Derry Club Football & Hurling original

[restorepride]

Progress back from a place we never should have been to a place we never should have dropped below?

Bit to go yet before pride is fully restored.

As a matter of interest, what would be your 'success criteria" for Derry under Gallagher in the next 12 months? Or under any manager?

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Progress back from a place we never should have been to a place we never should have dropped below?

Bit to go yet before pride is fully restored.

As a matter of interest, what would be your 'success criteria" for Derry under Gallagher in the next 12 months? Or under any manager?

The year we were relegated from div 3, Armagh were promoted to div 2. I'd take where Armagh are now.

Any further questions?

[restorepride]

Progress back from a place we never should have been to a place we never should have dropped below?

Bit to go yet before pride is fully restored.

As a matter of interest, what would be your 'success criteria" for Derry under Gallagher in the next 12 months? Or under any manager?

The year we were relegated from div 3, Armagh were promoted to div 2. I'd take where Armagh are now.
After that answer, NO!  I 'll just keep an eye on Armagh for the next week and the following 51.

Any further questions?

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Progress back from a place we never should have been to a place we never should have dropped below?

Bit to go yet before pride is fully restored.

As a matter of interest, what would be your 'success criteria" for Derry under Gallagher in the next 12 months? Or under any manager?

The year we were relegated from div 3, Armagh were promoted to div 2. I'd take where Armagh are now.
After that answer, NO!  I 'll just keep an eye on Armagh for the next week and the following 51.

Any further questions?

And yet you accuse others of arrogance.

Looking at PP, Tyrone obviously favs for ulster, then a hair's breadth between Donegal, Monaghan and Armagh. Then the odds more than double to Derry. And double again to the remaining teams.

I'm not sure why it's unrealistic to aspire to bracket Derry with Armagh and, by extension, Monaghan and Donegal.

[restorepride]

Progress back from a place we never should have been to a place we never should have dropped below?

Bit to go yet before pride is fully restored.

As a matter of interest, what would be your 'success criteria" for Derry under Gallagher in the next 12 months? Or under any manager?

The year we were relegated from div 3, Armagh were promoted to div 2. I'd take where Armagh are now.
After that answer, NO!  I 'll just keep an eye on Armagh for the next week and the following 51.

Any further questions?

And yet you accuse others of arrogance.

Looking at PP, Tyrone obviously favs for ulster, then a hair's breadth between Donegal, Monaghan and Armagh. Then the odds more than double to Derry. And double again to the remaining teams.

I'm not sure why it's unrealistic to aspire to bracket Derry with Armagh and, by extension, Monaghan and Donegal.

Aspiration and reality are two very different things. So far, I think that Derry's season has been "successful". Maintained Div 2 status, narrowly missing out on promotion. An upward curve. But I'll keep Ard Mhacha in a headlock for comparison!

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Progress back from a place we never should have been to a place we never should have dropped below?

Bit to go yet before pride is fully restored.

As a matter of interest, what would be your 'success criteria" for Derry under Gallagher in the next 12 months? Or under any manager?

The year we were relegated from div 3, Armagh were promoted to div 2. I'd take where Armagh are now.
After that answer, NO!  I 'll just keep an eye on Armagh for the next week and the following 51.

Any further questions?

And yet you accuse others of arrogance.

Looking at PP, Tyrone obviously favs for ulster, then a hair's breadth between Donegal, Monaghan and Armagh. Then the odds more than double to Derry. And double again to the remaining teams.

I'm not sure why it's unrealistic to aspire to bracket Derry with Armagh and, by extension, Monaghan and Donegal.

Aspiration and reality are two very different things. So far, I think that Derry's season has been "successful". Maintained Div 2 status, narrowly missing out on promotion. An upward curve. But I'll keep Ard Mhacha in a headlock for comparison!

Aspire was the wrong word, I should have used expect.
Maintaining Div 2 status can't really be classed as an achievement, given how poor Down and Cork were and how we have routinely got the better of Offaly. If maintaining Doc 2 status is an achievement, then we can hopefully aspire to be like Clare in a few years.
Narrowly clearly has quite a wide meaning; we were a distant third.

[restorepride]

Progress back from a place we never should have been to a place we never should have dropped below?

Bit to go yet before pride is fully restored.

As a matter of interest, what would be your 'success criteria" for Derry under Gallagher in the next 12 months? Or under any manager?

The year we were relegated from div 3, Armagh were promoted to div 2. I'd take where Armagh are now.
After that answer, NO!  I 'll just keep an eye on Armagh for the next week and the following 51.

Any further questions?

And yet you accuse others of arrogance.

Looking at PP, Tyrone obviously favs for ulster, then a hair's breadth between Donegal, Monaghan and Armagh. Then the odds more than double to Derry. And double again to the remaining teams.

I'm not sure why it's unrealistic to aspire to bracket Derry with Armagh and, by extension, Monaghan and Donegal.

Aspiration and reality are two very different things. So far, I think that Derry's season has been "successful". Maintained Div 2 status, narrowly missing out on promotion. An upward curve. But I'll keep Ard Mhacha in a headlock for comparison!

Aspire was the wrong word, I should have used expect.
Maintaining Div 2 status can't really be classed as an achievement, given how poor Down and Cork were and how we have routinely got the better of Offaly. If maintaining Doc 2 status is an achievement, then we can hopefully aspire to be like Clare in a few years.
Narrowly clearly has quite a wide meaning; we were a distant third.

A distant third?! Mention that to Shane McGuigan the next time he's dragged to the ground. One attack away from promotion to your bench-mark Ard Mhacha. Or is it now Clare?

[Silver hill]

Derry are probably where we should be, div 2 and challenging at the top.
Previous Derry managers were unlucky with the success of slaughtneil and the unavailability of the spine of the team until mid April on a couple of occasions. There's no way Derry could have survived in div 2 without those players. Div 3 was a different matter entirely and there's no way we should ever have been relegated out of 3 as there was enough talent remaining to survive.
Anyone taking over after that and the only way was up. The easy lifting has been done and Gallagher got a good bounce with the return of glass and also Covid when we drew a horse and cart through the non collective training rule. The knock on from that was that we were probably one of the top 5 fittest teams in the country.
We are somewhere between 9 and 12 in the country at present though sadly lacking another one or two quality forwards.
Unfortunately, Gallagher showed zero respect to the u20 management and squad and for me, the selection of some of those players for irrelevant McKenna cup games was baffling. Our u20s were not permitted to have even one collective session whereby every player could train. Mark doherty was named in Derry's 24 to play Meath and was unused. I like to hear a valid explanation for that decision and why he wasn't left to train with his u20 teammates?
Let's not kid ourselves, Rory Gallagher cares not one jot about Derry or our long term future. All that matters is his CV allowing the gravy train to continue.

[restorepride]

Should we sack him immediately, do you think?

[Silver hill]

Any chance you could engage in a grown up conversation?

[Derry Optimist]

Regarding Derry's elimination in this year's Ulster U20  championship in my opinion there are three main factors invovled.First of all the GAA itself must stand indicted for the timing of this competition.It is squeezed into a very short time frame between the latter stages of the National League and the beginning of the Provincial championships.Players are expected to play too many games within a four week period.

In Ulster it is a straight knock out unlike Leinster.This does nothing either for the development of players or for the competition itself and is surely at odds with the often stated concept of player burn out.

The second most potent factor was the large injury toll of players.Derry were missing at least seven  players who if fully fit would be serious contenders for starting positions ie Enda Downey,Matthew Downey,Calum Downey,Eoin McEvoy, Odhran McLarnon,Jack Scullion and Ronan McFaul.That is almost half a team and when one factors in that Donncha Gilmore had to go off injured in the early stages of the game the problems for Paddy Bradley and his management team were really insurmountable.

From a Derry internal point of view those two factors were unfortunately unavoidable.What was avoidable and inherently wrong was the fact that Paddy Bradley had not total access to all the available players.I refer of course to Lachlan Murray(who got injured at Senior training) and Mark Doherty.I understand that most counties in Ireland outside the ten larger ones have to dip in to their underage U20 sides to make a Senior panel viable but when it came to releasing them fully for at least a month before the U20 competition started Paddy should have had full access to them. This was clearly a wrong policy and should not have been allowed.

Hopefully, lessons will be learned and taken on board for next year as the vast majority of this year's side are still underage if the same age limit remains in place. Of course if these mistakes are rectified Paddy Bradley and his management team should remain in situ as they had their side playing a splendid blend of defensive and offensive football despite the restrictions of limited preparation and large player unavailability.

[restorepride]

Any chance you could engage in a grown up conversation?

Surely, if you weren't blinded by your anti-Gallagher rants. Would you keep him another year or not?

[Silver hill]

Regarding Derry's elimination in this year's Ulster U20  championship in my opinion there are three main factors invovled.First of all the GAA itself must stand indicted for the timing of this competition.It is squeezed into a very short time frame between the latter stages of the National League and the beginning of the Provincial championships.Players are expected to play too many games within a four week period.

In Ulster it is a straight knock out unlike Leinster.This does nothing either for the development of players or for the competition itself and is surely at odds with the often stated concept of player burn out.

The second most potent factor was the large injury toll of players.Derry were missing at least seven  players who if fully fit would be serious contenders for starting positions ie Enda Downey,Matthew Downey,Calum Downey,Eoin McEvoy, Odhran McLarnon,Jack Scullion and Ronan McFaul.That is almost half a team and when one factors in that Donncha Gilmore had to go off injured in the early stages of the game the problems for Paddy Bradley and his management team were really insurmountable.

From a Derry internal point of view those two factors were unfortunately unavoidable.What was avoidable and inherently wrong was the fact that Paddy Bradley had not total access to all the available players.I refer of course to Lachlan Murray(who got injured at Senior training) and Mark Doherty.I understand that most counties in Ireland outside the ten larger ones have to dip in to their underage U20 sides to make a Senior panel viable but when it came to releasing them fully for at least a month before the U20 competition started Paddy should have had full access to them. This was clearly a wrong policy and should not have been allowed.

Hopefully, lessons will be learned and taken on board for next year as the vast majority of this year's side are still underage if the same age limit remains in place. Of course if these mistakes are rectified Paddy Bradley and his management team should remain in situ as they had their side playing a splendid blend of defensive and offensive football despite the restrictions of limited preparation and large player unavailability.

Good post.
Would doubt very much that paddy Bradley will return next year if Gallagher still in situ as senior manager (which is highly likely).
Not sure if there's room in the calendar for the u20s anywhere else than where it currently is given the split season?

[Man Marker]

How many Derry managers is that now Paddy's had a problem with

[Wildweasel74]

There should be enough good players in any county without using U-20 players, Clifford and, Sean O'Shea been the exception but if Kerry had let them play U-20 and win 2 all Ireland U-20 it been a bigger benefit to Kerry than playing them at 19