Derry Club Football & Hurling original

[Estimator]

Looking at the back page of the Irish News. It looks like Derry cannot afford what they have already, never mind forking out the big bucks for O'Rourke.

[tonesfirstandlast]

Prune off 6 of that crowd and it would pay for Damian

[Leaveherlong]

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.

[Red10]

O'Kane is definitely not doing Derry county board or the management any favors putting a list of names and roles.  He's using inside info there to try and nail people. His article would carry a bit of substance if he would put the numbers of support people that would normally be in place for a county team.  I would take a few people also cover some of the other teams.  Laois looked to have 6 or 7 along the line alone never mind all the medical people. He must have had this sitting ready to go to press just hoping Derry would lose.

[Real Talk]

Malachy O'Rourke would not take the Derry job (if it was available?) for any money.  Why,  because he had in Monaghan the most committed bunch of players in Ireland who always put the team first ... the players and their Co Board also put the County Team first and they had INVESTIC as their sponsor.   Derry couldn't match that. 

[Wildweasel74]

Derry put themselves in trouble jazzing up owenbeg with serious money put into it when many of those games could been played at many venues at club level and celtic Park at County. There was no need to double up on pitches.

[lenny]

Derry put themselves in trouble jazzing up owenbeg with serious money put into it when many of those games could been played at many venues at club level and celtic Park at County. There was no need to double up on pitches.

Doing up owenbeg was one of the best decisions ever taken by the county board. Great venue for most games and very central.

[Keyser soze]

Derry put themselves in trouble jazzing up owenbeg with serious money put into it when many of those games could been played at many venues at club level and celtic Park at County. There was no need to double up on pitches.

Doing up owenbeg was one of the best decisions ever taken by the county board. Great venue for most games and very central.

Nonsense, Owenbeg was a vanity project, to build a massive stand and hold games there is a complete white elephant and a waste of money, not mention an ongoing albatross financially. And it is a shit venue for club games.

Derry third in the list of money distributed from CP in last decade and Owenbeg is what we have to show for it. Along with our Div 4 status this year of course.

On the numbers in the backroom team I remember meeting the Derry minor setup in Magherafelt leisure centre a couple of years ago when Maccers was in charge and was astonished at the number of people in the backroom set up, must have been around a dozen. It must be a full time job managing that amount of people let alone managing the team as well.  Massive overkill IMO.

[oakleaflad]

Derry put themselves in trouble jazzing up owenbeg with serious money put into it when many of those games could been played at many venues at club level and celtic Park at County. There was no need to double up on pitches.

Doing up owenbeg was one of the best decisions ever taken by the county board. Great venue for most games and very central.

Nonsense, Owenbeg was a vanity project, to build a massive stand and hold games there is a complete white elephant and a waste of money, not mention an ongoing albatross financially. And it is a shit venue for club games.

Derry third in the list of money distributed from CP in last decade and Owenbeg is what we have to show for it. Along with our Div 4 status this year of course.

On the numbers in the backroom team I remember meeting the Derry minor setup in Magherafelt leisure centre a couple of years ago when Maccers was in charge and was astonished at the number of people in the backroom set up, must have been around a dozen. It must be a full time job managing that amount of people let alone managing the team as well.  Massive overkill IMO.

I actually agree with lenny here. I think Owenbeg is a great venue for club and county games. Pretty much every county has a large backroom team these days, you just had to look at Laois there to see they had similar if not more. The problem is balancing this out financially. There will have to be cuts and the change back to knock out club championship has obviously impacted income.

[toby47]

Derry put themselves in trouble jazzing up owenbeg with serious money put into it when many of those games could been played at many venues at club level and celtic Park at County. There was no need to double up on pitches.

Doing up owenbeg was one of the best decisions ever taken by the county board. Great venue for most games and very central.

Nonsense, Owenbeg was a vanity project, to build a massive stand and hold games there is a complete white elephant and a waste of money, not mention an ongoing albatross financially. And it is a shit venue for club games.

Derry third in the list of money distributed from CP in last decade and Owenbeg is what we have to show for it. Along with our Div 4 status this year of course.

On the numbers in the backroom team I remember meeting the Derry minor setup in Magherafelt leisure centre a couple of years ago when Maccers was in charge and was astonished at the number of people in the backroom set up, must have been around a dozen. It must be a full time job managing that amount of people let alone managing the team as well.  Massive overkill IMO.

Couldn't believe some of the names mentioned in the Irish News article as some of McErlean's backroom team. I wouldn't have the majority of them around a club set up to be dead honest. And to be fair a lot of them have never been around a club set up before but have somehow found themselves in a county set up.

[Keyser soze]

Derry put themselves in trouble jazzing up owenbeg with serious money put into it when many of those games could been played at many venues at club level and celtic Park at County. There was no need to double up on pitches.

Doing up owenbeg was one of the best decisions ever taken by the county board. Great venue for most games and very central.

Nonsense, Owenbeg was a vanity project, to build a massive stand and hold games there is a complete white elephant and a waste of money, not mention an ongoing albatross financially. And it is a shit venue for club games.

Derry third in the list of money distributed from CP in last decade and Owenbeg is what we have to show for it. Along with our Div 4 status this year of course.

On the numbers in the backroom team I remember meeting the Derry minor setup in Magherafelt leisure centre a couple of years ago when Maccers was in charge and was astonished at the number of people in the backroom set up, must have been around a dozen. It must be a full time job managing that amount of people let alone managing the team as well.  Massive overkill IMO.

I actually agree with lenny here. I think Owenbeg is a great venue for club and county games. Pretty much every county has a large backroom team these days, you just had to look at Laois there to see they had similar if not more. The problem is balancing this out financially. There will have to be cuts and the change back to knock out club championship has obviously impacted income.

I would say there are professional football clubs working with a lot less numbers in their backroom teams than many a GAA county. Massive overkill IMO. As Toby says a lot of them have never even been involved at club level.

Owen beg as a training and development hub is a great idea, though I think it shoulda been on the other side of the Glenshane. There was absolutely no need whatsoever to build a second county ground or have a stadium there capable of hosting club or county games 18 miles from Celtic Park.We have a small number of clubs and therefore limited financial muscle and we are trying to support the upkeep of 2 county championship standard facilities less than 20 miles apart. Whoever did the sums on this will be proved to be a fool if s/he hasn't already. 

A second county ground should have been developed, IMO Maghera was the ideal location. Club championship should be held around the club grounds.

[Rawhide]

I'm with Keyser on this one, brilliant to have a modern training facility in Owenbeg and it was needed, but the stand and spectator facility at the level it is was not. We have Celtic Park and in a county of our size it more than met our needs as a county ground, infact its a super venue. We now have two county standard venues. Owenbeg was not needed as a county ground. Club pitches more than able to meet club championship crowds until semi-final or final stage where Celtic Park was then the venue

[lenny]

I'm with Keyser on this one, brilliant to have a modern training facility in Owenbeg and it was needed, but the stand and spectator facility at the level it is was not. We have Celtic Park and in a county of our size it more than met our needs as a county ground, infact its a super venue. We now have two county standard venues. Owenbeg was not needed as a county ground. Club pitches more than able to meet club championship crowds until semi-final or final stage where Celtic Park was then the venue

I can only speak for myself but I would have no problem with travelling to owenbeg for a game but would more than likely not go to celtic park. That's both for club matches and county. Owenbeg is a great ground for watching games and is handy to get to. I'm obviously not a die hard fan but I like to go to as many games as possible. I'd say crowds are much bigger in general when games are in owenbeg compared to celtic park because of its convenience.

[Red10]

I'm with Keyser on this one, brilliant to have a modern training facility in Owenbeg and it was needed, but the stand and spectator facility at the level it is was not. We have Celtic Park and in a county of our size it more than met our needs as a county ground, infact its a super venue. We now have two county standard venues. Owenbeg was not needed as a county ground. Club pitches more than able to meet club championship crowds until semi-final or final stage where Celtic Park was then the venue

I can only speak for myself but I would have no problem with travelling to owenbeg for a game but would more than likely not go to celtic park. That's both for club matches and county. Owenbeg is a great ground for watching games and is handy to get to. I'm obviously not a die hard fan but I like to go to as many games as possible. I'd say crowds are much bigger in general when games are in owenbeg compared to celtic park because of its convenience.

The teams we play must feel the same way. The Leinster lads and anyone who has a recent run out at Croke pk must think it's great playing on a pitch the same size. Anyone playing at a higher level will have the fitness to take advantage of all that space. Owenbeg has the feel and look of a training pitch and not even one with a good surface. The opposition must love coming there as it has no atmosphere, wouldn't in any way feel intimidating and has great facilities for them. We used to have a great record at Celtic pk. Travelling further to a tight pitch in the middle of Derry probably wasn't something teams looked forward to. By the sounds of it a bit like a lot of the Derry support in recent times. But sure look at, what odds about results or what is best to win a game as long as people don't have to travel an extra few miles. What we should be doing is having a designated county ground every few miles, on the right side of the Glenshane of course and rotate it based on some type of lottery draw and that will keep a few people happy.

[Keyser soze]

I'm with Keyser on this one, brilliant to have a modern training facility in Owenbeg and it was needed, but the stand and spectator facility at the level it is was not. We have Celtic Park and in a county of our size it more than met our needs as a county ground, infact its a super venue. We now have two county standard venues. Owenbeg was not needed as a county ground. Club pitches more than able to meet club championship crowds until semi-final or final stage where Celtic Park was then the venue

I can only speak for myself but I would have no problem with travelling to owenbeg for a game but would more than likely not go to celtic park. That's both for club matches and county. Owenbeg is a great ground for watching games and is handy to get to. I'm obviously not a die hard fan but I like to go to as many games as possible. I'd say crowds are much bigger in general when games are in owenbeg compared to celtic park because of its convenience.

The teams we play must feel the same way. The Leinster lads and anyone who has a recent run out at Croke pk must think it's great playing on a pitch the same size. Anyone playing at a higher level will have the fitness to take advantage of all that space. Owenbeg has the feel and look of a training pitch and not even one with a good surface. The opposition must love coming there as it has no atmosphere, wouldn't in any way feel intimidating and has great facilities for them. We used to have a great record at Celtic pk. Travelling further to a tight pitch in the middle of Derry probably wasn't something teams looked forward to. By the sounds of it a bit like a lot of the Derry support in recent times. But sure look at, what odds about results or what is best to win a game as long as people don't have to travel an extra few miles. What we should be doing is having a designated county ground every few miles, on the right side of the Glenshane of course and rotate it based on some type of lottery draw and that will keep a few people happy.

Incomparably inferior to the Celtic park surface and indeed a good many club pitches in the county.