Down senior football manager Paddy Tally.
By Cian O’Connell
“I think Galway was very important for me personally, I had been out of the inter-county scene for a few years,” Down manager Paddy Tally reflects ahead of Sunday’s Ulster SFC encounter against Fermanagh.
A campaign spent as a member of the Galway backroom team under Kevin Walsh in 2018, was a rewarding stint for Tally.
“I had been working at Sigerson level with the college team, that was great,” Tally says about his splendid efforts with St Mary’s.
“There is a difference to inter-county level football and university level football. You are really working with the pick of the county in terms of the players, and the support systems are better, games are structured and organised just at a higher level.”
So Tally was keen to learn new ways, to watch others at work, and ultimately to develop further. “I felt at the time if I was going back in at county level I needed to gain more experience, to see a different way of doing things,” Tally adds.
“In Ulster we pretty much know each other very well, I think there is a certain way here. It is totally different to the way things are done in Galway.
“So I learned an awful lot from the players and the management team over there, even just about the way people approach sport.
Paddy Tally enjoyed his coaching stint with Galway in 2018.
“On a personal level it was very rewarding, I got the opportunity to work with very good players too. I nearly pulled something off, a Connacht Championship that year, and possibly we could have pushed Dublin a bit closer in the League final and All Ireland semi-final.
“It didn't do me any harm to be honest, I enjoyed it.”
Now Tally is firmly focused on improving Down and while it is radically different to other years there is a Championship buzz surrounding the camp once more.
“It is great, it really is very good,” Tally remarks. “We are so grateful that we have got back playing Championship football. There was a time when it was talked about that nothing would happen this year.
“The fact that we have this opportunity to finish off the League and can now look forward to a Championship is super. There is an excitement amongst the group of players, who have been working hard this past few weeks.
“The first few weeks when we got back in was a bit strange, even the first few sessions, things were slightly disjointed because of the nature of it, being away from each other for six months.
“You notice, now we are nearly in a month, and you can see a big difference in the group and they are really looking forward to the challenge ahead.”
Paddy Tally is delighted that inter-county action resumed in 2020.
Tally acknowledges the significant change in preparations due to the pandemic. “It is a different challenge because you are restricted in how many times you can get together,” Tally replies.
“Normally in a Championship season you might have the boys in four to five times in that week. If you think about it you'd be doing a Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, maybe an extra session thrown in there maybe on a Friday. That is gone now.”
It means that every minute counts. “In a sense you have three or four hours a week to prepare a team for the Championship,” Tally adds.
“If you take the couple of hours during the week and a couple of hours at the weekend, that is all you get. So you really have to condense all of your work into a lot shorter timeframe. So that is what I find is the biggest change, the level of time you have together.
“The other thing is obviously we are very conscious of Covid at the minute, we are making sure that all of the players are safe, and that they feel good about wanting to play football, that they don't have any worries or apprehension about it. That is really important for us too.
“Also the fact that we want to perform really well, so we are putting in as much work as we can to ensure we are prepared for the match.”
With the meticulous Tally involved, though, Down will be ready, willing, and able to deliver.
