Grimley was considered one of the few individuals willing to question one of the GAA's most respected figures.

Such strength of character may have proved his undoing. The reason for Grimley's departure from Armagh remains unclear but John Rafferty's inclusion on the management team may have led to an unwilling departure. It's no secret that Rafferty is being groomed to fill Kernan's shoes after guiding Antrim club St Gall's to the All-Ireland club final last year.

Grimley didn't slip quietly into the night, as prospective Cavan manager Donal Keoghan had the good sense to get him on his management ticket. It proved too good a combination to ignore.

Almost immediately, Grimley was back doing what he knows best, but a residue of disappointment remains after the manner of his departure from Armagh.

"There is a reason. I have never commented on it and I am reluctant to do so now. I had five years with a superb group of players within a superb set-up so it was sad the way it all ended.

"But that's life. Armagh has moved on and so have I. Change tends to trigger certain events so I hope it works out well for Armagh. You just have to dust yourself off and move on.

"I didn't want to move on but I have no regrets. I'm a football man first and foremost. This fresh challenge came quickly. When you are a part of the GAA all your life it becomes hard to walk away from it."

Grimley brings a wealth of knowledge from the ultra professional Armagh blueprint, as does Julie Davis who will oversee the weights programme and more technical aspects of conditioning a modern day intercounty player.

"For me to go into Cavan and try to emulate the achievements of Armagh would be unrealistic. There is a different identity trying to be carved out here. A different style of football to Armagh. I am very aware that this Cavan team want to mould their own identity.

"My mindset would be to bring a hard working attitude into this team. The players seem to realise it already. They haven't shirked responsibility once in the last two months. And that's training in desperately bad conditions. I haven't been easy on them either."

Keoghan, along with selectors Phelim Plunkett and Thomas Martin, brings a deep knowledge of Cavan football. "To be a good intercounty manager a man must be honest, genuine and above all passionate. Donal has all these attributes. Most of all he is obsessed with Cavan football.

"It may be his first senior job but it hasn't shown. I only hope everyone in Cavan is not expecting anything to happen overnight. This will take time."

The new regime got off to an auspicious start when they inflicted Derry's first defeat at Celtic Park in five years last weekend. James Reilly has come out of retirement; Rory Gallagher is expected to make his switch from Fermanagh official against Queen's University tomorrow in Breffni Park, while the best talent to come out of Cavan football in recent times, Michael Lyng, is slowly returning to full fitness after a nightmare 2006.

"We know we are coming off a very low base. This is the first rung of the ladder. The game on Saturday is the next step before the challenge of playing Tyrone. Then we play Meath in the national league opener in Páirc Tailteann and that will be a great game between neighbours. We are simply working towards improving our all-round game."

The first task is to put Cavan in a position to compete with the top teams in the country. "It would be silly to make predictions at this stage. The goal has to be to gain promotion from the second division of the National League. But even if that is achieved we then must enter the Ulster championship, which we all know is a totally different minefield."