Consolidation the aim for Derry manager Paddy Tally

Allianz Football League  |  Tyrone vs. Derry  |  Healy Park  |  Saturday, 6pm

Paddy Tally believes that consolidation in Division One is what his team should be aiming for this year as he takes charge of Derry for the first time this weekend.

The former Down manager is back in the hot seat of management after spending three seasons working with Kerry and he has been tasked with getting Derry back on track after succeeding Mickey Harte back in November.

A lot of hard work has gone on behind the scenes in preparation for this season’s league campaign and Tally is eager to get going and learn more about his players, starting with Tyrone at Healy Park this Saturday.

“I think everybody around the place is now looking forward to the start of the matches,” he said. “We've been working now for really up to nearly six good weeks or seven weeks and we have that under our belt and now it's a matter of seeing what the coaching and the stuff we've been doing, how it imparts on the game itself and we're trying to get our head around the new rules and what it looks like, so we need games to see how the whole thing works out, so looking forward to it.”

In recent years, Derry have benefitted significantly from the McKenna Cup games, traditionally seen as the perfect warm-up fixtures for a new league campaign, but with the competition now dropped, vital game time for players has been missing.

“Without doubt,” Tally agreed. “I think this year above all years would have been great to have the McKenna Cup and I do feel if we had had those three or four matches of the McKenna Cup it would have helped everyone; players, coaches, managers, officials, everybody around the games would have benefited from the matches.”

Successive Ulster titles and All-Ireland semi-finals, followed by a Division One title and an All-Ireland quarterfinal last year means that Derry fans have grown used to success in recent times. Managing expectations going forward will undoubtedly be one of Tally’s biggest challenges, with Oakleaf fans still craving that All-Ireland final to lay the ghosts of 32 years to rest.

Derry’s Championship season with defeat to Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter-finals last June. (Photo: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE)

“I think that's always going to be a challenge,” he continued. “That's going to be a challenge for the players too because they were in such a strong league last year. Obviously the Championship didn't work out the way they wanted it but you have to understand too, you don't win a national league with being a poor team or poor players.

"A national league is a good competition and sometimes I actually feel a national league is as good a competition as some parts of the championship. So, there is an expectation for Derry to do well. I think in our first year in here especially with incoming new rules and new management taking place and a few new players I think consolidation of Division 1 will be a really good starting point for us. We want to start well but we have to keep in mind that the most important thing is to maintain Division 1 status, I think that's really important.”

For Tally and his staff, heading into a new season with a new challenge, it is about building on and maintaining good habits to help the players realise their full potential.

“Definitely and you know really every time a player plays this level he wants to win,” the Derry boss stated. “He wants to win matches, he wants to play well and we're all the same in it so there's no difference to what we'll be doing that any other previous managers haven't been doing.

Conor Glass lifts the Division one title at Croke Park last March. (Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach / SPORTSFILE)

"We just want the team to perform as well as we can and ultimately success is what we're in here for. It'll take time to build it, it doesn't happen overnight but we're very much aware of that so our priority this week is just to get ready for the game, put a really good performance in, perform as best as we can and if that gets us a result that'll be great.”

Learning from 2024

The ability to learn from defeat is a key aspect of Paddy Tally’s philosophy as he guides a team who had more than their fair share of painful lessons in 2024.

A new season, under a new manager is very much a turn of the page for all involved, be it the players themselves or the supporters, but there was plenty to reflect on for a squad which beat Dublin to win the Division one title in such dramatic circumstances, only for their season to quickly fall apart soon afterwards.

Now, ahead of a new campaign and fixtures against some familiar foes, Tally is hoping that his players have learned from the past and are not afraid to face the future with renewed determination.

“Yeah I think that we're much more introspective when we lose games, especially ones with a high level of emotion attached to it,” he explained.

“You know it hits hard and you really examine lots of things you did and see could you improve on them, so these players are no different than any other county player. They'll have examined their game, they'll have explored in their heads and talked among themselves of how they could improve and to be honest with you so far, I've seen a squad of players that are very keen to get better and the coaches that have come in are working hard with them.”

Tally’s first game could hardly be more mouth-watering, into the den of Healy Park itself to try and upset arguably Derry’s biggest rival.

“Ah well listen, Derry and Tyrone’s rivalry has always been there,” he laughed. “I remember back in the day myself, it was fantastic and you've always had very healthy respect for Derry too as much as the results of being a Tyrone person. There's a massive rivalry but there’s a serious respect for the players there because you knew that they were top players and especially if you go back to the teams of the 90s and that they were exceptionally good players in club football or county football and the last few years have been no different. The Derry-Tyrone rivalry is still alive and breathing and that's really important for our games so I think that this weekend is different because now you have Malachy who's spent his last four years in Derry working with Glen and now he's assumed the Tyrone management job and I've been appointed here in Derry and they've got the whole new rules as well so there's a lot of factors this weekend going into this game and it'll be interesting to see how it works out.”

Incredible success

A key subplot of Saturday’s game is Malachy O’Rourke, who, like Tally, will also take charge of his first competitive game in his new role as Tyrone manager. O’Rourke, who achieved incredible success with Glen in recent years, is not only a winner, but someone will who know his opponents very well.

“Malachy knows the Tyrone players very well, he's been living in Ballygally for years and he understands the Tyrone psyche as well,” Tally acknowledged.

Malachy O’Rourke achieved unprecedented success during his time with Glen. Now the serial winner is in charge of Tyrone against Derry this weekend. (Photo: Oliver McVeigh / SPORTSFILE)

“Plus Malachy is part of the committee that decided the new rules as well so he's in a really good position at the start of the league. I think Malachy is an extremely shrewd manager, he's been very successful and I think that the Tyrone players will definitely benefit from his experience.”

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With Chrissy McKaigue the most notable absentee due to retirement from the county scene, The Derry squad heads into a new campaign with opportunity definitely knocking for young players throughout Derry to make a name for themselves. That is exactly what Tally wants.

“This is a big part of the National League as well, we certainly have to look to increase the depth in the Derry squad,” he insisted. “If there was a limitation in this last couple of years it was if you lose a player due to injury or to whatever, a loss of form, you do need players that can step in so one of our focuses in the National League will be to introduce some new players to the football at this level and see how they get on and progress so that they can break into football come Championship time.”