Brennan aims to rid Derry of ‘virus’

BACK in April, Eugene McGee and Joe Brolly went at it hammer-and-tongs on RTÉ radio. Debating the topic of payments to managers, the conversation naturally moved on to the area of outside bosses, with Brolly putting up a strong argument against them.

McGee, clearly frustrated with the Derry man’s style of debate, suggested they might have won more than one All-Ireland SFC title if they had looked outside their borders for a manager.

The remark was a mite flippant but given the problems Derry have had with their own managers since the late, great Eamon Coleman there was a grain of truth in it.

The current incumbent, John Brennan, knows on the basis of those who have gone before him he has two seasons maximum at the helm.

He’s living a relatively charmed existence and for that reason he intends making the most of it as soon as possible. Starting with Sunday’s Ulster semi-final against Armagh.

“I haven’t paid much interest to what has happened to the managers before me in Derry but Derry seems to be the only county that for whatever reason has issues with their managers again and again.

“Maybe if I had done a bit of research I’d know more about why it has happened. But the fact is if it doesn’t happen for us this year then I’m no better than the rest of them.”

According to Brennan, a virus has spread in Derry football. Part of his job is to rid it and a first Ulster final appearance in 12 years would constitute a start, never mind becoming the first Derry boss to put back-to-back Ulster wins together since 2000.

“Tyrone and Armagh have rightfully dominated Ulster. They’ve gone on to win All-Irelands but on the other side it’s up to the rest of the counties in Ulster to come up to the mark.

“If we’re not good enough then we don’t deserve to be in an Ulster final. The turbulence in Derry football is well known, there are things that should never have happened. You had it with the Cork hurlers and you have it here.

“It’s time to get rid of that virus. Derry have had an over-supply of it. We’re missing Paddy Bradley and another one or two of our better players but we can’t dwell on it. You can’t think about how it devalues or undervalues your panel — you just have to get on with it.”

Derry had come off a Division 2 campaign in which they ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous before they were denied promotion by Laois and Donegal on scoring average.

“We thought Donegal would have beaten Laois in the last game but miscalculated,” admitted Brennan. “We should have scored more against Antrim and lost out by four points scored in the end.

“It was a communication breakdown between what was happening in Portlaoise and what we were doing in Casement Park.

“I won’t even talk about the (14-point) defeat to Laois because that meant nothing. We had 11 players involved with the universities in the Sigerson Cup the weekend after — we must have a lot of intelligent players in Derry!

“If I had known there was so many involved I’d have taken action because their minds were on Belfield and not the Laois game.”

Brennan’s only injury worry is Gerard O’Kane (thigh), who was being assessed last night.