As he rests his Slaughtneil sextet
league points towards the bottom half of Division Three — their only win coming against pointless Offaly — the temptation would be strong among some managers to bolster a defence that is under-performing with the two McKaigues, McNeill and Rogers, while Cassidy has developed into one of the finest attacking midfielders in the province over the last couple of seasons, and McGuigan a very promising youthful attacker.
“We consciously made the decision that we are not ringing the other five lads at all, until at least the end of this week, to give them a wee bit of space,” explained McErlain.
“They have just been beaten in an All-Ireland semi-final. They don’t need me ringing and getting up their nose when they are still trying to get over that.”
Such long-term thinking is consistent with the message Derry have been promoting since the start of the league, with McErlain giving many of the minor teams that he had managed for the past three years their chance in senior football.
“There is no doubt, you have to have patience. We sort of know what we have and what we are going to have when our whole panel develops,” he continued.
“Patience is absolutely paramount. We are starting as a new management team, we are starting with a new group and we have struggled the last couple of years.
“I suppose it is going to take time, it is going to take patience for everybody. Ideally we would have had everybody out on the pitch with us since we started training but that hasn’t been the case either. There has been a whole range of things that have made it slower over the winter. Even the weather, it’s difficult getting on the grass and bringing the thing together.
“But we are pretty happy internally with how things have been going. The boys are all working very hard, the set-up is a pretty happy camp. There are no questions about that.
“It is going to take patience, year on year progression to get there.
“Once we get everybody onto the pitch I am pretty confident we will make strides.”