Messages

Whatever about the rights and wrongs, and things said in the heat of the moment, the level of vitriol directed at John Joe Cleary is simply wrong. Most people involved in yesterday's game have to get on with their work today/ tomorrow and that includes the referee and his officials. People need to wise up and whilst its really hard to take a narrow defeat in any game, without referees there are no games. Everyones got an opinion and thats fine but people need to catch themselves on - no one died. It was a game of football and life goes on.

The only thing I would say about the PA system is could it be used a bit less -  we don't need a minute by minute update. So maybe just dial it down a bit.

Think its fair to say Glen will win the title with a fair bit to spare. Overall whereas its easy to pick out individual players who played well this year, thats not the same as saying they are inter-county material  - where are the really top class players who are going to get Rory Gallagher's team into Division 2 next year or, as he has spoken about himself, Derry's first Ulster championship in over twenty years?

Has Gallagher been offered the County job? Is the County Board waiting to hear from him or whats the craic? . No harm but it was no way to treat genuine Derry men like McGoldrick and McBride to go behind their backs and meet directly with Gallagher. How come Derry always seem to get the basic things wrong? The Chairman and Vice Chairman and all the rest don't seem to be in control. Its long overdue that Derry appointed top quality people to the County Board but we always seem to end up with people who would struggle to organise a piss up in a brewery.

The club championship is a two horse race - Coleraine or Slaughtneil - no one else even comes close and by the look of it Slaughtneil want their title back!

Even before a new senior manager is interviewed Derry should decide how it wants to run its own leagues and championships. This plan should be presented to anyone who wants to manage the county and if they don't like it then then should find another job - there's plenty of them out there, they could have their pick and its better to know where everyone stands before they start. No one is saying we shouldn't give the county a fighting chance but until we are back among the top 8 sides in the country would it not be better to develop players through playing regular club football and prevent our best young players either heading to America or wasting their time sitting around waiting for a game. Also clubs know the difference between a serious game of football and these glorified friendlies. It was a nice idea on paper but also very naive. Someone made the point that other counties including those still in the senior championship seem able to offer something better but the situation in Derry is beyond a joke at this stage and the whole thing needs a radical new direction. Put the clubs first then everything else will fall into place.

In fairness to Donnelly this is just a speculative story, with no direct quotes or sources. He can't be held responsible for this type of lazy journalism. If you read the article again, it could easily have been written by one man sitting in his kitchen under pressure to come up with something to fill part of the back page. Though Mountain Gael makes an important point - those appointing the next Derry manager need to show some ambition. The County is desperately in need of some inspiration. Unfortunately there is no evidence the current County Board, with all the same faces that have been there for years, are able to convince some of the top managers to takeover at Derry. So, in the end, a mediocre set up gets a mediocre manager.

I didn't think the article in todays Irish News was very fair on McErlean. You have to assume he got permission from someone - the County Board or Director of Football - to appoint these men who were only doing the job they were asked to do. It may not have had the desired outcome but if the real purpose of the article is to suggest Derry should get rid of half of these people then that runs the risk of undermining McErlean's judgement and he would, in all likelihood, just walk. If he does, then finding a manager whos total budget will be less than McErleans could be fun. The story is really one about who is actually steering the ship at County Board level, not whether Derry should have a masseuse, a goalkeeper coach or a stats man.

What I take from this report is the county is entering a period of the year when it has no income until the Club Championships begin in August but it still needs to find £60 - 70K per month just to keep the lights on. How has this happened?

I have no problem with the current group of players or management. They are doing their very best and it may be, as you say, that we don't have the talented players we had in the past. What I'm trying to work out is how did we ever get to this. We haven't dropped like a stone overnight - if we are to get back to the top and stay there we need to ask what has gone wrong in the past and what is going to be different in the future.

From time to time the reality of how quickly the county footballers have dropped seems hard to believe. People have plenty of opinions but we need to learn from past mistakes if we're not to repeat them in the future. How did this happen - games against Waterford, London and Wicklow? Its not one single thing, obviously, but even with promotion each year it will be 2022 before our footballers are back in Div 1 and, lets be honest, it might take a couple of goes to get out of Div 2 and possibly Div 3, maybe even Division 4! If Limerick beat Leitrim they're back in it and we still have to play them both. So it could be 2025 before we see Derry playing against the top teams again on a regular basis - 25 years into the new millennium! Its hard not to despair sometimes!

On the issue of players missing - I know this was probably covered before - but of last years three county champions (Coleraine, Banagher and Limavady) are there two players on the county panel? Maybe others are injured just now.

I think Bobby Farren is from Drumsurn but Smith has been there so long he will probably get in again. The County Board is like the County team in that all the best people we have in the County dont go near it.

Anyone see new players in the championship that could make the step up to the senior county team for 2019? Hard to believe we'll start our campaign in Division 4 - I know its reality but, seriously, how did we end up in this situation? Who is asking the hard questions?

Really healthy crowd in Owenbeg last night for the two intermediate Championship games - 1700 +. Looking forward to some ding dong games there over the next couple of months. Foreglen will be kicking themselves they let another big lead against Banagher slip whilst some of the scenes in the Fvale v Ballerin game didn't do much for those involved. Whilst the idea of the CCC of making every division in the new league set up competitive seems fa good one, the big problem they haven't considered is what happens all those teams who already were competitive at Intermediate and Junior levels but will now have very little chance of winning anything for years to come. The new league set up might actually have the opposite effect of turning off a lot of players who now think they have no chance of ever making a final, never mind winning anything, and a lot of these clubs are already struggling to field 15 players at the best of times.

I've no doubt that Damian will already be speaking with the players he wants in his squad for next season and also having discussions with players who, for one reason or another, have been in and out of squads over recent times. The crucial thing now, with a group of really talented players coming on line, is to ensure the attitude around the squad is right because he can't afford to have people who are not fully on-board with what hes trying to achieve, otherwise the next generation of footballers will be affected too. Things are definitely moving in the right direction now - we just need to keep bringing in people who can make a real contribution to the future, which is looking really bright.

Agreed! Great to see all the success we're having at the moment - just a pity our senior football and hurling teams are stuck in Division 4 next year because its only fair these great young players - when/ if they do come through - don't have to spend their valuable, formative years trudging through Division 4 and 3 to get Derry back to to where they should be. Lets get these young players through to senior, get some fresh faces and voices involved with the county and start building the momentum for the future.