Former Derry boss Rory Gallagher looks set to take up a new coaching role with Naas.
Reports of Gallagher’s imminent link-up with Kildare’s four-in-a-row senior football champions were circulating widely on Sunday in local and national media.
Gallagher’s Derry reign, so successful on the pitch, ended in controversy when he stepped away from his role just ahead of the 2023 Ulster SFC Final against Armagh.
More recently, he has filled a coaching brief with Monaghan club Corduff, but now he is poised to join Joe Murphy’s management team in Naas for the 2025 season.
The Lilywhite kingpins have lost influential coach Kevin Downes, hence the need to beef up their coaching ticket as they go chasing not just a fifth consecutive county title but that elusive Leinster club crown, having lost two provincial Finals to Kilmacud in 2021 and 2023.
Gallagher initially stepped back from his Derry role (and subsequently stepped down) in the wake of a social media post by his estranged wife Nicola containing domestic abuse allegations, which he denied.
Whereas there had been a PSNI investigation, no charges were pressed and Gallagher stated through his solicitor at the time that allegations “have been investigated and dealt with by the relevant authorities”.
Last February, the Fermanagh native successfully brought a case to the Disputes Resolution Authority against an Ulster Council temporary barring order from GAA activity, thereby freeing him to resume his coaching career.
The widely-travelled coach previously managed Donegal and Fermanagh before taking charge of Derry, leading them to the 2022 Ulster title, their first in 24 years.
Following Mickey Harte’s departure as Derry manager, Gallagher was again widely linked with a return to the Oak Leaf helm, but this never materialised and the vacancy was eventually filled by Paddy Tally.
Last September, in the midst of that protracted search, Derry GAA issued a statement to confirm he was “not in consideration for the position”, while Gallagher’s solicitors declared: “Our client fully intends to return to inter-county management in the near future.”