Cavan manager Raymond Galligan and Cavan assistant manager Eamonn Murray after the Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup Group B match between Cavan and Derry at Kingspan Breffni in Cavan. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By Paul Keane
When Raymond Galligan was appointed Cavan manager at the age of just 36, he figured he could do with a wingman.
The players would clearly need to be coached so he recruited Tyrone's Stephen O'Neill and former Mayo coach James Burke for that task but given his own relative inexperience - Galligan played in goals for Cavan just last June - he reckoned he would need some coaching himself.
"When Ray rang me, I didn't know what he wanted me for," explained Eamonn Murray, the Cavan native and former Gowna clubman who guided the Meath ladies to back to back All-Ireland senior ladies titles in 2021 and 2022.
It turned out that Murray, living in Meath for decades and heavily attached to the Boardsmill club and Royal County ladies teams, was the figure he had in mind to be his mentor.
"It was much the same as the Meath ladies (job), it wasn't a job I really wanted," acknowledged Murray. "But he's a great man, you couldn't say no to him. He's a very ambitious young man so look, I said, yeah, I'd give it a shot. I went back home first of course to the wife and kids and asked them. We were under too much pressure the last few years, you'd need a few years off. But then I was sitting at home and my wife said to me, 'Go on back, you're grumpy at home!'"
So Murray took up the offer and has loved the last six months or so.
"I didn't know what to think about it at the start," said Murray. "Ray told me that there'd be no pressure on me, that I'm only there to help him along, to coach him really, not coach the players. I'm just helping him the whole time, in everything he says, that he does, what way we talk to the players or the media or whatever else has to be done. That's my job."
It wasn't guaranteed that the pair would click but it soon emerged that they shared many of the same ideas.
"We sat for an hour and a half in Trim one night, we had a long chat and we spoke a lot on the phone," said Murray. "Look, he's into football like myself, he's from Cavan like myself, so yeah we did click very well. We got on very well, all the coaches, there's a great atmosphere in there.
"James and Stephen do all the coaching, Ray is the manager, I'm kind of tricking around talking to everybody every night. I get around as many people as I can, chatting and chatting. That's what I did in Meath as well. I had my own coaches in Meath as well so they did all that end of things. It's much the same job as I had in Meath."
Orlagh Lally of Meath celebrates with an emotional Meath manager Eamonn Murray after the 2022 TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Final match between Kerry and Meath at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
Murray rates it as a successful season so far. They finished third in Division 2, well off the promotion pace but relegation was never any great concern either and they will compete for the Sam Maguire Cup this summer.
The challenge will rise significantly this weekend with a trip to Clones to play neighbouring Monaghan in the Ulster SFC. It's a derby game of sorts though it'll hardly compare, in Murray's mind at least, to the night Cavan played Meath in the league at Kingspan Breffni at the start of March.
"It was the worst night of my life," said Murray, who has lived in Meath for the guts of 40 years and raised a family there. "An hour beforehand, an hour after, I couldn't....I just sat in the dugout with my head down. I couldn't watch it, I couldn't do it."
If he had lost any of his Cavanness over the years whilst domiciled in Meath and pushing the Royal County cause, his new role has surely helped reestablish it. Murray shrugs at that one. It is complicated.
"I'm 35, 40 years in Meath, I never missed a Meath game, Darren Fay's team, a brilliant team, Liam Harnan's team, I watched every game," said Murray. "I used to be thinking when Sean Boylan was in charge, 'What sub is he going to use?' before he'd use them. I'd try to get ahead of him the whole time, to learn off him."
Harnan, the Meath great who won two All-Ireland medals as an all conquering centre-back in 1987 and 1988, is Murray's brother in law. That makes Padraic Harnan, Liam's nephew, who helped Meath to win the Tailteann Cup last year, a relation too.
Meath footballer Padraic Harnan is a nephew of Eamonn Murray.
The night that the Cavan management team was announced and Murray's named was included, he got a text message from Padraic.
"He said, 'Eamonn, I'm delighted that someone has believed in you again'," revealed Murray. "A nice little simple thing to say to me."
Murray believes in this crop of Cavan players too and their rookie manager who is learning as he goes.
"This year the big thing was to stay in Division 2 and that's done, plus we're also in the (Sam Maguire) Championship which is a very big thing for Cavan," he said.
"We weren't in that the last few years, we were in the Tailteann Cup. We're in that this year and we'll look forward to it. So far it has been a successful year for us, very much so.
"We might give a few teams a rattle yet in the Championship, we'll see what happens. We'll get the players back fully fit, we still have a few injuries but we'd like to rattle a few teams, yeah. And if we don't, we'll enjoy trying!"
As for the challenge of Monaghan, Murray isn't convinced it's a good time to play them following their relegation from Division 1.
"Is there ever a good time to play Monaghan?" he retorted. "Look, I had a chat with Vinny there (at the Ulster SFC launch), a good lad, he's doing a marvellous job with them.
"You'd also love Monaghan because they give you everything they've got. They'll always be underdogs but by God they're a marvellous county for the population they have. Those boys, McManus, Darren Hughes, they keep coming back, year in and year out, just for their county. They're brilliant to watch."