Rory Gallagher hails Ulster as a 'massive' opportunity

2023 Ulster GAA Football Senior Championship Quarterfinal

Fermanagh vs. Derry

Brewster Park

Today, 5pm

Rory Gallagher has hailed the Ulster Championship as ‘massive’ ahead of his team’s quarterfinal against Fermanagh at Brewster Park.

While some feel that the Championship has lost its overall value in recent years, Gallagher remains a big fan. With the competition’s new format seeing nine counties already qualified for the All-Ireland regardless of what happens in Ulster, some see the fight for the 2023 Anglo Celtic Cup as somewhat lessened. But the Derry boss believes it will remain the most competitive competition of the four and expects it to be as competitive as it ever has been this year.

“I feel that the Ulster Championship is massive. You have local prestige and it gives you a serious ranking,” he explained.

"Let's look at the provinces; Kerry are going to win Munster, Dublin are going to win Leinster, and I’d rather win Ulster so we would be ranked and avoid them. There’s no denying it. I think there’s a massive prize. There’s a great structure of the Championship now and I think it’s worth going for. 

“I think it will be a serious battle in Connacht between Galway, Mayo and Roscommon because they will all want a top four seed and I think it'll be a serious battle in Ulster no matter what else is going on.

"You have Fermanagh, who have never won an Ulster Championship, you have four Division One teams plus ourselves who all feel they can be champions; you have Cavan who have won it recently and you have a resurgent Down. It is a phenomenally competitive province and the prize of winning getting to provincial final and then winning it, it is very advantageous so I don't think it will be diluted whatsoever."

Gallagher is a big fan of the new seeding format which means that every fixture, whether league or championship, has something on the line.

"It is like the Word Cup in soccer; it's like the Rugby World Cup, they are seeded," he said, "It's like the NBA that is on at the minute, everyone wants to be a higher seed because you have an easier route then, that's the bottom line.

"I think it is great. The whole thing has evolved brilliantly. Just ask any top sports person, they would want to be playing week on week, sure why wouldn't you?"

Derry head into today's game on the back of a brilliant league campaign which earned promotion back to Division One for the first time since 2015. The league culminated in a shock second half capitulation against Dublin at Croke Park however, with four goals conceded on a bad day at the office.

“We’ve come a long way in a short time. We’ve got to play Dublin who are second favourites for the All-Ireland. They are a serious, serious outfit, but we are not far away. We haven’t been at that level, but we feel that we can mix it at that level and compete and win games at that level and that’s what we want to do.”