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The late Frankie Kearney who died this morning was a great Gael - loyal Glen club man and committed Derry County supporter.He was an outstanding Manager of Derrry in the 1970's and he and his terrific bunch of players shared many great victories at  Provincial level.

He will always be remembered with great fondness for designing the crest for the Derry County jersey and all County GAA official insignia.

He was also a skilled organiser at County Board level and his meticulous attention to his financial duties as Ciste Gael  coordinator will never be forgotten.

For many years he was the highly respected Principal of Holy Trinity College in Cookstown.Deepest sympathy to all  his family and the Glen club in particular.

Rest in peace dear friend. 

Re the appointment of a highly respected former Derry player to new U20  County manager Mickey Donnnelly's backroom team I think it is highly unlikely that Enda Mulddon, if asked, would take up the post for two practical reasons.

Firstly he would probably not do so out of a sense of loyalty to Fergal McCusker with whom he worked with last year and secondly and more importantly he probably would not be available to do so as he has been appointed joint manager of Banagher club side.

Nevertheless for the future good of Derry football it is imperative that a backroom team with a highly respected and capable  backroom team is assembled quickly so that the excellent underage work of the last three years is developed and built upon.

Has Derry's new  U20 football manager Mickey Donnelly of Tyrone  announced his back room team?

Hopefully included will be some very able and talented Derry men with vision and footballing expertise - especially in the tactics and coaching know how of the modern game - to supplement the excellent C.V of the Aughnacloy man.

It is vital that the great work of the past three years of Damian McErlain and his Minor management team be built upon and developed properly so that the players can seamlessly move forward from being good minors and through  the ranks of the U20's onto Senior inter county standard.

I am sure an Provincial  title  will be the aim of the new U20 management team.

Seeing that we have good Ballinderry men involved both with the Derry  Senior  County team and Derry U17 side for 2018 what are the chances of another Shamrocks man being involved with the County U20 side for next year?

Hopefully the current impasse in selecting a manager for that team will be resolved soon.As I said before most ordinary Derry supporters would have expected that Fergal P McCusker would have been reappointed for a third term.After all he did trojan work with the last two U21 teams,bringing them to this year's Ulster final.

To answer Real Talk's query as to the identity of new Banagher joint manager - known as Honda - according to Michael McMullan of Derry Now he is Declan Mullan from Banagher itself.The man who links up with the legendary Enda Muldoon specialises in Strength and Conditioning and coached Glenullin last year under their manager Liam Bradley.

The gremlins got in the way of my last post!!!The complete last  line should have read.One would have thought that after two fairly successful years with the U21 County team that Fergal P McCusker would have been automatically selected as manager for the U20 team in 2018.

For the last three years Damian McErlain  officially announced the names of his Minor panel for the following year's Ulster Minor competitions during the month of October. This  early, yearly announcement  was a hallmark of his ability to organise his players  in a thoroughly efficient manner which resulted in Derry reaching three successive Ulster finals and winning two of them,albeit with groups of very talented players. With a likely earlier start for the 2018 Ulster U17 championship it is imperative that the County Board make an announcement shortly as to who they are going to appoint as the County U17 manager.Perhaps they are having difficulty in getting a suitable candidate to follow in the very successful footsteps of McErlain.After two promising years with the U21  U21 side one also would have thought that

If Derry have all their best players fit and available and play with the same spirit and determination that they showed against Mayo in normal time in Castlebar, in this year's Qualifiers,  I have no doubt that they can beat either Donegal or Cavan in next year's Ulster championship.

Hopefully Damian McErlain and his management team can creature a united unity of purpose and a cohesive proper game plan to make this possible.

On another issue is there any word on who is in charge of managing the County's U17 and U20 squads for next season?

Re next year's Ulster championship Quarter final draw against the winners of Donegal/Cavan and going on  previous history Derry will be at home to Donegal if the latter  win the Preliminary game and away to Cavan if the Breffni men win at Ballybofey in the first game.

To answer "The Impact Code's " query as to which club Derry Minor champions Ballinascreen are drawn against in the Ulster Minor club championship (officially known as St Paul's Belfast Tournament!!) to the best of my knowledge the draw has not been made yet.However I am open to correction on this.

More importantly I hope Ballinascreen keep up a proud Derry winning tradition in this tournament.They have many very good footballers and it would be nice to see them gain some provincial silverware.

In the past outstanding individuals like Tony Scullion,Matt Trolan and Brendan Kelly starred for the Derry Senior team on numerous occasions, a  mantle now carried on by Dermot McBride,Benny Heron and Carlus McWilliams.Every club needs an occasional extra boost and this competition can be an incentive for Ballinascreen to make the most of their opportunity.

This years star  minors like John Paul Devlin and Martin Bradley can do likewise.

Just heard that if Ireland succeed in winning their bid for hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup that all designated grounds for this  huge sporting and tourist event will be entitled to  large infrastructure grants both for the individual stadia and the cities in which the games will take place. If true that would mean that Derry City in general terms and Celtic Park in particular, as one of those designated grounds, would be in for a huge financial investment.

After all the years of official discrimination and untold suffering by so many innocent people  no city or county would deserve such a welcome bonus any better than the  good people of our own home place.

I would hope that Derry County Board,Derry City Council and all relevant government bodies,both north and south,would have proper provisional plans made for this exciting development were it to happen.

I am sure that all GAA followers in Derry and elsewhere would like to see the accommodation and playing facilities in Celtic Park updated and developed, particularly if it were to mean the allocation of substantial external grants to make the dream become a reality. Any posters out there know anything further about the prospects of this happening.

I know 2023 is a long time away but would it not be nice to see 2022 All Ireland winning Derry Senior football captain Brendan Rogers along with his vice captain Conor McAtamney show off the Sam Maguire Cup to the millions of the Irish diaspora across the world at the launch of the first World Rugby Cup game in Celtic Park!!! Unless we have such dreams and ambitions  no team or no management will ever achieve anything.Roll on 2018!

As we patiently await the draw for the 2018 Ulster Senior football championship next Thursday night I thought that I would engage in some crystal ball gazing and select the team that I would like to see representing Derry in the first round.Of course in this ideal situation no one is injured and all of our best players want to play and the selectors want to pick them!!

                                               Ben McKinless
Niall Keenan                           Brendan Rogers                     Dermot McBride
Liam McGoldrick                      Chris McKaigue                      Sean Leo McGoldrick
                              Conor McAtamney           Emmett Bradley
Ciaran McFaul                         Danny Heavron (capt)                     Enda Lynn
Benny Heron                          Terence O'Brien                      Niall Loughlin

Remaining Panellists.

T Mallon, Anton  McMullan,G McKinless,C Nevin,K McKaigue, C McGrogan K Johnston, N Forrester, M Bateson,M Mc Evoy,C McWilliams,N Holly,P Cassidy, A McLoughlin,J Kielt,C McWilliams,C Bradley, Declan Hughes,E McGuckin,R Bell, N Toner and Danny Tallon.


As the modern game is essentially a 20 - man team effort I would look upon  all of the above but especially K McKaigue,G McKinless,M Bateson,C McWilliams,N Holly,P Cassidy, J Kielt, R Bell,C Bradley,Shane McGuigan and Danny Tallon as being prime candidates to come on during the course of the game at any time but especially during the last quarter.Indeed all of the latter would  also be very competent  to be on from the beginning.

I am sure that there are other obviously suitable  candidates outside those that I have mentioned above.

If Damian McErlain and his management team can get all of the above players willing and able to participate he will have the nucleus of a very good competitive team who can make a realistic
push for promotion from Division Three of the League and depending on the draw who knows what Derry might achieve in the Championship.

Before this uncertainty,real or imagined,gets further out of hand re the new Derry football panel,provisional or otherwise,  Damian McErlain needs to explain immediately where this whole process is at.If that is done then we can at least make a realistic judgment call of where exactly he and his management team see the future of all the best players in the County.

Our players and supporters deserve  at least to know what their plans are.
Hopefully it is only a lack of proper communication which has created  all of this uncertainty.

As a successful  minor manager Damian was renowned for his communication and man-management skills.

Let us hope that the future of our Senior team under his stewardship will display that same unity of purpose where all of our best players are part of the new set-up( at least eventually).

Re the make up of the new Derry Senior football panel maybe, like what some of our previous managers did, Damian McErlain has selected a Provisional panel of some experienced players mixed with a large coterie of U21 players for pre season and McKenna Cup purposes. Then like them he picks a more stable panel which includes all the best players in the County for the League.

If that is not the case and Heavron,Kielt  Heron and others are not selected on a permanent basis then there will be a lot of difficult questions to be answered.

Either way for the sake of the stability and future of Derry football Damian has to issue a statement announcing his intentions for the coming season.Players officials and supporters do not need any more uncertainty re our Senior football team. We need a clear unambiguous plan which includes ALL of our best players,  irrespective of age and previous unavailability, playing again for our county.We have suffered long enough.

As it is over five days since anyone posted I thought maybe all GAA supporters in the county had transferred their allegiance elsewhere!!So I have decided to stimulate some debate by asking posters to pick their County All Star Club championship 15( players to be numbered in the traditional fashion ie 1-15) either at Senior,Intermediate or Junior levels.Their final selections should be based on actual performances in this year's competitions.