Messages

Any craic last night lads?

Just ballinderry supporters letting their club down again, but sure whats new

Surely the players who wont play for Derry is the biggest issue here?

Off course a player has a right to play or not but if they had the best players actually playing they wouldnt be in this mess.

Players should not worry about who the manager is - they will be there long after a manager has gone

who are the players who won't play for derry that should be?

Big boots to fill but by far the best team in the county; a golden goose or a poisoned chalice?

I wouldn't be taking it. If the names rumoured to be considering travelling are true, I'm not sure they'd still be by far the best team, but there'd still be the huge pressure to succeed.

who has been rumoured? In the past they've paid big money for outside managers

Mickey Moran has stepped down as Slaughtneil manager.

john joe kearney & paddy flynn must be the favourites to take over now?

[McGuckin]

McErlain says he will draft in reinforcements in the coming days.

who are these reinforcements likely to be?

After the Longford game, Mackers said 'we'd like a bit more quality across the pitch but we are where we are at the minute. '  Well now is the time to add the likes of McGuckin ( a ball winning inside forward who'll make the ball stick), McBride (would have been one of the stand out defenders in this years club championship and him only back from injury), Heavron (one of the top footballers in Ulster) and Sean Leo. Add these men into the mix and start driving towards the championship. The season can definitely be turned around and we don't have to be heading down to Ballybofey (no disrespect to Cavan) thinking we have Everest to climb. Could be a mission persuading 1, never mind them all to rejoin right enough.

aside from above names you have mentioned, what about the below? probably their clubs best players who have represented the county in the last number of years & have plenty of experience.
o'boyle - lavey
mc alynn - loup
nevin, suckie bell, mckinless - ballinderry
oisin duffy - foreglen
craig - dungiven
eoghan + decky brown - bellaghy

im sure there are more

McErlain says he will draft in reinforcements in the coming days.

who are these reinforcements likely to be?

After  the absence of a proper defensive system against Westmeath and the non existence of a meaningful attacking formation against Longford one would expect that in this week's encounter with Offaly that Derry will get the balance right.Anyhow with the necessity to get some points it is imperative that Derry will be more attack minded next Sunday. Our best points scorers will have to be selected.Provided all players are fit I would expect the team to be along the following lines.
             Ben McKinless
             Niall Keenan
             Kevin Johnston
             Ruairi Mooney
             Liam McGoldrick
             Michael Bateson
             Carlus McWilliams
             Conor McAtamney
             Emmett  Bradley
             Ciaran Mc Faul
             James Kielt
             Enda Lynn
             Danny Tallon
             Terence O'Brien
              Niall Toner

OMG

Not sure what your OMG means. Is he missing a lot of players or has reality kicked home ?

You can also take Ciaran McFaul out of that team now.

What happened with McFaul?

USA

If that's true it means there is a vacancy in the panel at half forward. Hopefully Damien will see the opportunity to rectify his mistake and will call up Danny.

Some chance of Heavron agreeing to join the panel anyway. Sure he initially told him he couldn't find a position for him in the first 15. pathetic excuse 

Cheers, didn't realise. Perhaps that rule is still in place so.

Yeah freshers can't play Sigerson currently.

Pretty sure St Mary's freshers can play Sigerson ball

As one of the 52 Derry supporters leaving Pearse Park in Longford yesterday( Yes I counted them.There were 50 bunched together beneath the press box and a lovely mature couple from Magherafelt in the wheelchair section!) I tried to console myself about the very poor performance that I  had just witnessed.

True their defensive problems had improved a hundred fold from the previous week but then yesterday too many players were behind the ball with the result that both Peter Hagan and Niall Toner were completely isolated up front and three extra defenders did not appear to know that they should move forward at pace to support the forward line when Derry had the ball. But at least the previous defence frailities were acknowledged. Longford on the other hand being more practised in the modern game counter attacked at pace and  they also had scoring forwards who could score from distance. We simply never threatened the scoreboard even though the goal was as a result of a very fine whole field move.

The reality of Derry's current plight is that even if we had all our missing players back we are at best a mid Division Two team.Minus the Slaughtneil contingent and Niall Loughlin it will be a hard task to gain the six points necessary to guarantee avoiding relegation to Division Four. Undoubtedly the McKaigue brothers,Brendan Rogers,Niall Loughlin and Shane McGuigan with Padraig Cassidy as a back up for midfield would strengthen the team considerably.However with the  exception of the imminent homecoming of Loughlin  it could be too late for Derry's survival when the Slaughtneil players would be available.It is rather ironic that unprecedented club success could have an unintended  negative consequence for the county team.

There is apparently going to be no progress about any one else rejoining or being asked to rejoin the Derry panel.Seemingly  Gareth McKinless would have been on the panel only for having  made arrangements to go to America this summer.He will be unavailable for Ballinderry for this year's Derry championship owing to his forth coming suspensions for his indiscretions in last year's club championship.Anyhow with the exception of the missing and talented Danny Heavron there is currently no other fit player in the county who could make a substantial difference to the team.Others like Ryan Bell and Emmett McGuckin would be good panellists as opposed to game changing starting players.

Was gareth mckinless not part of the provisional panel at the start of the year but dropped from mcerlains plans as he missed a number of training sessions? correct me if I'm wrong.

The lightness of his squad has led to heightened questioning of the decision not to pick Danny Heavron and Emmett McGuckin as part of his panel. Asked why they had been left out, McErlain replied: "I picked a panel and those two lads weren't on it."

just picked this out of Irish news today. Has come from the man himself! http://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaafootball/2018/01/30/news/mcerlain-backs-releasing-players-to-clubs-1244465/

[promotion, we need to win all our remaining games]

Going on scoreline alone, our score would have won a lot of matches.
Defensively we are still all over the place. No kickout strategy and a lack of cohesion (albeit early days and minus the Slaughtneil defenders).
For any hope of promotion, we need to win all our remaining games I feel, which is a big ask.

I really don't understand the omission of Heavron, Bell etc. I'd love to hear an explanation from anyone close to these players or management.

Kielt sent off again. I do pick on him a bit on here, but he really does let the team down time and again with discipline and inconsistency on level of effort.

Not a promising start to the year or to McErlain's term in charge.  Doom and gloom on the first weekend of the league.

No doubt, come championship I'll still think we can pull something out of the bag. When will I learn though. lol.

Personally I think we have no chance of promotion, but at the same time think we will have a bit too much to be relegated to division 4.

Could not make yesterdays game due to a family christening but had a fair idea from the team line up/three McKenna cup games I was at that Derry weren't going to get a result yesterday. Johnston is not a full back (Plays WHB/MF for his club), but at the same time when you look at the bench there is no real full back on the panel, this will be a big problem until the Slaughtneil men are back. Mooney, who also I rate highly and think will be a great addition to the county panel over the next few years is also not a corner back.

Damien McErlaine was nearly caught out last year in minor AI semi-final when he let the Dublin no.11 have the freedom of the park,  then in final gave Clifford acres of space. I feel he is defensively naïve. Westmeath scored 2-17 against us, a team that came up from division 4 last year, I worry for what waits for us further down the line if we don't get sorted defensively ASAP.


As for Heavron & Bell, I can tell you neither were asked to be apart of the panel this year.

This to me is as bad as his defensive naivety. Heavron has been one of the best, if not the best, player in the county this past few years and would walk on our first 15. Bell is good enough for at least a squad place too.

As posted above, what was scored would win us a lot of games and hopefully the Slaughtneil defenders coming back will boost our defense. Back line is weak looking at present with no real full back and not enough out and out defenders. Anyone know what the story is with D McBride, G McKinless and O Duffy? All not with Slaughtneil and could offer something, if available, in my opinion.

Anyway I think we'll stay in Division 3. Should have too much for Sligo, Offaly and Wexford without really threatening promotion either. Next game is important to get back on track, away to Longford who are somewhat of a bogie team for us.

Dermot McBride is riddled with knee problems and has a hard time maintaining fitness because of this. No idea what the story is with Danny Heavron? Can anyone shed light on whether there was a fall out? Has to have been a reason other than footballing matters, because he's a class act and would walk onto the team as previously mentioned.

Heavron was never asked up or named on the initial training panel at the start of the season, he had received no contact from management at all regarding his situation. He then received a phone call from Damien McErlaine about a month later saying he was not in his plans this year because he could not find a position for him on the team and he was going with a youthful panel.

I am led to believe (from a very close & reliable source) that Heavron and McErlaine have never fallen out at club level and there is no previous rift between the two and that phone call is the only contact the two have had since McErlaine has taken the senior post.

that's gospel

Carlin/Duffy is a minor competition.

Tells you how much I know about North Derry

6 weeks with no league games? am i reading that right?

I had heard that the Sean Larkin/Carlin Duffy Cup will be played during this time. Don't see the need for Championship to start so late either.

[best player]

The more i look at that team the more i cannot believe that the likes of a Danny Heavron are not involved as he would be massive this year with a young squad, i know that the Slaughtneil ones are to come back in as well as Terence o'brien and Danny Tallon there is still potential there. Hopefully a good start tonight will go a long way to killing all the negativity about the squad and county as a whole. Doire Abu.

Shocking decision surely, didn't take that poor team being published to highlight how bad a decision it was. I just don't understand how your best player in each of the past 2-3 years doesn't make a 30man panel ahead of boys that haven't played senior club football yet, madness.

Did he refuse to join the panel or was he not asked ?

he was informed his services were no longer required

[Magherafelt - Adrian Cush]

Managerial merry go round..Could we fill in the blanks?



Bellaghy - joe cassidy
Ballinascreen - Barry Dillon
Ballinderry - harte & o'donnell
Claudy - Chris Collins
Coleraine - sean mcgoldrick
Dungiven -
Glen - Enda Gormley & Seamus Doyle
Glenullin -
Greenlough - naill conway
Kilrea -
Lavey - brennan & seamus downey
Loup - kevin coary
Magherafelt - Adrian Cush           Ex Tyrone player Adrian Cush?
Newbridge - paddy bradley
Slaughtneil - 
Swatragh - Michael O'Kane

first i heard about Adrian Cush, I assume it is him (ex tyrone player)