KEVIN CASSIDY: Derry are walking a fine line

LAST weekend we found out who this year’s semi-final pairings are in the Ulster Club Championship.

We have some very interesting clashes to look forward to but first let’s look back at the action last weekend.

Down champions Kilcoo did just about enough to get the win on Saturday evening and although they didn’t shoot the lights out at this stage of the competition, it’s just all about getting the win and moving onto the next stage.

I’m sure Karl Lacey and his backroom team will have identified a number of areas where they feel they can improve so that puts them in a good position heading to the semi-final.

Last Sunday, I made my way to Celtic Park with TG4 to cover the game between Newbridge and Clann Éireann.

The game itself was quite entertaining and open as a lot of us maybe expected both teams to set up defensively.

They actually had a real go at each other and it turned into a good game. When Newbridge dust themselves down and look back at the game, they will rue the number of missed opportunities and also the number of times they carried the ball into the tackle.

Clann Éireann were well set up and any time Newbridge took the ball down the central channel they were very aggressive and disciplined in the tackle and managed to strip Newbridge of possession on a number of occasions.

Going into the game naturally all the talk was about Conor Turbitt and how dangerous he might be. In actual fact, he had a quiet game by his standards and it was a number of the younger lads who stood up to kick some very important scores when the team needed them.

Clann Éireann now move on to the semi-finals where they will meet Errigal Ciaran in what should be another very interesting encounter.

Although we had a lot of action on the pitch this week, most of the talk seems to be around what was happening off the pitch.

The Derry management situation had turned into a circus by this stage with so much happening and names flying all over the place.

Last week news broke that Derry legend Enda Muldoon would be appointed manager and former manager Rory Gallagher would be somewhere on the ticket.

The news had barely broke when all of a sudden that option was swept off the table and Derry were right back at the beginning once again.

It’s not that long ago that we heaped praise on the Derry GAA for the way they went about their business when Gallagher was first appointed manager in terms of pulling the whole county together and running a very good ship.

I am not sure what has happened between now and then but nowadays everything the County Board does seems to be in the public domain for everyone to discuss.

Derry need to get back to business and word then filtered out that Paddy Tally (pictured) was about to be appointed manager and it has been confirmed this morning on these pages.

There was talk of Dublin’s Philly McMahon being somewhere in the background. Now, I have no idea if this will become a reality or whether it will be shut down again, but one thing I know for sure is that Derry have very little time to be messing about anymore and the management team needs to be finalised as soon as possible.

From my experience of these types of situations, one of two things is about to happen. Derry will appoint a manager that the players are happy with and the Derry team will hit the ground running with a point to prove. They will return to training with the bit between their teeth to prove the doubters wrong.

The second scenario is that the players won’t buy into the new appointment and Derry GAA will continue to slide backwards down the pecking order.

There will be no middle ground here. It will either work or it won’t work and that’s a very dangerous position to be in.

Time will tell. With Tally set be confirmed in Derry, the Ulster Championship just gets that little bit more interesting. McGuinness, Tally, O’Rourke and McGeeney, now that does have an interesting ring to it.