DERRY minor football manager Damian McErlain hopes that the space that Croke Park affords will play into his side’s hands when they face Kerry on Sunday.
The Oak Leaf minors face the reigning Tom Markham Cup holders aiming to reach a first All-Ireland final since 2007.
The Magherafelt man was in Tullamore on the August bank holiday Monday to watch the Munster champions overcome Sligo with a certain degree of comfort.
It wasn’t a vintage performance that afternoon from Jack O’Connor’s side, and the windy conditions didn’t help the game either, but McErlain has seen enough to know what they are made of.
“They’re seriously comfortable on the ball. Their basic skill levels are very high all over the pitch. All the things you’d expect from a Kerry team. Their workrate’s very good, they work as a team. There’s no one individual lording it.
“You have very good individuals playing together as a team, which is the ideal situation I suppose. It’s the biggest challenge we’ve had yet.”
Derry produced their own poorest performance of the year in the opening half of their quarter-final win over Longford.
The Leinster runners-up went in at half-time 2-2 to 0-4 ahead, and they could have been out of sight had it not been for a bit of bad luck on two other goal chances.
Longford’s defensive setup and the conditions contributed massively. Two sweepers were placed in front of Derry inside forwards Shane McGuigan and Barry Grant, and a torrential downpour at the start of the game also worked against Derry’s natural tendency to kick the ball in early.
But Enniskillen’s pitch didn’t afford the same space to kick it into as Headquarters will on Sunday afternoon.
“We enjoyed Clones, I have to say,” said McErlain when asked if the big pitch would suit his side’s style of play.
“We do a lot of work on our kick-passing. We’re similar to Kerry in that sense. In my own head, I’ve never seen a man run faster than the kick pass yet.
“Even energy wise, in Croke Park, how could you carry the ball for a full hour? You learned in the Longford game too that you have to be flexible. If the kick pass isn’t working, you have to change your way of doing it.
“The emphasis on keeping possession is still great though. If you want the ball to move quickly, there’s still no point in just kicking it away either.”
Derry have largely played the year without a sweeper, and Kerry play a similar style. The end product could be a very open game this weekend.
The Ulster champions have found great joy from kicking the ball early to their full-forward line, but McErlain says that they have been working on different systems in light of not being totally sure how good Kerry are.
“We’ve been working on different things. You work on all aspects of it; playing with one sweeper, with two sweepers, we’ve toyed with them all.
“It’s the whole thing at minor level where you haven’t played these teams before. You’re watching videos but you don’t know an absolutely relevant idea of what they’re actually like. You’re not sure how strong the teams they’ve played are.
“Kerry played the last day without Mark O’Connor, who’s their captain and main driving force, and one man like that can make a big difference to a minor team.
“Your perspective is never right until five or ten minutes into the match, and you get to see how your boys are matching up to their boys all over the pitch. It’s the same for Kerry.
“At this level, you have to be very flexible on how you play the game. You could work for three weeks on a particular system and after 10 minutes realise it’s not the way to go and try to change the whole thing.”
