Derry have "golden opportunity" to bridge gap says Rory Gallagher

With Croke Park this week confirming that intercounty action will not return before October, the Oak Leaf manager has challenged his players to view the current impasse as the perfect chance to fast track physical work he believes Derry have been lagging behind in.

“I pick up the phone and chat,” explained the Derry manager about how he’s managed to stay in contact with his squad, “We took a fairly, I wouldn’t say laid back, but an approach that we weren’t going to hound the players because, with the direction we had been given, we knew there would be no quick fix.

“That said, this is a huge opportunity for the young players in our group to physically catch up, that’s the way we are approaching it. We have to be positive. There is a massive window of opportunity for boys to bulk up with the gym work and that’s the challenge. We got a lot of equipment out to them early doors.

“When you are training Tuesday and Thursday and playing games, you could be covering 25 to 30kms a week and your burning off a lot. There is a massive focus for us to physically push on and we are trying to make the most of that.”

The Derry manager said while he could understand frustration, he fully supported the GAA’s safety first approach.

“It can be frustrating but again, I do think this is a golden opportunity for our players. This is a concentrated period with no training and no games to physically catch up on teams who have been doing this for three, four, five, six or even seven years. The way you can physically change your body if you totally focus on it for a 12 to 16 or 18 week period is huge.

“These players have had Under 21, they’ve had college, club and county football and that’s a massive amount of time invested in football and running as such whereas now they can focus solely on the strength and size aspect of it. That’s the challenge we set out to them and I’m looking forward to seeing the results.

Gallagher admitted squad work would have to start from scratch once the authorities deemed it safe but said the individual work being done could aid Derry in the years to come.

“There is that whole getting to know process, people were starting to understand each other and I was getting a huge feel for the players and that’s broken. It’s not the same over the phone or anything like it. You are trying to build relationships and that’s definitely a negative but we are not focusing on that. Everybody is in the same boat and there are more important matters.

“The reality is there were a lot of teams better positioned for this year’s championship than us that this will be a bigger blow to. We have got to look at making sure we make the most of this time for not only when football resumes but also the years after.”