As Derry seek to kick losing habit in Dublin game, kickouts and attacking role are key
Micheál Clifford
THEY SAY YOU should never leave the fear of losing triumph the excitement of winning.
If Paddy Tally can channel his inner Banksy and cut loose with an aerosol can to leave his mark on the Newry dressing room this Saturday evening, he could do worse than commit that piece of wisdom to a plastered wall.
In truth, it is one so obvious to his Derry team right now that a post-it pad message on the fridge door would suffice.
In the eyes of some, he is no longer a manager of a football team but a head doctor to a team that no longer knows how to win.
It is 11 games and counting since they won a game and even that came with an asterisk.
They won a post match lucky dip in Castlebar 12 months ago, where instead of a tin of USA biscuits they were given a pass to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
The last time that they won a game of ball in the conventional sense – by actually scoring more than the opposition – you have to go back one week earlier to a final round group game, when Emmet Bradley’s goal five minutes from the end would prove defining in an edgy winner takes all encounter with Westmeath.
By happy coincidence, that game was also played in Newry where they will lock horns with Dublin this weekend; the latter also needing to get a result to be certain of staying in the All-Ireland series.
By an even happier opportunity for positive reinforcement that was also the last time they turned a final quarter lead into a defining one.
It is not just that Derry have not been winning, it has been their capacity to lose games that they had already won which maddens and, perhaps, even haunts.
It started out in Celtic Park in February, when having posted an array of match-winning leads against Kerry, their final one was a three-point advantage at the death. When the final whistle blew 90 seconds later, they had lost by three. It was filed at the time as a freak; God bless our innocence.
Midway through the spring, they dominated Donegal from the first minute to the 60th to lead by eight, but lost the remaining 10 minutes by 11.
And, of course, last time out they had all but terminated Galway’s interest in the championship as they led by eight points deep into the third quarter, yet somehow were left thankful at the death for Conor Doherty’s leveller.
As the summer hits the point of no return, they have the feel of a team whose preparation time would be better invested lying prostrate on a psychiatrist’s couch playing word association games than playing backs and forwards on the training pitch.
The thing is, though, that is where it has got to be sorted.
There is little doubt that in going from being back to back Ulster champions to here they have been psychologically compromised by the departure – and the circumstances surrounding it – of Rory Gallagher, who was as much their architect as their manager.
Gavin Devlin, who spent last season coaching them under Mickey Harte, was in little doubt of that when he suggested during the close season that it was as if the players were “sulking” in Gallagher’s banishment, while advising Tally to “run a million miles away from the job.”
The way things have unfolded for the latter, Devlin may have a future in career consultancy should he give up his current gig with Louth.
In many ways, the clarity and purpose which Gallagher invested in the team is almost impossible for anyone else to replicate and, as a result there has been obvious slippage, while a new game has also shredded what remained of the old blueprint.
The lack of depth in the panel – which was an issue in Gallagher’s time – is a constant and for all of Derry’s underage success, it is a production line that has yet to kick into gear.
On top of that, luck has not been kind. The long-term loss of key players in Gareth McKinless and Conor McCluskey to injuries has had a profound impact on an option-challenged squad, but perhaps the most significant miss of all has been goalkeeper Odhran Lynch, who may return at the weekend.
Ironically, Tally toyed with the idea of upgrading the latter at the start of the season when revealing himself to be a slave to fashion by seeking to turn Neil McNicholl into Derry’s version of Ethan Rafferty.
It never worked but the mystery was why he persisted with it come the championship, by which stage a mid-spring rule tweak seeking to limit the impact of the fly goalkeeper was in place.
There is no single area where Derry have fallen down, but kick-outs have probably been the one which has dogged them all season.
Those final quarter-fade outs – starting with McNicholl’s gift-wrapped present to Paudie Clifford back in February has hurt – but it has much to do with set-up as personnel, as pointed out by Irish News journalist Cahair O’Kane in a recent piece, which cast a jaundiced view on the tendency to go for a crude overload kick-out option.
In changing to a more varied approach against Galway they found joy, which is not surprising given the arguably unrivalled quality of their midfield partnership of Conor Glass and Brendan Rogers.
But if those twin powers are as imposing as ever, another seems to have dulled.
Here is a stat to startle; one of the perceived weaknesses of Derry in their Gallagher pomp was an over dependence on Shane McGuigan for scores from frees and open play.
Going into this weekend, the Slaughtneil man is not even in the team’s top four scorers from open play, with just 0-4 trailing in reverse order Dan Higgins, Paul Cassidy, Rogers and Glass – with the latter having also outscored his strike forward in the league from open play by 3-16 to 1-14.
In a new game perceived to facilitate the top inside forwards, McGuigan is struggling for form and impact, primarily because he does not have the explosive speed to exploit the increased space.
His positioning may need retweaking to a deeper role – he thrived being the focal point of Derry’s more structured build up in the recent past – as the one thing he has not lost, is a ball striking ability as pure as it is rare.
If Derry are to kick their losing habit, helping him find his kicking habit would help them find their winning one.
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