Hectic club programme costs Derry key players

Mark Gallagher

Talk of an injury to Enda Muldoon. Eamon Burns is the latest casualty of Derry’s loaded club programme.

Mickey Moran sighs as he lists the players on the treatment table. At one training session last week, only twenty players were able to tog out. Not exactly ideal preparation for Sunday’s massive qualifier in Castlebar.

The problem stems from club games. More specifically, league games. Moran reckons clubs have had nine or ten games since Derry beat Monaghan in the Ulster championship. And clubs want all their county stars available and present.

“I’m not against the players playing for their clubs, but there has to be some kind of compromise. Last week, some clubs had league games on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, which meant I couldn’t take the squad away for the weekend.

“And all clubs insist on their countymen playing. No player is going to refuse to play for his club, but this is a national problem and it is a problem that needs to be addressed. Croke Park are talking about all clubs having to get their games, but it might be to the detriment of the county team.”

Such are Derry’s injury concerns that there will be only two recognised forwards sitting on the substitute bench in Castlebar. “We have suffered because of the club games, but it hasn’t made us despondent or anything. If anything, it has brought this team closer together. It’s just another obstacle that we have to overcome and the boys know now, that anything they achieve will be achieved on merit.”

Although they were surprise All-Ireland semi-finalists last year, Moran still believes he is in the midst of a re-building programme with this young Derry team.

“We are getting very near the stage of development where we want to be. What we are doing here is building a team of players that will be involved in the Derry set-up for the next five or six years. We have a team together now where Sean Marty Lockhart is the oldest player at 28.”

Given their inexperience, an All-Ireland semi-final was no mean feat for Moran’s team last summer. Still, during the autumn, he found that it is impossible to please all of the supporters all of the time. When he was re-appointed as Derry manager, it was just by one slender vote at the county board meeting.

He’s back, though, and this weekend’s clash with Limerick might be the most significant fixture thrown up by the qualifiers until the quarter-final stage. After all, here are two teams with aspirations to be kicking ball until late August, at least.

Out of provincial confines, and away from that Kerry albatross that hangs so grimly around their neck, Limerick looked a real force in Carlow a couple of weeks ago.

“They were very impressive against Carlow,” Moran agrees. “People are saying that it was just Carlow, but that’s a nonsense. The gulf between the teams is narrowing all the time, and Carlow beat Offaly, so they were no push-overs. We know how good Limerick are.

“They are probably even a stage ahead of us in development. That diamond around the middle, that is so strong, with the likes of Muiris Gavin, Galvin and Lucey, they have been playing together a long time and with Liam in charge for six years now, the team is probably nearing its peak.”

Last year in the qualifiers, Derry got the better of a physical encounter in the rain of Roscommon. “Yeah, but that game was in the melting pot right up until the end,” Moran recalls. “And Limerick had just played their third game in three weeks. There isn’t much between these teams. Limerick don’t give much away and they are a powerful side. We know what we will be up against on Sunday.”

Although talent such as Muiris Gavin and Paddy Bradley will be on display, it could be another tense, low-scoring affair in Castlebar. Both sides are built around defensive solidity, even if Down pierced their net twice in the last ten minutes.

“Well, you are not going to keep Benny Coulter quiet all afternoon and Benny did get a nice wee nudge on the defender for the first goal,” Moran laughs. “It was disappointing to concede those goals. If we don’t concede goals on Sunday, we will be half-way there.”

That one of these sides will be kicking their heels on Sunday evening seems a tad unfair as they are arguably the two best teams left in the qualifiers. But that’s the way it goes, thrills and spills of the championship.

And in Derry, they know a thing or two about how unfair the summer can be to footballers. That hectic club programme has cost them some of their best players.