CHALLENGES may have been hard to come by for Paddy Tally in his short stint so far as Derry manager, but they’ll soon be coming thick and fast.
The fixture schedule almost predictably pitted him first up away to his native Tyrone, then against Kerry, with whom he spent the past three seasons as a coach, followed by Galway, with whom he also worked previously.
Yet the Galbally man insists that he’ll feel no different coming up against the Red Hands in Saturday’s Allianz Football League Division One opener now that he’s taken charge of their neighbours and old rivals:
“I don’t think so, really. I was with Kerry for three seasons and played Tyrone four times and that was always a challenge. You just generally get on with it.
“If you’re in this role you understand your responsibility is to this team. That’s the most important thing to me at the minute.
“I need to make sure this team are ready for the game and it doesn’t matter whether it’s Tyrone or Kerry, who I’ve been with for three years. That’s another challenge to deal with as well. The following week is Galway, then Dublin.
“So the first four rounds of the league are just four of the best teams in the country. It’s all about the match, it really is all about the game itself. It’s not about me or anybody else.”
Tally acknowledged that the chance to take over Division One champions Derry was too good an opportunity to turn down, especially after a mixed experience as a manager with Down from 2019 to 2021.
“I always felt after my time in Down that I didn’t really get done what I wanted to. We had a good enough first season, built a bit more in the second season, then Covid kicked in. Really after that it was a matter of piecing things together to get through it,” he says.
Becoming a boss again was a surprise, but a welcome one: “It happened very quickly… I didn’t really expect it to come. I was content to stay on with Kerry for another season. But there were a lot of things that made sense – moving back and working closer to home.
“Kerry was demanding of time and on me physically, you felt you were pushing yourself to the limit.”
The offer to take over from Mickey Harte, for whom he trained Tyrone to their first All-Ireland SFC in 2003, could not be turned down, insists Tally:
“This was a really good opportunity for me, including being able to work with a really good team. They’re in a position now where they’re challenging at the top of Division One.
“Now I have an opportunity to put proper time into a job, which is something I was always looking forward to. This opportunity is something I’m very happy with, something I want to give my best.”
Due to the late nature of his appointment, in mid November, time has still been limited for Tally with Derry compared to his top flight rivals. For example, their only challenge games have been against Cavan and Galway, while Tyrone have had more.
However, Tally has taken those testing circumstances in his stride: “In the first season of any job you have any awful lot to do. You’re trying to get to know the players, trying to get as much done with them. It takes time to build that relationship of trust and impart your thoughts to them. It’s been a busy, hectic time but we’ll soon be playing and winning matches.”
Indeed, he’s confident he has the talent in the Oak Leaf panel to be competitive: “Derry’s National League last year was very impressive. They were the best scoring and defensive team in Ireland…
“By the end of the Championship they’d beaten Mayo and got back into the [All-Ireland] quarter-finals. It was a disappointing Championship for them, but you still could see a lot of quality in that Derry team, albeit they didn’t get to the heights they wanted.”
