Derry midfielder Brendan Rogers believes Rory Gallagher will return to intercounty management in the near future.
Former Derry boss Gallagher was linked with taking on the Oak Leaf role again over recent months but ultimately that did not materialise with Paddy Tally appointed as successor to Mickey Harte.
Gallagher has been away from the top level of the game since stepping down as Derry manager in May 2023 after his former wife, Nicola, made allegations of domestic abuse.
Earlier this year Gallagher successfully overturned his temporary debarment from the GAA by the Ulster Council, and in September the former Fermanagh player made it clear he intended to return to intercounty management.
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Derry GAA opted against bringing Gallagher back, but Rogers believes his former boss will eventually return to the helm of an intercounty team.
“Oh absolutely, [the] man’s ambition and desire in life is sport, that’s what it is. He only has a passion for sport, be it Gaelic or whatever,” says Rogers.
“I can’t see why he wouldn’t. There’s been a lot of things went on in the background and that’s his personal life but he’s very capable of being an intercounty manager, he has one of the best IQs in the game, so look, I’d be very surprised if somewhere down the line if he didn’t get an intercounty post because life has to move on as well too.”
The rumours linking Gallagher with a return to Derry lingered for most of the four months in which the county sought a replacement for Harte.
And Rogers says there is respect within the Derry dressingroom for the coaching job Gallagher performed during his time with the county.
“It’s not wrong to say that a lot of players would have an affection to how Rory Gallagher coached us,” adds Rogers.
“Ultimately, he did get us all our senior success and there’s a love for how he treated the players and they got on very well with him so I would imagine that’s where the speculation came from.
“I don’t think any player that played under him thought that he wasn’t a good coach or good at what he did.
“In terms of the speculation, yeah there was a lot of ‘apparentlys’ and ‘supposedlys’ and ‘heard from a good source’ type conversations but what went on in the background we’re not overly privy to whether the consideration was there or not.
“But would he have been a good coach for us again? Absolutely. The man’s IQ for football is phenomenal, but it just wasn’t to be and I guess that’s for the committee and executive to make that decision.”
And Rogers believes Derry have made a good decision in appointing Tally, who has spent recent seasons coaching Kerry.
“Paddy gets probably lauded for his defensive credibility, and rightly so, but nobody gives him credit for how to get out of a defensive system,” says Rogers.
“Kerry had a certain type of player that could transition well, and they primarily used the kick pass, but the transition allowed David [Clifford] to get more one v ones.
“It’s not to say that Derry are going to play defensive with Paddy Tally and that narrative, what he could actually do is help make us a better transitioning team, to give the likes of Shane McGuigan far more one v ones. I’m excited to see what he has learned.”
Learnings will form a large part of Derry’s winter musings. They were crowned league champions this season and entered the championship as one of the Sam Maguire favourites, only to suffer a mid-season collapse.
By the end of the championship, Derry were on the lookout for a new manager, with Harte and Gavin Devlin stepping down.
“I don’t think it was a case that players just switched off to management after winning the National League, nothing like that happened.
“You still have an admiration for what they brought to us and those things, but I still think there were too many variables around – did we execute on the pitch the way we should have? Were our tactics perfect? I don’t think anyone’s tactics are perfect all the time.
“I think both players and management would be holding their hands up and saying ‘maybe we made mistakes.’ That is maybe a hard learning curve to take but maybe an invaluable one for us.
“It looks like the wheels fell off the wagon and that things fell apart but that wasn’t the case.
“I just think we did a few things wrong at critical times and we were punished heavily by very good and very organised teams.”
It has been a week of significant GAA retirements – Brian Fenton took most of the headlines but Chrissy McKaigue was closer to home for Rogers, as the Slaughtneil clubmates travelled to Derry training together.
“Whether he won any medals or not, I think he’s earned the respect of a lot of people from how he played and conducted himself,” says Rogers of McKaigue.
“He’d be known for being a competitor and I think that’s what he’d love to be known as. A damn good one at that, too.”
Rogers marked Fenton during Derry and Dublin tussles, and he rates the Dubliner as a very special player.
“It was his versatility. I know a lot of people would look at him for his elegance in terms of when he’s on the ball, he could spray passes with both feet, he could kick points with both feet.
“But on the back foot, he doesn’t get as much credit for how he plugs holes in defence or his organisational skills, his communication in the heat of battle in big games.
“You don’t get too many versatile players like that. He was nearly a specialist at six things rather than just one.”
♦ Rogers was speaking at the launch of this year’s GOAL Mile. AIB are offering the chance to win €1000 by registering for the GOAL Mile this Christmas at www.goalmile.org.
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