Cahill played 264 matches for Port Adelaide and 29 state matches for South Australia from 1958 to 1973. He captained Port Adelaide from 1967 to 1973 and skippered South Australia in 1969 and 1970.
Coaching career
After retiring, Cahill took up coaching. Starting with Port Adelaide, he would lead the club to 10 premierships in the SANFL. Cahill spent two seasons at the Collingwood Football Club in the VFL where he led them to 6th in 1983 and 3rd in 1984. He then returned to Adelaide where he coached West Adelaide in the SANFL, taking the club to 3rd in his first season and the league Night Premierships in 1985 and 1987. But it was Port Adelaide where his heart lay and he returned to Alberton in 1988 and led the club to six more premierships before ending his SANFL coaching after 14 rounds of the 1996 season to move on to coach Port in 1997 and 1998 when they were admitted into the AFL. After two successful seasons in the AFL, Cahill left the club and, it seemed, football forever. However, in 2005, he was appointed coach of the Port Adelaide Magpies for one season to revitalise the struggling club. He took them to their first finals series in three seasons and they finished a respectable third. At the end of the season he announced that he was retiring from coaching. However, in 2008, he signed a two-year coaching deal with the South Adelaide Football Club in an attempt to pull them out of their current slump. He resigned eight matches into the season, apparently citing "outside influences".
Personal life
His son is Darren Cahill, a former professional tennis player from Australia and tennis coach. His brother is Darrell Cahill who also played for Port Adelaide, playing 265 games. His daughter married Scott Hodges who played for Port Adelaide, Adelaide and Port Adelaide in the AFL. They have since divorced. His uncle, Laurie Cahill was also a coach in the SANFL, coaching South Adelaide in 1947-8 and 1957 and West Adelaide from 1953 until 1956, taking the latter club to two Grand Finals in 1954 and 1956. Prior to that he was a dual premiership player with South Adelaide in the SANFL and a member of VFL side Richmond’s 1943 grand final winning team. He is first cousin to Barrie Barbary. In 2010, he purchased an Franchise located on-site at Pulteney Grammar School in the Adelaide CBD.
