MANAGER Mickey Harte says he would be glad to have any of the Glen players who want to play in Derry’s NFL Division One opener against Kerry on Saturday night.
Given the dramatic way in which they won last weekend’s All-Ireland Club title in Croke Park, it’s doubtful Harte will have too many of the Watty Graham’s men on the bus to Tralee.
“That’s the six-million-dollar question in who will be available and who wants to travel,” said Harte. “If any of them put their hands up we’d be glad to have them.”
Conor Glass, Ethan Doherty, Ciaran McFaul, Emmett Bradley, Conleth McGuckian and Eunan Mulholland are all expected to play for the county this year.
It would be reasonable to suggest that Harte would probably like a few more of the Glen contingent but it looks as though it’ll the aforementioned half dozen.
Eoin McEvoy was withdrawn at half-time during Derry’s Dr McKenna Cup final win over Donegal at Healy Park and is a doubtful starter against Kerry.
“Eoin has been carrying some niggles this last while, that’s why he hasn’t been able to play every game,” Harte explained.
“He didn’t train for the first three or four weeks we were there. He is carrying an injury that has been with him for a while and he aggravated it against Donegal and had to come off at half-time.
“It’s not easy to recover from something like that within seven days but we hope he might be able to be used in some shape or form.”
Even if he doesn’t have any of the Glen players available for the Kerry match, the Glencull man has probably deepened his options during the McKenna Cup.
Diarmuid Baker, Donncha Gilmore, Declan Cassidy and Cormac Murphy acquitted themselves well this month and could be pushing for some game-time in the early throes of Division One.
Generally, though, Harte has been hugely impressed by the standard of player at his disposal in Derry.
“I have always admired them over the last few years,” Harte said of Derry, “the progress they have made, the strides they have made to become a top four team. You can see there is real potential in that team.
“Looking from a distance, you know they are decent players, but you don’t know how good they are. When you are in working closer with them you get another insight into what they are capable of.”
Following their McKenna Cup loss, Donegal boss Jim McGuinness expects to have a fuller deck to choose from with Shaun Patton, Brendan McCole, Michael Langan, Jason McGee and Eoghan ‘Ban’ Gallagher all close to match fitness ahead of their NFL Division Two opener against Cork.
“They’re nothing that’s too major,” McGuinness said of the minor knocks some players are carrying.
“Brendan [McCole] had a hamstring, he didn’t even pull it, it was tight against Tyrone. It’s just been slow to recovery. He should be fine if he gets a week under his belt and the other ones – these injuries, if you keep on going on them, it could set you back a week or two, so we’ve given them a chance to replenish and hopefully that’ll work for us.”
Cork collected the McGrath Cup at the weekend, defeating neighbours Kerry on penalties.
“Cork are a bit like Derry – a bit behind Derry – but they’re on that upward trajectory as well,” McGuinness said.
“They will be coming buoyed after they had a good summer. There was a lot of criticism of that team over the last number of years and they’ve turned the corner and are making progress – management and players making progress – and that’s the journey we want to go on.
“They’re further down the line than us so it’ll be a good battle, a good challenge. They’ve a lot of big men. I don’t know if the Castlehaven lads will be coming back in, they probably will, and we just have to be ready for that challenge.”