A saviour has finally been announced in Derry, but the smoke that was sighted in Celtic Park was white with a tinge of red, rather than red with a tinge of white.
Four months after Mickey Harte stepped down as Derry manager, the county board have appointed yet another Tyrone native to take the job, as Paddy Tally will lead the Oakleafers in 2025.
A proud Galbally man, Tally was a part of Mickey Harte’s backroom team in 2003 as a young 29-year-old coach, who helped them on their crusade to lift the county’s first ever senior All-Ireland title.
Unlike Harte, though, Tally was not bound by geographical restrictions, and surfed the country in different coaching and managerial roles, gaining valuable experience, and learning from some of the most successful people to be involved in the GAA.
Because of this, the university lecturer is not synonymous with Tyrone in the way that Harte was and, although there will be those in Derry who are still uncomfortable with a neighbouring countyman taking charge of their team, it certainly doesn’t raise the eyebrows in the way his predecessor did.
In fact, when you think of Tally, you are more likely to conjure up an image of him in pretty much any county colours but Tyrone.
Since leaving his native land, the wanderlust coach has worked with both Down and Derry’s backroom teams, before becoming the Down senior manager, then leaving that role and joining Galway’s backroom team under Kevin Walsh.
In 2022, Tally did what no northerner had done before and joined the coaching staff of Kerry; the aristocats of Gaelic football, who famously never look past their own when it comes to managing and coaching, but they made an exception on this occasion.
It was a punt that paid off immediately for The Kingdom as they went on to win the Sam Maguire that year, and Tally was even hailed as an honorary Kerryman by Sean O’Shea during the captain’s speech.
In these aforementioned roles with other counties, the versatile Gael worked as a selector, performance coach, strength and conditioning coach, and inter-county manager.
The educator was also in charge of St Mary’s University when they won a Sigerson Cup in 2017, so he has a proven track record in working with young footballers who are still developing — something which is crucial to be manager of this Derry team, as there is a plethora of minor All-Ireland winners bursting onto the scene in the area.
So, in a strange way, Tally does not have much experience as an inter-county manager in the sense that he has only been solely in charge of Down, but he is still arguably the most experienced person that the reigning Division One champions can get, as he quite literally ticks every single box on the wish list when it comes to hiring someone in the modern game.
There will no doubt be concerns about how things ended with Down, as the clubs voted on his position, and although the majority were in favour of him staying, Tally himself didn’t feel that it was a big enough margin to continue doing the job with proper support and backing.
However, this is almost exactly like when Derry appointed Rory Gallagher to take charge of the senior team in 2019.
Gallagher had a successful CV working as coach and selector under Jim McGuinness with Donegal but, whenever he took over as manager of the team, it was not a particularly fruitful time, and when he left, the same questions that are being asked about Tally now were being asked about him then.
Was he just a good coach? Does he lack managerial know-how?
Promotion from Division Three to Division One and two Ulster titles in a row soon answered those nagging thoughts, and now Tally has the opportunity to give some answers of his own.
When preparation meets opportunity, great things tend to happen, and there are few in the business who are as prepared for this role as Paddy Tally.