Tally believes Ulster teams will have to adapt to thrive under new rules

By John Harrington

Derry manager, Paddy Tally, says Ulster teams will have to adapt if they’re to thrive under the new FRC rules.

The three up rule means that defenders now find themselves in one-to-one battles far more frequently than they would have been used to.

Tally believes this puts Ulster teams that have been used to playing with a blanket defence and a counter-attacking style of play for years at a disadvantage.

“You'll see the teams that are more used to going man to man are going to benefit, the teams that play a different style of football, a more open style of football,” says Tally.

“I definitely think that Ulster football has been quite similar across all counties since the last number of years.

“You could throw your hat over it the way every team in Ulster plays. And now we have to adapt to not having a 15-man block defence, double sweeper at times, that's all gone.

“Now it's really man on man and if you don't push out you're going to be punished by a two-pointer. So I think the teams now that have really good man-markers in the defence are going to benefit

“Plus the teams that have really good forwards can take a man on and beat them in a 1v1, and at the minute that's going to be a real challenge to change the mindset firstly of the players that this is what the future looks like.

“And I think really this year, what I've noticed towards the end of the league is you're starting to see the teams that are going to be there at the end of the year because now they're starting to show this game is going to open up.

“And we have to change, you can't sit back and look back and say we did this in the past or this is what we did in the past. It's not going to work in the future.

“This new game is going to determine a complete new skill set for defenders. The midfielders now are going to be much better in the air, you're going to have break ball specialists and you have to have forwards that are able to win their own ball, take the men on and score, and also outside shooters are now going to be really important.

“Even the point of the goalkeeper, the accuracy of his kick and the ability to come up and add to the attack, so it's a completely new game, it really is in all its facets.”

Relegation from Division 1 of the Allianz Football League is a less than ideal preparation for Derry’s Ulster Championship opener against Donegal on Sunday, but there were some extenuating circumstances.

A rash of injuries, especially in defence, weakened the panel considerably, and Tally’s relatively late appointment as manager meant he was playing catch-up in the early weeks of the season.

“Yeah, that was a major challenge because it's very, very hard to come in and you've basically four weeks to get ready for the start of a national league, and that's really essentially what it was,” he says.

“We started training around the 8th of December and you had...you just barely get to know the players. You had Christmas off and you had four weeks to get a league match under brand new rules. So there's an awful lot to deal with

“Plus then we had an awful legacy of injuries that were coming to us as well. So it's been a real turmoil.

“And in fairness to the physiotherapists and medical team and the doctor, everybody around the team and the coaches were working really hard to remedy that.

“But it does leave you on the back foot and that's what came back to hurt us in the league this year.

“But it's something now to be really aware for next season, that you must better prepare yourself.

“I remember Padraic Joyce’s first year in, he got relegated to Division 2 in Clones in the last match. He had to do the same thing. But now they've been two All-Irelands the last three years and are a real candidate for another run this year.

“But I think this is part of it and Armagh have done the same, Donegal have to do the same. This is part of the process, even Malachy in Tyrone with a very strong squad and a lot of players coming through. Unfortunately he's dropped into Division 2 as well.

“But Malachy will see that as an opportunity to build next year and come back strong. I think you have to do this as a manager. You have to try and find new players. You have to expose players to it because if you don't get the experience you're not going to learn.”

There’s certainly no shortage of promising young footballers emerging in Derry at the moment after back-to-back All-Ireland minor wins in 2023 and 2024.

The county U20 team has also started the year promisingly with two wins from two.

Tally is enthused by the conveyor belt of talent in the county but cautions that it will take some time for those players at U20 level to make the grade as senior inter-county footballers.

Such are the athletic demands now of senior inter-county football that you have to be physically mature enough to survive at the highest level, which doesn’t happen until a player hits the age of 22 or 23.

“The athletic development of the players is so important now and you don't really find this out until you're in the later stages of the championship, maybe in Croke Park in the last eight,” says Tally.

“The teams that are more athletically gifted and stronger and bigger really stand out in those days. And not only having 15 really very athletic good footballers, you need another seven or eight on the bench that can come on and strengthen the team when needed. That great Dublin team won All-Irelands because of their bench.

“Armagh won the All-Ireland last year because of their bench. They made the difference when it came to the semi-final and final. They ran out the winners, and those things just don't happen overnight.

“This is a programme of a young player, 18 years old or 17, coming out of minor. It's really a four- or five-year programme to get him to 22, 23 where he's athletically strong enough to consistently compete in every match.

“If you take a break and don't develop that player in those early stages, it's very difficult for them to catch up when they're 21 or come out in their 20’s. You've probably missed a window of opportunity for development.

“So I would say long-term planning, strategic development of players, long-term athletic development is going to be a big focus for teams for the future and especially now with the new rules.”

Derry’s future looks bright, but what about the present? Do they have a realistic chance of winning the Ulster Championship this year and challenging for the Sam Maguire Cup?

Tally believes the first hurdle – a trip to Ballybofey on Sunday – couldn’t be a steeper one because in his mind Donegal have been the best team in the country so far this year.

“Donegal opted out of not going to the league final really,” says Tally. “The last two matches they decided not to go to it.

“They could have went to it but they're obviously thinking of the Championship match in such close proximity to the league.

“But Donegal are a serious team, they were very unfortunate last year not to be in the All-Ireland final. They won the Ulster Championship last year and I think they've got better, I think they've improved their squad.

“Bringing Michael Murphy back into the squad, bringing Eoin McHugh back into the squad, they look as if they really are in a good place this season. I think Donegal and probably the team this year would be looking to win the All-Ireland and not just the Ulster Championship.

“They were the outstanding team in the league really, they looked as if they could have taken the league and topped the table if they had wanted to. So we have no illusions of how difficult this task is going to be in Ballybofey.

“They're notoriously hard to beat at home, so it'll be a massive challenge for us.”