Digan focuses on the collective as Ferbane aim to swing small margins

By Kevin Egan

After securing the Offaly minor manager position while still only in his mid-20s on the back of some phenomenal results with Ferbane/Belmont teams and then catching the eye as an astute coach with some development squads, George Digan was always likely to test himself out with adult teams sooner rather than later.

His positive impact with St Aidan’s (Roscommon) and Sallins (Kildare), allied to his success with Maynooth University Freshers and Sigerson teams, meant that he was always going to be the first man to be called when Ger Rafferty decided that his three-year stint at the helm of the Ferbane senior team was not going to be extended into a fourth.

“There was only going to be one answer,” is how he describes his feelings when taking that call, though he did have what turned out to be a short conversation with his partner Nicole.

“Her thing was to go do it, there is no right time. There was going to be some year when I was back here so why not now. It wasn’t something I expected, I thought I was out of the woods and that ‘Raff’ would stay on. All the boys loved him. They were happy for him to come back and it was his choice.”

With the yes or no question resolved in jig time, the more important conundrum for Digan was how to address the issue of tipping the scale against a Tullamore side that had beaten Ferbane in the last three finals by two points, one point and four points respectively.

“Our collective needed to be a bit better,” was how Digan assesses it, and the injury to star attacker Cathal Flynn forced his hand on that front even more.

“In other years they were probably waiting for Cathal to perform magic. That wasn’t Cathal’s fault, Cathal was willing, but everyone was waiting for him to do it.

“I think sometimes we were doing things really well, eight out of ten times lads would make that big run to get back, or to get up in support. Unfortunately the way it has gone and the level Tullamore have brought, if you are not going to do it every time, they are going to pick you off. If every player does it once, that is 15 times we haven’t put in the effort. If some players do it twice, we are up to 25 times.

“We needed to be better linked with better communication, but beyond that, we didn’t come in here and rip this place up. What ‘Raff’ had done the last few years and the managers before him, was spot on. They were unlucky in finals. We just tried to work on the tiny one per cent.”

His championship debut as Ferbane senior manager saw his team fall short by a lot more than one per cent. They came close to nicking a late result in their home game against Rhode, but Rhode held on to win by the bare minimum, 0-19 to 1-15, and everyone waited to see how Digan would react – which proved to be a in a very measured fashion.

“I wasn’t that upset. I hate getting beaten in Ferbane and with the dual thing I didn’t see the boys for ten days, which is mad. But when we came back, we went into the dressing room and I said we will recover from here, we are better than this,” he explains.

“Rhode were way the better team on the day, they should have beaten us by 12. But I know that when Ferbane are put to the pin of their collar, they are going to come out swinging but that is where the percentages are.”

Their next result was a win over Edenderry, and that changed the landscape entirely. From then on, the pressure was off and it was all about building for the knockout stages.

“The pressure was off and that is when we tried to build a squad, there is no point in saying anything different. In other years, if you lost a group game you would have to win your third and fourth game and you would have to break the emergency door. Oisín (Kelly) would have to be straight back in, Jack (Clancy) would have to be straight back in, but this year, we got to work the younger lads, give them more of a chance, then to bring the boys in when it suited.

“Everyone out of the 20 has started a game which is really good. In other years, you would be using 20 but the same 15 would be starting. It did give breathing space. You won’t get that every year in the strong group, but this year it worked out and it was worth trying.”