Managers are always coming and going. Few get hoisted shoulder-high on departure, though several are turfed out with levels of affection usually reserved for tossing rubbish bags in a dumpster.
Ciarán Meenagh chose to slip out the back door, quietly and with no fuss. But he was never going to step away unnoticed. The Derry senior football managerial job is one of the most attractive intercounty roles in the country right now because it is a dressingroom justifiably harbouring Sam Maguire aspirations.
It is not overplaying the weightiness of Derry’s next move to suggest the appointment of a new senior football manager could change everything — for better or for worse.
If Derry get it wrong, they run the risk of their flagship team losing much of the momentum they have built in recent years. Harnessing that progress is crucial now. No window of opportunity stays ajar forever.
The standout candidate is Malachy O’Rourke. He improved Fermanagh and Monaghan during his time managing both counties. Since stepping down from Monaghan at the end of the 2019 season, whenever a top-tier county job becomes available, invariably his name is linked to the position.
In the days after Andy McEntee stepped down as Meath boss, some officials in the Royal County had O’Rourke on top of their wish list.
Donegal also sounded him out following Declan Bonner’s departure in the northwest, but on every occasion he was approached, O’Rourke ultimately opted against an intercounty return.
However, this scenario could be different. The Derry gig ticks a lot of boxes. First, and crucially, O’Rourke already has a close relationship with several of Derry’s most valuable players because of his role managing Glen for the last three years.
O’Rourke, originally from Fermanagh but who lives in Ballygawley in Tyrone, guided Glen to successive Derry senior football titles in 2021-22 (which are also their only two senior county triumphs), a maiden Ulster club crown in 2022, and they contested the All-Ireland club final last January.
Over the last three years, O’Rourke has seen pretty much every senior footballer in Derry.
Also, if there is one achievement missing from his managerial CV it is to have managed an All-Ireland winning team. Rarely does a position with a team in contention for an All-Ireland come available, and rarer still for one to do so pretty much on your doorstep.
O’Rourke and Derry would seem like adjoining parts of the same jigsaw. The pieces fit. But he must have the desire to complete the puzzle. Also, there is the small matter of Glen possibly retaining the Derry Senior Football Championship, which would then see them compete in the Ulster club championship. And what’s to say they don’t progress all the way to another All-Ireland final appearance next January.
But where there is a will, there’s always a way. Mickey Graham (Cavan and Mullinalaghta) and Anthony Cunningham (Garrycastle and Galway) are among those who have double-jobbed with club and county in similar circumstances, and that was when the club campaign ran until March.
Aside from O’Rourke, when it comes to potential candidates from outside the county, James Horan is one of the few seasoned intercounty managers currently not working with a senior team — though he was recently named as a member of Mayo’s under-20 management set-up.
Within Derry, some of the potential options could include the likes of Martin Boyle, Damian McErlain, Paddy Bradley.
Boyle, who is currently the under-20 boss, managed Derry to glory in the delayed 2020 All-Ireland minor championship.
McErlain guided the county’s minors to the 2023 All-Ireland title, in what is his second stint. He had managed Derry to an All-Ireland minor final appearance in 2017 — when they lost to a David Clifford-inspired Kerry — before taking charge of the Oak Leaf senior footballers for two years, 2018-2019.
Bradley, one of Derry’s greatest forwards, managed the county under-20s in 2021 and 2022.
Either way, it would seem the position is O’Rourke’s to turn down.
And for this group of Derry players, now does not feel like a time for wild abandon or a left-field managerial appointment. It has been a turbulent season, though without the storm of recent months there would not be a position up for grabs, because Rory Gallagher would still be the manager.
Gallagher’s fingerprints remain all over this Derry side. When he took charge in late 2019 they were in Division Three. They have been layering every year since and next season will play in Division One for the first time since 2015.
However, the controversy around Gallagher has hung like a dark shadow over Derry since May, when allegations of abuse were made against him by his ex-wife Nicola.
Meenagh, who had been part of the Derry backroom team, agreed to take the job on a temporary basis for the rest of the championship. In the choppiest of waters, he steadied the ship.
But Derry must find a new captain to take over the wheelhouse now. For a team aiming to sail the high seas in 2024, the appointment must be one that puts fresh wind in their sails.
