AND so, after more than four months of searching, a shape emerges on a new era for Derry.
Barring a highly unlikely revolt from the clubs at tomorrow night’s county board meeting, Paddy Tally will be confirmed as the county’s fourth manager in two-and-a-half years.
He takes over from his former Tyrone boss Mickey Harte, who vacated the position on July 8 after his sole year in charge took a nosedive after a brilliant league campaign that saw them overcome Dublin in an epic Division One final.
Time was when that would have been more than enough but after successive Ulster titles, Derry’s ambitions had quickly outgrown a league title.
That sense of ambition has manifested the appointment of Tally.
There were various options available to Derry during the process but despite enormous public pressure that grew with each passing week, they held firm in pursuit of a management team that they could be confident would understand and meet the demand of the players.
It has been a tough process, one that has heaped an extraordinary weight on volunteer officials, particularly county chairman John Keenan.
He’s been left holding the baby for much of the last four months, expected to find a trophy fish in a garden pond.
In the end, aided by the persistence of a group of leading players who wanted the best for themselves, they reached a settlement that will please most.
You’ll never please everyone.
Tally will be one of 14 outside managers operating in inter-county football in 2025.
You can, if you like, reduce that to 12 on account of how long Malachy O’Rourke has lived in Tyrone and that former Meath wing-back Paul Shankey lives in Waterford.
What Derry have found amid the growth of their ambition is just how geographically isolated they are.
As the crow flies, Owenbeg is 18 miles south of Magilligan Point at the upper tip of the county along the north coast.
There are no trains to Dungiven. The dual carriageway from Dublin through Belfast ends at the Castledawson roundabout. Domestic flights from Dublin or Shannon would sting you for more than £300 return on a good day.
Seven of the 17 counties that have a coastline have an outside man in charge.
Of the seven, only Derry and Louth are operating out of the top two divisions of the league.
At a bit over a 400km round trip, Andy McEntee’s journey from Dunboyne to Antrim’s base in Dunsilly is the longest commute.
Paddy Tally’s 110km (70 miles) jaunt from Galbally to Owenbeg and back will come in well below the norm.
You can see how the geographical location has made attracting potential suitors from outside Ulster difficult.
Enduring a four-month wait to find Mickey Harte’s replacement was not for the lack of trying, but it was owed in part to the reticence from some quarters to fully let go of Rory Gallagher.
James Horan was interested in the role but the reality of the father-of-five making a round trip of close to 500km every time Derry were training was always likely to be insurmountable.
Peter Keane was sounded out but that idea was quickly left behind, with the possibility of bringing a man from the very southern tip of the island up to Derry unravelling.
Tally might have expected a call about the vacant Tyrone job but the Red Hands did their work expediently.
That job was vacant for just 15 days. Tomorrow night will close up Derry’s portal after 129.
It was abundantly clear from the moment Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher stepped down that they would lay an assault at the door of Malachy O’Rourke.
It will be against them that Tally’s tenure will begin when Derry travel to Omagh for the opening round of the league at the end of January.
While counties are not formally allowed to return to training until December 7, anecdotally there is already catching up to do.
The bulk of Tally’s squad is likely to be as it was, but the club championship lent a few new options that might be looked at.
Lavey’s Rory McGill made a significant impression, a long-striding, ground-eating midfielder with the physical and age profiles that suggest he’s well worth a look.
Ballinascreen’s Marty Bradley was called in by Mickey Harte last year but a combination of getting up to speed and then injury curtailed him badly.
In a worst-case scenario, Derry could be looking at a very new defence for the start of the league.
Chrissy McKaigue’s future is unclear. Padraig McGrogan is likely to be out until March at least with his cruciate knee ligament tear and Conor McCluskey missed the whole club championship after groin surgery.
Eoin McEvoy remains very much on the radar of AFL clubs following his trip out to take part in training clinics around the draft, although nothing concrete has yet come of it.
Diarmuid Baker stepped in to corner-back last year and quickly made a home for himself, culminating in a call from Ulster for the recent inter-provincial games in which McEvoy also took part.
From midfield up they will be confident of strengthening, with Lachlan Murray’s championship campaign – particularly his display in the win over Mayo – offering evidence that he will have a big part to play next year.
Derry were also without Niall Loughlin for the business end of the 2024 season.
When Tally was coach under Brian McIver from 2013 to 2015, he was largely responsible for generating the best form of Mark Lynch’s career.
The Banagher man was unplayable early in 2014, let down by a shock first round qualifier exit to Longford having reached the league final and then run eventual All-Ireland finalists Donegal close.
At the time, Lynch was working in Belfast for the company joint-owned by his father Mickey.
For two years, he met up with Tally and trained at the Falls Baths during the day alongside team sessions in the evenings.
Of his 21 years at inter-county level, all but the three managing Down have been as a coach. When he took that job, he felt he had built up “sufficient experience to step up into management.”
He’ll have brought back a bit from Kerry, who have now lost Tally and Mike Quirke from last year’s management team, with Cian O’Neill coming in as coach.
Derry’s search has led them to, for the second year running, dip their hand into another county’s management ticket and extract a Tyrone man.
By the time they appointed Mickey Harte last year, it was the best-case scenario left.
The same applies here. Tally would have been much higher up the list if it hadn’t been confirmed as early as the first week of September that he was staying with Kerry.
Beyond quickly building a panel and trying to get them off the ground in the next few weeks, one of his first tasks will be to try and move the team on from the legacy of Rory Gallagher.
His shadow loomed over the process for two summers. He retained support in some quarters until the bitter end.
Derry have to leave that completely in the past now.
Paddy Tally is a good appointment.
In the circumstances, he’s easily the best they could have hoped for.
