RORY Gallagher’s second season as Derry manager begins proper when the county travel to play Longford next weekend.

2020, his first year, didn’t go as had hoped with no promotion out of Division Three, and defeat to Armagh in the Ulster Championship.

For Karl McKaigue, the Derry defender who missed most of last year with injury, the season was not enough time to judge how good Gallagher could be for Derry.

“It was very difficult for Rory last year. Obviously we got off to a bad start in the league.

“We drew against Leitrim and we lost against Down so that left us on the back foot.

“Although we finished strong in the league, the whole thing was fragmented by Covid. It wasn’t really a fair trial. He has all the right ideas and he is making all the right sounds. It is about getting time together to work on things.

“That is difficult to do if you are trying to talk over Whatsapp groups or Zoom. You need lads out on the pitch and you need them out on the pitch for an extended period of time.”

Derry had been strong favourites to beat Leitrim in the opening round, but ended up a with a draw thanks to a late score from Ciaran McFaul.

Down then outplayed Derry in Páirc Esler and from there till the end of the season the Oak Leafers were chasing. Perhaps if they season had been run off as normal things might have been different, instead, Covid made for a disjointed campaign.

This year, the effects of Covid are a shortened pre-season, which was run virtually with players training on their own at home. Then players were allowed to collectively train in the north from April 19.

A few weeks ago, before they returned, the Sleacht Néill defender McKaigue said: “I have been in contact with the county through the physio. Everyone will have been doing their gym programmes and doing their own

“We have to make the most of the four weeks that we have together collectively before the league starts.

“It is about getting your physical preparation right and hopefully you can make the most of those four weeks to try and get everything tied together.”

McKaigue works as a physiotherapist and he said that the preparation time is not perfect. He said that injuries could play a big part in how teams perform this year.

“If you are coming into a new season and it is going to be game after game then you can’t come in cold. You have to be prepared, if not you will get what you saw last year, a cascade of injuries because boys have not had enough time to prepare for an intense season.

“Lessons will have been learned from that. There will be a gradual introduction into training.”

McKaigue is hoping that he can win back his place in the team having not played for much of last year. As he is one of the longer serving members it is expected that he should get his shot.

However, he did say that the game has changed a lot since he started playing, and the expectations of defenders are a lot different than they used to be.

“I started playing senior football in 2010 and the game has changed since then. It was a man-to-man game back then.

“Stemming from Jim McGuinness’s time, it has got a lot more different with sweepers and tactics. Men dropping off. That individualistic approach to defending has changed somewhat. But the game is played a lot smarter, and that brings new challenges for defenders so it is hard to compare.”