McCabe: 'I brought them down and brought them back up again'
Caherlistrane manager hails players after 13 wins in-a-row
BARRY McCabe now knows what it’s like to win an Intermediate county title as a player and manager.
McCabe was part of the Caherlistrane group that claimed the Cotter Cup 21 years ago. Ronan Conneely and Noel Judge were members of that panel and the 2026 panel, incidentally.
Relegated in 2024, McCabe has now guided Caherlistrane to a return to senior football.
“It's massive,” said McCabe after Caherlistrane’s three-point win over An Spidéal. “We went down in 2024. I was over them in ‘24. I brought them down and brought them back up again. In ‘24, we were fading for a few years. It was five or six years in relegation [battles].
“Going down, Monivea-Abbey beat us 0-9 to 0-5 in that relegation final. I remember (Francis) ‘Bunt’ Roche, a good friend of mine, came over after the match and said ‘listen lads, go and enjoy tonight with a few pints’.
“To be honest, we had weight off our shoulders. We were winning one game every year. There's no fun in that.
“This year, we went for the league. We had a bad start, but then won 13 in-a-row and now we are county champions.”
The Caherlistrane rearguard was breached for just three goals in seven championship fixtures. Their point concession rate throughout the campaign has been impressive.
“They've been really driven. Just sticking to the basics. They're driving it, 39 lads togged today. All year, defensively, we conceded an average of 12 points in the championship coming into this game,” said McCabe, who played with the Galway Masters in 2026.
“We haven't been beaten. We were confident at half-time that if we cut out the silly mistakes in the turnovers, we had the defence. Again, we conceded 12 points today. There were a few two-pointers (for An Spidéal). We're happy with that.
“Second half performance was absolutely savage, in fairness. We were against a gale. In the first half we were turned over eight times in the forward line.
“Maybe it's a bit of panic playing with the wind that you have to keep going for two-pointers. In fairness to An Spidéal, they were 0-5 to 0-2 up and they were kind of controlling (the game). We kind of stepped back and then were trying to push out but it didn't work for us.
“We were still (ahead) at half-time, a point up, 0-8 to 0-7, and hadn't played well. The second half, I thought we controlled the game from start to finish.
“We conceded a two-pointer from a turnover, a free down the corner and the last one (two-pointer) there from Finnian (Ó Laoi). To score seven points against the breeze, it was phenomenal.”
Sunday’s man of the match brings another reference point to the ’05 team. Pat Madden, Timmy’s father, was part of that group and played with McCabe.
“Ah seven points, he's only 18 now, he’s some bit of stuff,” said McCabe of Timmy Madden’s performance.
“If you take Evan (Cunningham), Timmy and Kian O’Donoghue, they won the U-17 A Shield last year, U-19 B North Board and U-19 B County (final),” said McCabe when expanding on the talented young players that have been blooded for Caherlistrane at adult level in recent times.
“This year they won the A Cup in the U-19 League. Then we won Division 3A, and obviously the championship today. They've won six trophies in the last two years.”
Nine backroom team members were included alongside Barry McCabe in Sunday’s matchday programme, a group that will be preparing Caherlistrane for a first fixture in Connacht since the mid-2000s.