Oak Leafers threaten to come of age at last

Derry manager Brian McGilligan rode out last year’s storm and is now looking forward to finding success with a talented, young Oak Leaf panel. Brendan Crossan writes...

McGilligan’s comparative analysis with the county’s football fraternity stood up to scrutiny. McGilligan let county officers have it with both barrels.
At the time, a siege mentality had gripped Oak Leaf officialdom.
Disillusioned minor football manager Niall Conway let rip to the media, while the relationship between the senior footballers and under-fire manager Paddy Crozier had reached breaking point.
Given his tireless efforts with the U21 and senior hurlers and the fact there was nobody knocking down the county board’s door for the job, it was not the most prudent of moves to threaten McGilligan with a suspension.
He was about to walk anyway and, if anything, a ban would almost copperfasten his departure. After all, the county needed McGilligan more than McGilligan needed the county.
Alas, commonsense prevailed. Weeks passed for reflection before the county board withdrew its threat and duly settled their differences with their hurling manager.
For his sins, he’s back for a third consecutive year. McGilligan’s requests for 2009 have been met, and he’s happy to draw a line under 2008. So was he close to quitting the post?
“It’s a tough station,” says McGilligan.
“With my work commitments and the time you need to give to this job, it’s virtually impossible, but there is no big queue to take the job on. If we hadn’t have taken it on it probably would have fallen apart.
“But everybody has signed up to the Players’ Charter from Croke Park,” he adds.
“If the Derry County Board adheres to everything that’s said in it, then I haven’t a problem.
“At the end of the day, all I’m looking for is fair play, a bit of respect, to be respected the same as everybody else.”
Despite his run-ins with officialdom, McGilligan has noticed things are slowly changing for the better.
While acknowledging the perennial difficulties Derry hurling faces, the Kevin Lynch’s clubman is optimistic about its future.
“A number of years ago, Derry hurling was seen as a good night’s craic, but nowadays it is very professional, scary in fact. But, in saying that, there is still a lot of work to be done at club level.
“Within every club it’s the same four or five boys that’s keeping the game going. They are secretaries and chairmen. There just aren’t enough people to do the work that needs to be done.
“But I can see young fellas coming through and there’s nothing more that I want than to have hurling in Derry for my sons and everybody else’s sons.”

Speaking with McGilligan, it is clear there are two key reasons why he has stayed on. Firstly, the U21s have won back-to-back Ulster titles and that the bulk of this side would expect to give the senior provincial title a rattle this year.
And, secondly, after putting a small notice in the Irish News about training times, he was heartened by the numbers that turned up.
“We put a small notice in the newspaper asking anybody who is interested in Derry hurling to turn up, and we got 34 guys who came,” he says.
“It was an entirely different situation two years ago when we had 12 or 13 guys at training.
“I think it’s because players see that they will be afforded the same respect as the footballers, so as long as the county board holds their end of the bargaining, I don’t see us going back to 12 and 13 fellas training.
“I mean, we’ve 30-plus boys at training every night.
“They are prepared to make the same sacrifices and do the same amount of training as the footballers – so why shouldn’t we be treated the same?
“Hopefully, that’s all been sorted now. Everything is going fine. I haven’t a problem with anything.”
Two summers ago, Antrim’s U21 hurling management team accepted responsibility for losing to Derry in the provincial decider.
It wasn’t said too loudly, but within Antrim, Derry’s victory was regarded as an aberration.
The Oak Leafers repeated the dose last summer. Aberrations don’t happen twice.
“We’ve won the last two Ulster U21 titles and there are a few boys who have proved everybody wrong,” says McGilligan.
“There are a few lads that can really hurl and with the right approach, the right commitment and attitude, anything is possible.”
He adds: “I wasn’t surprised by beating Antrim’s U21s last year. We’d a lot of confidence going into that game. It was a ding-dong match.
“They were in control in the first half. But it’s all about self-belief and we went out in the second half and showed what we can do.”
McGilligan is hoping the Derry seniors, backboned by the successful U21s, will get closer to senior honours in 2009, but is mindful not to burden his young panel with expectations.
Last summer, Derry’s seniors gave Antrim a run for their money in a pulsating provincial semi-final.
For 50 minutes, big Ruairi Convery, Sean Leo McGoldrick, Mark Craig and company gave as good as they got, but struggled to maintain their challenge in the final quarter when Antrim pulled away.
“I don’t know if our boys panicked when they saw the finishing line. And sure enough, Antrim were a few goals up by the end.
“The seniors are backboned by the U21s again this year,” he says.
“Ideally, what we’d like to do is win an Ulster Championship. I don’t know if that’s feasible or not this year. Maybe it’s a year too early.
“We also need to retain our position in the division we’re in [3A]. We don’t want to be dropping down, but I don’t think we’re strong enough yet to go up.
“It’s like everything else: you need to walk before you can run. But, with a wee bit of belief in each other, you never know.”

National Hurling League Division 2B

Carlow 1-14 Derry 1-7, Derry 2-19 Down 3-14,
Armagh 2-13 Derry 3-11, Derry 3-11 London 0-9, Meath 1-25 Derry 0-8

Ulster Senior Hurling Championship:
Semi-final: Antrim 2-17 Derry 1-12
Ulster SHC quarter-final: Derry 7-23 Monaghan 3-13;
Christy Ring Cup semi-final:
Westmeath 1-19 Derry 0-12;
Christy Ring Cup quarter-final:
Derry 1-20 Down 0-18
Christy Ring Cup Group D:
Derry 4-14 Armagh 5-6
Christy Ring Cup Group D:
Kildare 2-28 Derry 1-12