By Niall Gartland

DERRY stalwart Gareth McKinless is hoping for big things under their new manager Paddy Tally.

Tally’s appointment last month came at the end of a protracted search to find a successor to Mickey Harte, but McKinless believes that it was worth the wait as they have found a man with a considerable amount of coaching and managerial experience at various levels.

Most recently the Galbally man coached Kerry to the 2022 All-Ireland SFC title, and McKinless also got to witness first-hand what Tally has to offer when he was part of Brian McIver’s management team from 2013 to 2015.

McKinless also fell out on the losing side of two recent Croke Park clashes against the Kingdom, namely in the 2023 All-Ireland semi-final and this season’s quarter-final, with Tally understood to have played a major role in a coaching capacity under Jack O’Connor over the course of the last three years.

Derry came calling and Tally is now set for a return to inter-county management, and McKinless is highly enthused about the prospect.

“When Paddy was announced it was music to a lot of people’s ears. I first worked with Paddy in 2014 when he was involved with Derry so I know a lot about him and what he brings to the table in his expertise and the learnings he has from the journey he’s been on over the last 10 years.

“He’s been involved with a team that we couldn’t get the better of over the last two years so I’m sure he’ll be bringing a lot to the table that will hopefully bring us to where we want to go.”

McKinless added: “I ran into him at the All-Star night last year and had a good chat with him. What he did with Kerry was fantastic and we’re hoping he’ll bring something similar to ourselves.”

McKinless, who will line out for his club Ballinderry in this weekend’s Ulster Intermediate Championship final against Cavan side Arva, also expressed his misgivings at the recent call to axe the pre-season competitions.

The decision means that teams will be thrown in at the deep-end in the National League with the advent of a swathe of rule changes rubber-stamped at last Saturday’s Special Congress.

Still, McKinless quips that there’ll be no shortage of challenge games in the early throes of the new year.

“I’d imagine the calendar will be filled with challenge games if there are no pre-season competitions. Given the nature of where we’re at with the rules changing it’s probably bad timing taking those competitions away because you could have used them as great games to exercise the new rules.