TIR Chonaill boss Rory Gallagher knows opposite Monaghan and opposite number Malachy O’Rourke very well. The Belleek man tells Gerry Maguire what he expects from tomorrow’s Ulster SFC final encounter with an old team-mate and adversary...
IN his prime playing days, Rory Gallagher from the Commons, Belleek, county Fermanagh was a feisty, spiky bag of tricks.
He was certainly one of Fermanagh’s most naturally gifted forwards who also just happened to like playing almost as a sweeper.
Rory has one very happy memory of playing tomorrow’s Monaghan opponents as he hit a truly remarkable record-breaking 3-9 against the Farney county in 2002.
This was a year after he sublimely chipped Donegal goalkeeper Tony Blake for a wonderful goal in Ballybofey.
He was part of Fermanagh’s best ever team in the early noughties that beat Donegal in 2000 and 2001 in Ulster Championship/Qualifier clashes.
But these days he is in charge of Tir Chonaill after a few highly successful years as assistant to Jim McGuinness.
It is just after 9am on a Saturday morning at the press ‘morning’ before the Ulster final.
Gallagher is gracious, courteous and controlled as the usual questions are lobbed across the table.
The return of Leo McLoone and Darach ‘Jigger’ O’Connor along with the recovering Paddy McBrearty means that Gallagher has one of the county’s strongest ever squads for tomorrow’s final clash with old rivals Monaghan.
And he quickly scotches speculation that Donegal should really have tanked Derry after their fine victory over Armagh and seamlessly throws in the inevitable statistics to back his argument.
“Listen, we live in the real world and we were always expecting a very tough challenge from Derry,” he stated.
“Any team that holds Dublin to four points for 60 minutes in a National League game deserves respect.
“Derry are one of the top eight teams in the country so we would expect nothing less from them.”
But Donegal are among the top few – something Gallagher modestly refrains from pointing out.
He admits he was disappointed that Donegal “did not push on” when they got the goal at a vital time in that Ulster semi-final against the Oak Leafers.
“We were five points up, but sat back a bit too much but all credit to Derry who came back at us,’’ he added.
‘Our energy levels dropped and it looked almost like we were content just to coast it out.
“We should have been trying to get four or five more points on the board, but that just did not happen.”
On Sunday he will coming up against Malachy O’Rourke, a man for whom he played in 2010 and lined out with inj the early seasons of this century.
But Gallagher dismisses any suggestion that this will add any spice to the encounter.
“Malachy is a man I know fairly well,’’ said Gallagher.
“I played with him for a while and he also managed me. He lives in Ballygawley where my mam is from and I would have met up with him a good few times as well.
“He has brought a huge amount to Monaghan. Obviously they had some great years under ‘Banty’ McEnaney and they also got relegated to Division Three from having been in Division One.
“Malachy brought them straight back up to Division One and it has been a constant upward curve for Monaghan.
“He also brings a huge amount of organisation and knowledge of opposition players and tactically he is very shrewd as well.”
And that’s almost a mirror image of one Rory Gallagher.
But the man himself does not accept the suggestion that Monaghan is an ageing team.
“Well, a bit like ourselves, people would have seen Vinny Corey, Paul Finlay and Dessie Mone as maybe older than they were. It was just maybe that they were just playing at a very young age for a very long time,” he added.
‘But Malachy has definitely energised Monaghan a lot. Malachy always had a very warm personality and had great man management skills and that rubs off on the players and gives them renewed enthusiasm.’’
Gallagher rejects a theory “that is out there in the media” that Donegal is somewhat stretched on the bench.
Leo McLoone and Darach O’Connor certainly give Gallagher more options, but he insists that Tir Chonaill have some fairly good choices in reserve.
“If you look at the bench, we have Eamon Doherty who played six or seven National League games and Hugh McFadden who played then also. And then if you look at our bench of 26 for the Ulster final there is a lot of experience.
“As for us being stretched, that is just something that is out there in the media and it is something that we are not too worried about.
“As a manager I like to have to be making difficult decisions , it is survival of the fittest and it’s the best man for the job and that’s what we want to create.’’
And that shows the real steel present in the Donegal boss.
When asked what happens to players who do not properly execute a particular game plan, Rory is searingly direct and honest.
“Well the ones that don’t, they don’t play,” he says.
“Everyone is given an opportunity to learn and thankfully we have fairly quick learners in this group of players. That is making the right decisions in the heat of the moment. It is something that we work on consistently in training.”
