McErlain thinks of bigger picture
DERRY senior football manager Damian McErlain has revealed that he is prepared to let his Slaughtneil contingent sit out the entire Allianz League campaign as the over-worked stars come to terms with their All-Ireland Club disappointment.
The Newbridge man has made the decision to let vice-captain Brendan Rogers and his five clubmates have an extended break after their pursuit of All-Ireland Club titles — which has been ongoing for the best part of four years with no break — to avoid burning the key men out.
It is a welcome change of a manager putting player welfare ahead of short-term gain.
The club footballers were beaten last weekend by Nemo Rangers after extra-time, following the hurlers’ exit to Limerick’s Na Piarsaigh a fortnight earlier, sparking hopes that Rogers, along with Christopher and Karl McKaigue, Padraig Cassidy, Paul McNeill and Shane McGuigan, might be back for the league fixtures before Storm Emma had the final say.
But their re-introduction to the group will be a phased process, insists McErlain.
“We can’t rush them back. We want them coming back and being an addition for us. If you are forcing men back who are just after a long season like that — in fact, they are not after one long season, they are after two long seasons — and two years in a row of that, mentally and physically, there is going to be a toll on them,” he explained.
“They need to normalise their lives a bit, for a few weeks anyway and see where that takes them. For us, it is more about them.
“I know we have been working without them and we have a small enough panel. But we know what they can offer. Them coming back to us fresh and keen to get at it again, rather than us insisting they come back and them resenting that or being indifferent to the whole thing because there is still exhaustion there or a feeling of tiredness, they just need those few weeks out to get their head showered.”
With Derry struggling for