Ulster Senior Football Club Championship 2012

[AZOffaly]

We had this situation in Offaly back in 1986. A man from our club was training a team that qualified to meet us in the county final. He refused to train them, as he couldn't train a team to beat us when we had been waiting a long time for our next title. Mind you the club he was with were even longer waiting. Anyway, he wasn't with them on the day, and they got an awful trimming. I think he had also agreed ahead of time that were it to happen, he wouldn't coach against us, and the other club were understanding of that too.

[HIGH BALL CENTRE FIELD]

HBCF, you are never going to win this argument, If i were an Errigal comittee member, player, fan, i would  be in favour of showing him the door. Get the team together and get down to the hard work. i'll tell you what, there would be no problems with motivating that team to go out and play Balinderry

OB, I am not out to win an argument. Ronan made a difficult decision and I and alot of other people respect him for it. As I said before if he had of stayed on with Errigal the people of Ballinderry would not have had a problem with it. But Ronan is honorable to his and our club - not too many of them guys out there . Also Errigal dont need motivation to play ballinderry, we have had history before - which usually included Ronan - therefore no change. Errigal and Ronan had an agreement full stop - even EC unique acknowledged this.

Ronan won the Tyrone county championship with the same team that even Peter the great couldn't so what does the Errigal Committee do? Even a few weeks ago the committee, players and fans were saying that only for Ronan they wont have won it. Ronan knows he is taking a risk in doing what he has done but will Errigal take a risk of showing him the door? Ronan is one of the up and coming managers - do you get rid of him because of it when most likely one of the other teams in Tyrone such as Carrickmore/Omagh will try to get his services instead. These clubs will agree the same with Ronan to get a Tyrone county championship again. Catch 22!!

ONE LIFE/ONE CLUB - UTS

[fitzroyalty]

HBCF, you are never going to win this argument, If i were an Errigal comittee member, player, fan, i would  be in favour of showing him the door. Get the team together and get down to the hard work. i'll tell you what, there would be no problems with motivating that team to go out and play Balinderry

OBut Ronan is honorable to his and our club - not too many of them guys out there . Also Errigal dont need motivation to play ballinderry, we have had history before - which usually included Ronan - therefore no change. Errigal and Ronan had an agreement full stop - even EC unique acknowledged this.
ONE LIFE/ONE CLUB - UTS

Wonder will he be giving any inside info to the shams management? 

[Family guy]

ffs sake whats the big deal,surely errigal out of there 5 parishes or whatever it is and there choice of 1000s of players could get a manager out of somewere

[HIGH BALL CENTRE FIELD]

HBCF, you are never going to win this argument, If i were an Errigal comittee member, player, fan, i would  be in favour of showing him the door. Get the team together and get down to the hard work. i'll tell you what, there would be no problems with motivating that team to go out and play Balinderry

OBut Ronan is honorable to his and our club - not too many of them guys out there . Also Errigal dont need motivation to play ballinderry, we have had history before - which usually included Ronan - therefore no change. Errigal and Ronan had an agreement full stop - even EC unique acknowledged this.
ONE LIFE/ONE CLUB - UTS

Wonder will he be giving any inside info to the shams management? 

ffs sake whats the big deal,surely errigal out of there 5 parishes or whatever it is and there choice of 1000s of players could get a manager out of somewere

I dont really care. We're still on the razz and that is were I am going now

[EC Unique]

ffs sake whats the big deal,surely errigal out of there 5 parishes or whatever it is and there choice of 1000s of players could get a manager out of somewere

Yawn! 

[yellowcard]

When you explain his rationale for stepping down then you have to admire his loyalty since it is not just his own club who's downfall he would be plotting but good mates and family. So he has to be admired for this and I'm sure he will be seen as a hero in Ballinderry for showing such loyalty.

From Errigals point of view though his position could become awkward since should they win I'm sure some of the players and supporters may feel he deserted them and he may struggle to regain the trust that he had. For this one game though I can't help but feel that Errigal will be motivated like nothing before and it will all be based on their manager taking a 2 week sabbatical. Would Mickey Harte be available to step in?

[GerryFromDerry]

Think itsvery simple. Big Ronan told them before he took the job that if the scenario arose he would step aside. Errigal agreed to this, and the scenario has arose.

Lets move on. Think it should be a cracking game between to good footballing teams.

Home venue is a great advantage for Errigal, but we still went up there and beat Dromore last year so we will take confidence from that.

Think Ulster club is a great comp and im so happy we are back in it

[Milltown Row2]

Think itsvery simple. Big Ronan told them before he took the job that if the scenario arose he would step aside. Errigal agreed to this, and the scenario has arose.

Lets move on. Think it should be a cracking game between to good footballing teams.

Home venue is a great advantage for Errigal, but we still went up there and beat Dromore last year so we will take confidence from that.

Think Ulster club is a great comp and im so happy we are back in it

Yes and fair play but if the shoe was on the other foot.......

[yellowcard]

Agree, for Ballinderry supporters this is an admirable show of loyalty by McGuckin and from Errigal's point of view there is probably a certain element of being left in the lurch by their manager. This should add a few people onto the gate and I'm sure this should be a hotly contested contest both on and off the field. In a strange sort of way I feel that McGuckins decision will help Errigal short term but may hinder them long term.

[EC Unique]

He has made his decision and we must get on with the job at hand. As GFD says the ulster club is a great place to be. I always thought the Tyrone championship is a big of a slog where as the ulster club rewards good football. Our players will forget about him for the next 2 weeks. If the result goes our way there will be some thinking done then.

[topgun]

It is admirable that he feels he can't manage against his own club, but these are one off games that happen every couple of years.

If it was stipulated at the beginning of the season fair play, Errigal committee have had time to plan since they won the the Tyrone championship and seen the draw for ulster.

But I can't help feeling that it should have been kept in house for as long as possible to be fair to all concerned!

[NaomhBridAbú]

Its a situation that should never have arisen - you either coach a team, balls out, or you dont. This is a prestigious competition and both clubs have an excellent tradition. Its a thin form of loyalty to Ballinderry when he has pretty much betrayed the errigal team. It could have been that this eventuality was discussed with the erigal team, but regardless of that there is a squad of players that can only feel let down. other sports have managers who end up playing their old team, and they simply get on with the job.

Part of me admires his loyalty to B/derry, but a larger part says, f**k sake...

Errigal ABU

[yellowcard]

McGinley 'disappointed' with McGuckin's stance


Tyrone's Enda McGinley
Errigal Ciaran captain Enda McGinley is 'disappointed' by the decision of manager Ronan McGuckin to stand aside for their upcoming Ulster Club SFC clash against Derry's Ballinderry.

Ballinderry native McGuckin has taken the unusual course of action to avoid a conflict of interest.

Apparently, the manager had informed Errigal club officials at the time of his appointment that he would not be prepared to manage a team against his home club should the situation arise but the players only became aware of his stance following their win over Mullahoran at Breffni Park on Sunday.

"I'm disappointed at the course of action he has taken, but he has never hidden the fact that he's a Ballinderry man first and foremost and that has led him to his decision," McGinley told the Irish Independent.

"I knew he would be in a difficult position if the two clubs played each other. But I didn't forsee this course of action."

McGinley added: "What I was unaware of was that he did make it clear when he took on the job that this would be the caveat - if it ever did come to pass that the two clubs would play each other, he wouldn't see himself fit to be involved.

"He is a man of his word. It looked so far away that no comment was every made on that but, unfortunately, it has now come to pass.

"I suppose it couldn't have been talked about before that, because we still had to win a county championship, we still had to beat Mullahoran and Ballinderry still have to beat Slaughtneil, so there was no point in making us aware this was a potential. So it came as a big surprise, a big blow."

Team trainer Tommy McDermott will wear the Bainisteoir bid in McGuckin's absence.

"Ronan McGuckin's ability as a manager has had a huge amount to do with what we have achieved this year so far. Being without him, and being without an experienced manager going into this game, is going to make it exceptionally difficult for us," the former Tyrone star concluded.

[Club Rossa]

I'm wondering if Mickey Harte will help out in the next couple of weeks.