Derry City boss Tiernan Lynch is excited his squad will be training at Owenbeg’s Centre of Excellence facility from this morning.
The Foylesiders were given the green light to use the Dungiven facility as a temporary training base until they develop their own purpose-built training base, which they hope will be situated at Templemore Sports Complex, in the Maiden City.
One of Lynch’s demands on the Candystripes was having a training base, something which he had during his tenure at Larne, so he’s thrilled the deal was rubber-stamped at the GAA’s Central Council in Croke Park, on Saturday morning.
Discussions between City board members and the Derry County Board have been ongoing for a number of weeks and they now will enter into unique ‘exchange of ideas’ partnership, much to Lynch’s delight.
“It’s massive, especially for our professionalism and to keep giving ourselves a base, it was something that was really, really important to us all,” he declared.
“Having somewhere where the boys can go every day now, obviously it’s not home, but it gives you an opportunity where you have your own pitch there, changing facilities, recovery facilities, gym, catering, everything is on-site.
“The players can also spend a wee bit of time together every single day, rather than say jumping around from location to location, being in cars soaking wet and all the things that goes with it, so getting Owenbeg is brilliant for us.
“When I was at Larne one of the real transformations was actually getting our own training facility and when the players when they arrived in the morning at 8.30am or 8.45am.
“They had that little bit of space to have a bit of breakfast or to do a wee bit of prehab or rehab and then they would have their pitch sessions and their analysis, the gym work and then they could spend a wee bit of downtime together, have lunch together those things make a big difference when you’re trying to build a team and build the culture.
“Look, I’m not saying it guarantees you anything, but from my previous experiences I definitely think it helps.”
The Belfast native insists the Owenbeg venue is second to none and praised Derry chairman Philip O’Doherty, CEO Sean Barrett and the entire board for getting the deal sealed.
“Owenbeg is a fantastic facility and it has everything that you would ever want,” he added.
“Ideally we would love it to be our own and ideally we would love it to be in the city and all that goes with it, but we will get there.
“I think with the plans that Philip, Sean and the board have in place, I think it’s only a matter of time before we have our own facility.
“Having our own facility, which we’ll be able to come home and really go to town on, but for the time being Owenbeg is probably as good as you get.”
On the pitch, the Brandywell men will strengthen their squad by announcing the arrivals of midfield trio Robbie Benson, Carl Winchester and Dominic Thomas, in fact the ex-Dundalk man signed for the club last week and trained with his new team-mates during their pre-season training week in Cork.
Unfortunately, pair Cameron Dummigan and Ben Doherty look set to miss Derry’s league opener at champions Shelbourne next month.
The duo haven’t fully recovered from their respective hamstring injuries, which led to them missing a number of games in the final quarter of last season and Lynch also confirmed that Dummigan will receive news this week on his progression.
“They aren’t back involved with the team yet,” explained the Derry gaffer.
”Dummy has a scan or a consultation this week, just to see where he’s at.
“Ben has put in an unbelievable amount of work to get himself back to where he is right now, he’s just slightly ahead of schedule and great credit to him for that and the medical team to get him back to where he is.
“We’re delighted with him, but again it’s not something we’re going to force or rush him back, we want him back and we want him back ready for the long haul, rather than force him back on the pitch and maybe being too early and him breaking down again, which won’t help anybody.”
