ROGERS STILL HUNGRY FOR MORE TITLES
IT SHOULD come as no surprise that Brendan Rogers has made a mark in the takeaway business in his professional capacity. It is, after all, what comes naturally when you look at the amount of titles he has taken away in the last five years with Slaughtneil.
Not that you will find the Derry dual player in the vicinity of a fryer down your local chipper, but it is all down to his handiwork that someday soon your humble spice bag will come with a GPS tracker.
The software engineer, who works for a family Mobile app and digital marketing company in Toome, has just developed an app for the hungry which will allow them to track their takeaway from the chipper to their front door.
‘We’ve created a takeaway platform — so people can order what they want and there’s a delivery tracing system.
‘You can update the order status and see where the driver is, like Uber.
‘It’s called ‘Takeitaway’ app,’ he explains.
While it is the gift of technology that even mushy peas can get tracked in this age, there is no app out there to explain the wonder of what Rogers and his Slaughtneil team have achieved in recent years.
He has won nine senior county medals in that time and tomorrow he seeks his fourth Ulster medal inside 12 months.
If they see off Cavan Gaels at the Athletic Grounds, they will be the first club in history to put double hurling and football titles together in back-to-back seasons.
Cork city giants St Finbarr’s managed it once in 1980 and, even then, that was at a time when being a dual player did not make you a national curiosity.
How they keep doing it has become a national obsession but there is no mystery insists Rogers.
‘I think people are under a misconception as to what we really do. When Crossmaglen were at their peak everyone was saying they were doing 6am sessions but in my mind it’s a very simplistic system and something we have actually grown up with. People talk to you about being a dual club as if you’ve only doing it this last five years.
‘We’ve always done it. It’s just that it has come to the fore with the success. There are no fancy drills. Players themselves focus on quality rather than quantity in training so we’re not killing ourselves in between the games.
‘You don’t have to slog round the pitch running 10k in training just so you can run 10k in a match,’ he explains.
And far from being leg-weary, Rogers would happily play in both codes for county as well as club if the GAA fixture schedule would accommodate it.
He echoes the belief expressed by Dublin hurling manager Pat Gilroy that the day of the intercounty dual player has been terminated by design rather than by evolution.
‘There is definitely a mind-set with people who say it can’t be done and don’t want it to be done.
‘It’s really championship that people care about and the only way you could properly be a dual player is to play the two club championships separately.
‘A few months apart and you could give it a good crack.
‘I tried it last year at county level with Derry football and hurling and it was physically demanding because of the intensity and styles of play but Pat Gilroy is right, if the GAA wanted it to happen, it could.
‘Con O’Callaghan is a prime example. He’s the best example of a dual player you could have but he couldn’t play Kilkenny on a Saturday and Kerry on a Sunday. ‘That’s not possible and that’s why it’s not going to work.’
In truth, it does not work perfectly either for Slaughtneil.
Last year’s double assault on AllIreland glory fell short on both counts, with the hurler’s semifinal defeat to Cuala stinging every bit as much as the football final loss to Dr Crokes, where they were hamstrung by playing the entire second half with 14 men.
Keeping two balls in the air while dealing with the mid-winter break left the hurlers rusty and out of touch, which is why Rogers is adamant that the club championships should be played in the calendar year.
‘It hampered the hurling more than the football. We were more conditioned for football.
‘It was skill and touch we were missing, you miss out on the finer details and at that level it’s fine margins make the difference,’ he explains.
Hurt can make some too. That loss to Crokes, who they could potentially meet in a semi-final rematch, is something they would dearly love to address.
But they won’s take their eyes off the ball, starting with Cavan Gaels tomorrow.
‘You never forget the games you get beat in and you want to rectify them. In post mortems in your head you think about it, but there’s only one way we can get redemption for that — and that is to go and win Ulster again.
‘We see Cavan as good opposition and we need to beat them before we can get the shackles off and go again.’