DAMIAN McErlain says the implications of the club-only month of April is “not fair” on Ulster SFC preliminary rivals Derry and Tyrone and feels county managers could make a “better fist” of the problems surrounding the fixtures calendar.
All county managers will bid farewell to their players for April as it has been designated a club-only month by the GAA.
But with Derry and Tyrone the first two teams out in this summer’s Ulster Championship – May 12 in Omagh – it makes life more difficult to prepare properly for the clash, not to mention hurling counties competing in the mid-and-lower tier Championships that get underway in the first week of May.
“That’s absolutely beyond our control,” said the Derry manager after watching his side win the NFL Division Four title in Croke Park.
“The boys need to get back to their clubs and play a wee bit. But our game [against Tyrone] being the preliminary round presents a wee bit of a challenge – it’s not really fair on the two teams that are out so soon.
“But, look, they will play the four [rounds of club] games. They’d seven to play last year so I’m sort of half relieved.”
Previously, Derry hurling manager John McEvoy also criticised the club-only month of April especially with dual players Brendan Rogers and Brian Og McGilligan involved in his squad.
“It doesn’t work. It’s not practical,” added McErlain.
“The right men aren’t making these decisions. Set the county managers down and tell them to manage and organise it and they’d make a better fist of it because they’ll consider the clubs.
“You’re better just not having it [at all] because there are some counties playing starred games. In Derry, everybody wants to play in the club matches. That’s fair enough, and it’s a tough challenge for the CCC, it’s not easy, it’s almost impossible.
“But you can make all the comments you want but until somebody presents and organises it...”
On the plus side, McErlain is delighted to have the Slaughtneil contingent available from the start of the season as Derry came through Division Four unbeaten.
Eoghan Rua, Coleraine ended Slaughtneil’s four-year grip on the Derry SFC, beating them in a semi-final replay, while Ballycran took out the Robert Emmet’s club in the Ulster SHC semi-finals.
It meant Derry could call upon the Slaughtneil players from the start of their NFL and NHL campaigns.
Seven Slaughtneil players started in last Saturday’s Division Four final against Leitrim.
Last year, McErlain was in his first year in charge of the Derry senior footballers but his squad was shorn of the Slaughtneil men for a chunk of the campaign due to their All-Ireland commitments in both football and hurling that spilled into 2018.
“You’re fit to build a team because you’ve got all your best players there and training together, night in, night out,” said McErlain.
“Everyone is following the one training programme. This is the only way you can operate at this level. You can’t follow two training programmes and you can’t dip in and out.
“We noticed when a few lads got injured for two or three weeks they are off the pace when they get back.
“It’s such a high level – and that’s even Division Four. That’s the difference in Division Four now and Division Four in 1995. Everybody is well conditioned and well prepared.”
