MALACHY O’ROURKE WILL be the new Tyrone senior football manager, after no other nominations were received for the role after Tuesday’s deadline.
He will be unveiled on Tuesday at the county board meeting.
As predicted by The 42.ie on the day the joint management of Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher stepped down, O’Rourke will be the latest to accept the reins at Garvaghy. This is now his third county managerial job, after spells in his native Fermanagh and later Monaghan, which yielded Ulster titles in 2013 and 2015.
O’Rourke had informed the playing squad of Glen, the current All Ireland club champions that he led to glory in January. He and his coaching partner Ryan Porter will remain as long as their involvement in championship action continues.
After that, he will take over one of the biggest jobs in football, one that comes with a stream of promising U20 players who have won two out of the last three All Ireland titles at that level.
It was felt that Paul Devlin, the manager of those squads, might be prepared to let his name go forward, but O’Rourke’s experience and the nature of how he was sounded out for the role means it was always going to go to him.
O’Rourke has been living in Tyrone for decades, but hasn’t managed within the boundaries since 2006 when he took his adopted club Errigal Ciaran to a county title.
He was nominated by Errigal and it will be interesting to observe who becomes part of the wider coaching team.
While Ryan Porter will be expected to come on board, he might also be interested in bringing along Johnny Bradley, the impressive statistics man who did so much work with Glen and is a native of Maghera.
O’Rourke may be interested in approaching some of the players who had walked away from the Tyrone panel in recent years, in particular Paul Donaghy, the talented Dungannon Clarkes forward who was the leading scorer in league football in Tyrone this year with a total of 7-83.
Others that will come under consideration will include Trillick duo, Richard Donnelly and Rory Brennan.
O’Rourke’s arrival is sure to find favour with Tyrone’s frontline players, who have suffered a steep drop off in the last three seasons since they landed the Red Hands’ fourth All Ireland title in 2021.
Speaking to Off The Ball today, goalkeeper Niall Morgan said, “I’m absolutely keen on Malachy O’Rourke managing us. I’ve been a strong admirer of him for a long time now. I played a charity game in Donegal for Pat Shovlin, three, four years ago now and Malachy was the manager of our team.
“I nudged Petey (Peter Harte) in the dressing room and said, ‘We need this man.’
🗣️ ‘The players are the most important people in this puzzle.'
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) September 4, 2024
🗣️ ‘You let your feelings be known to certain people and you hope that it is taken on board by some, knowing it won't be taken on board by others.'#Tyrone keeper Niall Morgan on #OffTheBallBreakfast. pic.twitter.com/WVlMHy4bqr
“It was a charity game and he had me on the edge of my seat. So we are hoping, as players we are all talking to each other and we are hoping that Malachy is coming on board, now that Feargal and Brian have left and we feel that he will be the man to lead us forward.”
