Signs point to a future off the pitch

Damien O'Reilly completed his stint as Cavan's stand-in manager with last Sunday's National Football League defeat by Dublin at Parnell Park. It may well have been his last involvement with the county for a while. After Christmas he is due to consult a surgeon about a troublesome knee injury which has necessitated seven different operations throughout O'Reilly's long career with his county.

"There's a better chance that I won't play again than that I will. The rest that I've taken hasn't improved it and with the cartilage removed, the general wear-and-tear means that there's no cushioning on the knee and that it is very stiff after any exercise," he says.

If his career is to be over, he will bow out with mixed feelings. Things may be downbeat at the moment but he has had a marvellous year.

O'Reilly is a player of genuine versatility and featured all around the field. Starting at corner forward - as he frequently did this year - he could be seen anywhere from the wings to centrefield to as far afield as corner back.

His influence was immense and although he didn't have the opportunity to showcase his contribution in one particular position, ubiquity and character on the pitch earned him an All Star nomination this year.

The months since Cavan's historic Ulster title win in July have, however, featured an accelerating rate of decline but O'Reilly believes that there is life in the team once the break is over.

"I'd say a lot of us are feeling very tired. We started training in 1996, two weeks before the All-Ireland final and we've been going ever since, training very, very hard."

The signs have been there. Admittedly the county is in the toughest section of the League but at present Cavan sit bottom of the table with Wexford, without a point from four matches and four points adrift of the nearest counties, Kerry and Dublin. The maintenance of that state of affairs would see Cavan sliding from Ulster champions to Division Four in nine months.

In addition to the strenuous months of training and a memorable championship campaign that took them all the way to a Croke Park All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry, Cavan suffered the loss of team manager Martin McHugh who stepped down after three years in charge.

His replacement was supposed to be Mattie Kerrigan but the Leinster coach and former Meath AllIreland medallist withdrew for personal reasons at the last minute, leaving Cavan managerless for their opening League matches including the Polo Grounds commemorative match in New York.

O'Reilly took over as caretaker manager despite the fact that he had decided to rest after the return from the US. He frets over the points that were dropped against Ulster rivals Monaghan and Tyrone but feels the situation is not irreparable.

"When we are pushing hard we are quite capable of winning League games. I'd hope we could win six points after Christmas and make Division Three of next year's League. Even if we made Division Four with six points, at least we'd have regained momentum. At the moment we haven't won a match since the Ulster final, that's five defeats in a row.

"Losing Martin (McHugh) was a blow because he's a very good manager but his timing was beneficial in that it gave the county board time to look for a new man - although it didn't work out that way. Yeah, it was definitely a blow because we'd made progress under Martin all along and maybe next year we would have had a go at the All-Ireland."

Taking over as team manager has been an interesting experience for O'Reilly but one that he insisted from the start would be a temporary one.

"I only did it for two games and it was difficult. The team was on a downer and missing players and it was difficult to get everyone motivated enough."

The experience behind him, O'Reilly is not rushing into a life in intercounty management and in fact he feels that some distance would lend the best perspective to his view should his playing career officially end next month.

"I'm not interested in management at present but probably I will be in years to come. It would be a good idea to start at club level and see how it goes but it's difficult to stop being involved when you've been involved for so long."

Might he not be tempted into some role with the team under new management?

"Not really. I've no great desire to be involved when I stop playing and be a selector. I mean I'd consider it if asked but I would not be disappointed not to be asked."