Tyrone man’s opening fixtures as Derry manager will stir up some sporting memories
Derry manager Paddy Tally at the Allianz Football League Division 1, Round 1 match between Tyrone and Derry at O’Neill’s Healy Park, Omagh last Saturday. Photograph: Lorcan Doherty/Inpho
Despite him being a Tyrone man, Tally’s appointment in Derry didn’t generate the same ferocious pitchfork-wielding backlash directed towards Mickey Harte just over 12 months earlier. But when Tally’s CV is cited, his first spell with Down is often the detail most overlooked. In 2010, the unfancied Mourne Men burst from the pack to contest that year’s All-Ireland final.
He attended St Mary’s where he trained to become a teacher and later completed a master’s in sports science. Tally was just 29 when he was invited by Harte to join the Tyrone management team. He later spent three years with Derry while at the time lecturing in St Mary’s University Belfast and training the college’s football teams. In 2017, his coaching work with The Ranch reached its apex. St Mary’s games development officer Gavin McGilly was part of Tally’s back room team that year when they caused a shock by winning the Sigerson Cup.
That 2017 Sigerson success put Tally back on the intercounty radar. Kevin Walsh persuaded him to link up with Galway for 2018 – a season during which they won the Connacht title and contested the league final. Before September was out, O’Connor was back as Kerry boss for a third time. In the background, he had been arranging his poker hand – but confirmation Tally was to be part of the Kerry management team wasn’t seen by all as a royal flush. It wasn’t the first time an outsider had been drafted in – Cian O’Neill had coached Kerry under Eamonn Fitzmaurice – but bringing Tally down weighed heavily on some traditionalists in Kerry.
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