Flawed pundits like Brolly don’t interest me, says Tally
PADDY TALLY says he won’t be accepting any ‘flawed analysis’ of his footballing philosophy from pundits like Joe Brolly as he takes his first steps into inter-county management. The new Down manager was coach of Tyrone’s first All-Ireland winning team in 2003, and was a number two in Derry and Down before leading St Mary’s to an unlikely Sigerson Cup victory last year.
But it was his stint with Galway this year as part of Kevin Walsh’s backroom team that really fuelled his ambition to become a number one.
Galway reached the league final and made it to the AllIreland semi-finals for the first time since 2001, but Brolly was critical of their more defence-orientated set-up and blamed Tally’s ‘negative’ influence. His response?
‘I don’t really pass any remarks on it to be honest with you, I never did. Galway played a certain way and, as much as we were tight at the back, we were also very good up front as well.
‘All I can do is put a system in place that is the best for a particular team. ‘Now, if it doesn’t suit somebody’s palate, I can do nothing about that. I think it’s... I wouldn’t say it’s weak analysis, but certainly it’s flawed in a lot of ways. ‘It’d be quite weak of me to organise a team to satisfy a pundit, or a number of pundits. That wouldn’t be the way forward.’
Tally has spent most of his coaching life in the goldfish bowl of Ulster and the year out west gave him a fresh outlook.
‘Galway was great because it opened my eyes to a different way of approaching football,’ he said.
‘They view things differently… there’s a different atmosphere about things. Ulster football is very parochial and, especially working in third level education here, you nearly know every player that comes through. ‘Out west, you don’t know anybody so you really are just looking at it from an outside point of view, which was good for me because I was really able to judge things differently.
‘It was good for me as well because I hadn’t been around a county set-up in a few years, and maybe whetted my appetite for getting back.’
Tally inherits a Down team that’s been soft touch for most of this decade. Hammered by 13 points by Donegal in this year’s Ulster semi-final, they will also begin 2019 in Division Three.
He has promised to make the team defensively sound, regardless of what noise is made elsewhere if Down don’t play with the swagger of old.
‘I don’t know what “the Down way is” but I do know Down people would like a winning team again and that is my job.
‘We have to be smart about this – we have to be hard to beat. Any team that’s successful is hard to beat.’