Ulster Senior Football Championship
MOST players would sulk and scowl if told they were being left out of the starring 15 for a clash with one of their closest rivals – but Thomas Mallon is not most players.
Instead of throwing the head up, the Derry goalkeeper saw the imposed watching brief he was handed at Healy Park on March 5 as an opportunity. Having played in both Dr McKenna Cup defeats to Tyrone earlier in the year, this was a chance to really see how, where and with whom the Red Hands attack the opposition kick-outs.
“It was great to sit back and take things in. I have seen a lot of things that Tyrone do and hopefully that all comes to my mind on Sunday,” he said.
“With a DVD you might have to watch it three, four or five times and you might see a different thing, whereas at the match you see everything. You see what number five is doing, what number seven is doing on our kick-outs, what 10 and 12 are doing - where their midfielders are going.
“From a positional point of view, you see a lot from the bench. I’ve got that in my head now.”
As Derry boss Damian Barton alternated Mallon and Eoin McNicholl between the sticks during the National League, the Oak Leafs’ kick-out strategy was proving patchy rather than polished.
Speaking at Derry’s press night last week ahead of Sunday’s clash with his native county, Barton’s assistant Brian McGuckin admitted it was an issue that needed to be resolved as quickly as possible.
“Yes, of course. Throughout the National League we had been rotating our goalkeepers and the kick-outs were a problem but we have been addressing our kick-outs and we’d like to think you’d see be an improvement on them next week.”
It certainly won’t be for the lack of trying on Mallon’s part. He had never planned to become a goalkeeper, and the road from being Loup’s third-choice stopper in 2011 to commanding the number one jersey on the county team has been a long one.
“I was always the young one in the house and I was the one sent to nets,” he added.
“I played in nets in soccer and then came to training one day with the club when I was about 14 and it was a case of ‘we need a goalkeeper’ and I said ‘I’ll go into them’, and one thing led to another.
“We played Swatragh in the first game, I kept a clean sheet and the manager said ‘that’s it, you’re in there for the rest of the year’.”
Crucial to that rise to prominence under Brian McIver was his deadly accurate kick-outs, and Mallon admits he has spent hundreds of hours on the training field honing this particular skill.
Of course, that task was made much easier in recent years when he looked up and saw the likes of Fergal Doherty and Patsy Bradley with their hands raised. The lack of a go-to man in the middle of the park has proved problematic for Derry, with Mallon and McNicholl often finding themselves looking to the wings.
The National League was a steep learning curve for all involved with the Oak Leaf set-up but, typical of Mallon, he has gone back to the drawing board and done what got him to this level in the first place: practise.
“I try to be the first out at training and the last off the field. Practising, practising, repetition, repetition. You can never practise enough, you’re always trying different things. Trying to get five or 10 yards longer on your kick.
“Getting out, talking to boys about different runs, always thinking about the next challenge. Every team has different personnel, whether they press up whether they don’t, so you are always thinking of your opponent and trying to better yourself.
“Kick-outs are a fundamental - it used to be shot stopping, the high ball, but it’s now tailored towards the influence kick-outs have on the game of football.
“It’s ridiculous but it’s one I firmly enjoy. I enjoy the challenge and I just keep working on it and hopefully it pays off on Sunday.”
As challenges go, in Ulster anyway, they don’t come much greater than Tyrone. Having led the county’s golden generation to three All-Ireland titles in the Noughties, Mickey Harte is in the process of constructing another major force to be reckoned with.
They went through the League undefeated, and took care of an up-and-coming Cavan side in the Division Two final. At Celtic Park on Sunday, they will start as big favourites.
That will suit Derry, and Mallon, down to the ground. The 27-year-old says that, of all the games he has been involved in, this is the one that has got the blood pumping more than ever.
Gone is the fear, the nerves, the trepidation. All that is left is excitement, anticipation, and the belief that the Oak Leafs can cause the first major upset of the Championship summer.
“It’s a real buzz and the adrenalin is pumping,” he said.
“I’ve dreamt about it as a young boy, walking behind the band, playing with the likes of Mark Lynch, playing in front of a full Celtic Park. I’ve done it before. This is the one I’m looking forward to the most.
“In previous years I have been a rookie coming in nervous, but for this one I just can’t wait. I just feel ready for it. In previous years I was nervous and thinking ‘I’m going to make a mistake’ - now it’s not cockiness, it’s confidence, knowing your own ability.
“I feel as though I’m an experienced campaigner. It’s my fourth season with Derry and this is the reason why you go to training at 6.30 in the morning - it’s not to have the beach body, it’s for this moment.”
