Joe Brolly slams 'shameful' Tyrone approach as Derry look to new candidate to replace Mickey Harte
It's now 127 days since Mickey Harte resigned as Derry GAA manager, with Joe Brolly unhappy at the latest moves by Oak Leaf officials to appoint his successor
Joe Brolly has never been a fan of outside managers in his native Derry - and particularly Tyrone men coming in from outside the county.
Mickey Harte’s arrival as Oak Leaf boss last year was met with uproar by the 1993 All-Ireland winner, who sowed it into the Derry County Board on his ‘Free State’ podcast.
“He’s (Harte) a stranger to us and shouldn’t be near us. The Derry Board is a caravan of fools. F**k them and f**k Mickey Harte.”
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Harte’s single season in charge of Derry saw them land the McKenna Cup and Division 1 titles, before a poor championship campaign, which ended with an All-Ireland quarter-final defeat by Kerry.
Derry are now the only football county in the country without a manager, having ruled out a return for Rory Gallagher and seen overtures to a variety of candidates turned down.
They also allowed Glen All-Ireland winning manager, Malachy O’Rourke to slip through their fingers as he moved to take over from Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan in Tyrone.
As Derry continue their struggle to appoint a successor to Harte, who left the Derry hot seat all the way back on July 8 - 127 days ago - Brolly said on ‘X’:
“Derry board going through the phone book of Tyrone managers. Shameful lack of loyalty to their own. Shameful lack of integrity.”
The cryptic message clearly refers to alleged approaches made to another potential Tyrone candidate, with speculation suggesting it could be current Kerry coach Paddy Tally.
Tally was Harte’s trainer when Tyrone made their 2003 All-Ireland breakthrough but after a fall out the pair parted ways.
Galbally native Tally has spent three years in Kerry, helping them to the All-Ireland in his first season (2022), to bridge an eight year gap.
He recently agreed to a fourth year with the team, but with Cian O’Neill coming in from Galway as lead coach, alongside Jack O’Connor, it may have led to Derry sniffing an opening.
Were Tally to go to Derry it would be another controversial move, a year on from the Oak Leaf county tempting Harte and Gavin Devlin away from Louth in what was a widely criticised swoop at the time.
Brolly, who has previously hit out at Tyrone and Donegal natives - he was referring to Mickey Donnelly and Paddy Campbell - managing Derry underage teams ahead of local men, would have a field day.
It is unclear who the Derry native or natives Brolly has in mind to take over the county are, giving the elite nature of the coaching required at the very highest level.
There is no long queue of Derry coaches with a proven tracked record.
Tally, on the other hand, was coach with James McCartan’s Down when they went to the 2010 All-Ireland final, where they lost by a point to Cork.
He also managed Down, although with little success, and he led St. Mary’s to a shock Sigerson Cup title in 2017.
Tally was with Kevin Walsh in Galway in 2018 when the Tribe made the Division 1 final and the All-Ireland semi-final, losing both games to Jim Gavin's Dublin
As a well respected coach with a pedigree, Tally's appointment, if it came to pass, would most likely be welcomed by the Derry players.
But the role comes with an amount of baggage at this stage, even if Derry are considered one of the top sides in the country, having landed back to back Ulster titles in 2022 and 2023.
Among the other names linked to the Derry post in recent months have been James Horan, Karl Lacey, Jim Gavin, Mickey Moran and Peter Keane with the county running out of credible proven options.
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