Rory Gallagher - The misunderstood, yet eloquent leader of men

At a recent Derry press conference, Gallagher continued to share more about the inner workings of his teams than any other inter-county manager. 

LEADER: Derry manager Rory Gallagher with his kids. ©INPHO/Evan Treacy

TEN years on from when he was a very visible presence in the Donegal management that won an All-Ireland, Rory Gallagher is back with another band of outsiders looking to shake up the scene and strike for a final place with Derry.

One of the most misunderstood men in Gaelic Games, his Fermanagh roots and various moves as player and manager casts him in the role as an outsider. He has emerged as one of the most eloquent managers on the circuit, and he shares more about the inner workings of his teams than any other inter-county manager.

Here are some of the highlights of the recent Derry press conference.

ON THE TIME PLAYERS INVEST IN INTERCOUNTY 

I look at my own situation; I live in Enniskillen, I work in Dublin, and I manage Derry. It’s not an easy fix.

Inter-county players, they want to be the absolute best they can be and I think that is for the vast majority of counties. And they want to train at an elite level.

You go into a swimming pool at half six on a Sunday morning. There are swimmers who are not even going to the Olympics. You see cyclists out, boxers that don’t get to it, they train almost every day.

In season, I would say most intercounty footballers do some form of training.

Say for example, when we are talking about injuries, Niall Loughlin would see Peter Hughes (strength and conditioning) on the two or three days we are not training. Paudie Tad (Cassidy) would. But Peter Hughes would be heading to Greenlough or Lavey, and see once the boys hear that he is in Lavey? Well the four Downeys are going to come down and Niall Toner is going to come down. Declan Cassidy from Bellaghy.

That’s brilliant from our point of view, that there is little travel and little expense in that.

We try to train at 5.45 in the evening so that they can have the evening to themselves. I know there was a crew of them away to ice baths and saunas last night. That could be seen as collective training.

They want to be more athletic, they don’t want to be injured, they want to be on top of their rehab to enjoy their football and I think that’s… Myself and Enda (Muldoon, selector) particularly would be talking, saying, ‘wouldn’t you love if that was put in front of us?’ 

ON BEING PIGEONHOLED AS A ‘DEFENSIVE COACH’ 

I think there is a bit of casual commentary from some pundits, who are looking at four, six or eight teams in a day and it’s the easy thing to throw out and they don’t put in the in-depth thinking about a team.

I don’t get frustrated about it. Ireland are over playing the All-Blacks, what do they not do when Ireland don’t have the ball? They don’t stay up front. They defend.

Cricket is on at this time of the year, it’s a sport I enjoy. The bowlers are good bowlers, but they have to bat as well and they are no good.

The best batters have to field, it’s a different way of playing.

We all watch the Premier League, Man United are getting vilified for carrying Ronaldo, my son’s hero even though he is a Liverpool fan, because he doesn’t defend. I think it is the wrong criticism.

I think American sports are smarter than the rest – Baseball, basketball, American football, a sport I enjoy. Tom Brady is the best player ever, but he never has to defend because they can bring on a whole new team.

ON DONEGAL AND 2012 

If you ask the Kerry, Cork, Mayo management of that the time, they were the ones that were naïve. They were the ones who kicked the ball down Mark McHugh’s throat, to Neil McGee and Eamon McGee the boys who were beside him.

They didn’t adapt their style of play, but once they adapted it in 2013 and 2015, they weren’t long having our number. Now, with the amount of analysing and the amount of learning, Kerry, Galway, Dublin, they are all fast learners and if you go in with a predictable tactic like that, it is easy to break down.

ON THE INCREASING SCORING TALLIES 

Teams have just improved massively. It might now be to everybody’s flavour, but scoring ratios have gone up massively.

People talk about shot selections, it’s about how they get into those positions to have the shot is unbelievably smart, whether it’s Steph Curry in basketball with his three-pointers. The Golden State Warriors create a situation where is on his own, one on one, taking those shots and has a high percentage.

It’s the same with Ciaran Kilkenny. It’s likewise with Con O’Callaghan and David Clifford, it’s the intelligence behind the way who those teams attack that I think is brilliant.

With us in Derry, we have Shane McGuigan and he is a big part of it. When we were making him everything about our game in 2020, we were very impotent in attack. When we evolved it and created more attacking threat, it was better for Shane and for everybody.

ON-FIELD DECISION MAKING 

Take Odhran Lynch at number one, the amount of times he has to make decisions. He can’t look over at us. He has got to realise what it happening in front of him in a given situation and that’s an unbelievably pressurised situation for a goalkeeper.

He has got to be able to do that. Whether it’s Chrissy McKaigue, Gareth McKinless, Shane McGuigan, they would have the ability to make changes on the pitch. Conor Glass, all of them, Ethan Doherty doesn’t speak, he just knows what to do.

Particularly Gareth, Conor, Chrissy, Brendan Rogers, Paudi McGrogan. They’d very much be aware we can’t tell you if they are going to play with a sweeper, we can’t tell you if they are going to go man to man on kick-outs or go zonal.

But you make the calls on the pitch. We’d have seen Dublin against Donegal going to a zonal press but they’d put up their hand for five, to signal that they have to man-mark Ryan McHugh. They’d be very clear.

The players have got to do that, because you can’t get those messages on the pitch.

Number one, players are unbelievably smart, not academically, but football-wise. The amount of football I would go to and when the Championship is over, you’d see Gareth McKinless at Tyrone Championship matches. You’d see Chrissy at every game going in Derry, maybe not Brendan Rogers…he does his own thing (laughs).

ON ‘GUIDED DISCOVERY’ METHOD OF COACHING 

Part of our coaching is to make players aware of certain situations that are likely to happen and it’s their ability to read that situation.

Back to Tom Brady, within each half-second, he understands how the opposition are playing. He has a playbook and it might need to be changed, but he makes that call.

Brendan Rogers could be told to go man to man on Michael Murphy, but you don’t know what Murphy is going to do from one minute to the next, Paudi McGrogan is the same, they have to make calls and every call they make within a game, they have to put the team first.