Fermanagh defender Niall Cassidy.
The coming week will see a clearer picture emergin of Fermanagh’s look in 2016 as Erne manager Pete McGrath unfolds his plans for the coming season.
Near the top of his to do list will be sitting down to talk with Roslea’s Niall Cassidy. There has been speculation that the 33-year-old is considering calling it a day for Fermanagh, but McGrath is eager to keep the teak-tough Roslea defender on board.
“No player has yet said to me definitively that he is retiring,” said McGrath. “The only player who could be heading that direction is Niall Cassidy. I’ve yet to speak to Niall, but certainly no other player has even faintly indicated that he does not wish to continue in 2016.
“After the Dublin match Niall indicated that his time could be up, but I’ll be talking to Niall. I don’t want to rush into anything, he’s only after losing a county final eight or nine days ago, so I’ll be talking to him, probably in the course of this week, to see exactly what his position is. But apart from him I would expect every other player to be available.”
Cassidy started 14 games for Fermanagh last year and notched four points in memorable championship campaign where he was practically ever present at full back.
Meanwhile McGrath is in the process of finalising his extended panel for 2016. One man who won’t be making the cut though is Tempo’s attacking ace Daryl Keenan.
“Daryl Keenan is not in a position to commit because he is working as a teacher in England and as a consequence of that it logistically isn’t possible for him to give a commitment,” said McGrath.
“We’ve looked at a lot of club football over the summer and a number of players have been approached. There are other players, I’m not going to name them at the moment, but they have been contacted and within four or five days we will have a clearer picture of those players who have intimated that they want to join an extended panel and fight for their inclusion in the formal panel in the new year.”
The Fermanagh boss has yet to make a decision on captaincy for 2016. But McGrath has indicated the man currently wearing the armband, Eoin Donnelly, isn’t necessarily an automatic choice for the coming season.
“There’s no decisions on that issue,” said McGrath. “There are more pressing issues to be dealt with, but Eoin Donnelly has been a good captain over this last two years, he’s a tremendous footballer, he leads by example. The captaincy is something we’ll be looking at closely, but I think we’re pretty well supplied with potential candidates, people who could lead the team, but Eoin has done a marvellous job and we’ll look at that in due course.”
With the senior management taking on the under 21 squad McGrath intends to add to his back room team and bring in some fresh thinking.
“The back room team is remaining intact,” said McGrath. “There will be an addition which we will be announcing officially in a couple of days. With having the u-21 portfolio as well there was a need to increase the personnel. As well as that we felt as a management team that if there was someone out there who could come in and give it a new dynamic, be a fresh face with a fresh voice then we should try to get that person in. We have spoken to a person and that person is on the verge of being officially appointed.”
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