Future is bright at Oak Leaf
DERRY boss Damian Mcerlain has no fears about the Oak Leafers’ future but has called on the GAA to introduce a calendar-year season ASAP.
Top Derry club Slaughtneil’s continued brilliance has hurt the county scene and been a factor in their demotion to Division Four and early exit from the championship last weekend against Kildare.
The Slaughtneil players were too late joining the Derry set-up to have any impact and Mcerlain has admitted: “The reality is you just can’t do that.
“You need the team operating together from October the whole way through.
“The Slaughtneil players want to be here, they are mad Derry men and they want the opportunity to do both, and do them properly rather than coming in here exhausted after their club campaign.
“The whole thing needs to tighten up and the season has to end before Christmas.
“It will happen eventually but it will happen at a snail’s pace like everything else.
Derry’s under-20s are in the Ulster final and as usual there’s plenty of talent coming through to encourage them for the future.
Mcerlain believes the structures are now in place to take advantage of the quality that’s there.
“There’s loads of quality in Derry, particularly from 22, 23 years of age right down to under 6s.
“The structures are very strong, clubs are working their socks off in the city and in south Derry, so everything is very positive.
“In the last three or four years the improvement has been massive.”