YESTERDAY’S 2-25 to 1-12 mauling from Donegal in Newry may have been Paddy Tally’s last dance with Down.
The Galbally native took the Down reins on a three-year term in 2019. The previous summer, Down had lost by 13 points to Donegal (that season’s Ulster champions) and, although Division Two football was secured and consolidated, he has been unable to close the gap in the Championship and now intends to consider his future.
“I was asked to come in on a three-year term and that’s the three years finished today,” said Tally.
“That’ll be a discussion I’ll have with the county board and with the rest of the fellas but I’ll make no decisions at the moment.”
He declined to discuss the matter further.
Sixteen points separated the teams at the finish yesterday and although it didn’t feel like a complete humiliation for out-of-their-depth Down, it wasn’t far from it. The final whistle came as a relief and afterwards Tally struggled to find any crumbs of comfort in his side’s performance.
“It was very disappointing,” he said.
“There are very few positives to come out of that game. It was good to be playing Championship football but in terms of our performance… we’re gutted.”
And Tally says the rich will get richer and the poor will stay poor in the current Championship system. If Down are to compete for the Ulster Championship again, he argues, they’re not going to do so ‘on the job’ against heavyweights like Donegal.
“Ulster is a tough Championship, it’s tough to break through,” he said.
“Donegal have been in nine of the last 10 finals so they are one of the dominant teams in Ulster and anyone trying to break through against them would find it very tough.
“For a county to develop and players to develop, the new system should be better. If you want to play a provincial Championship then play it off as a knockout competition surely but there has to be a better system.
“The proposal for next year (teams in the top two divisions playing for the Sam Maguire) means there will be a new Championship structure and that will be exciting because I think players need more football.
“This Down team is so young, the first thing they need to do is play at a higher level against good teams on a regular basis and more games of football. That was our fifth game of football and that’s us done for the year. Five games of football! For the amount of training you do, you get roughly six-and-a-half hours’ of competitive football for all the work you put in! It doesn’t make any sense to put players through that and give them so little opportunity to play.”
Tally gave four players their Championship debuts yesterday meaning he has fielded 37 players over five Championship games in his three years in charge.
“Down have a serious turnover of players every year whether it’s work commitments or the club, or just deciding not to give it to the county,” he said.
“Maybe that’s down to the fact that they feel there is no chance of success. We have a tough time trying to get players to commit.
“The bunch of players we have are very good but they’re vastly inexperienced. They’re young and they’re going to take time to develop as players and if you look at the Donegal team and see how many players are still there from 2014, they have a lot of experience and we don’t have that and the system doesn’t lend itself to getting that.”
