DERRY midfielder Anthony Tohill has turned down a lucrative offer from a major Australian Rules football club to remain in Ireland.
The former All-Star was offered professional terms with the Melbourne Demons three weeks ago but, having considered his options, rejected the contract. Tohill spent some time on trial with Melbourne Demons as a teenager.
A graduate with a masters degree in engineering, he is currently employed by the Northern Ireland Department of Environment in Omagh.
Derry selector Frank Kearney last night welcomed Tohill's decision: "He's got an excellent job with good prospects here and he has also decided to commit himself totally to Derry football for the coming season. He's a big factor in what happens to Derry over the coming months."
Kearney also revealed that Tohill has ruled out any soccer commitments this winter in order to devote himself exclusively to the county team. Last year Tohill spent a brief period with Derry FC playing National League soccer.
"He has a slight knee injury at the moment, but once that's sorted out he'll be with us for the winter," says Kearney.
Kearney also confirmed that the Derry management team will stay in place for next season Team manager Brian Mullins was re-appointed at a meeting of the county board on Monday night, along with Kearney and co-selector Anthony McGurk. Eugene Young, the team's physical trainer last season is currently on tour with the UUJ. football team in Australia and his position has yet to be confirmed.
Mullins and his selectors will meet with the full squad tomorrow night, while a challenge match against Down has been fixed for Ballinascreen next Saturday.
Players will have an opportunity at the meeting to air whatever grievances they may have following their championship defeat by Tyrone earlier in the summer. "People will have an open floor to make any points they see as valid," explained Kearney.
"Its a matter of exploring what went wrong and establishing where we want to go from here. There was certainly an air of disappointment around the county, particularly after winning the National League. We were disappointed and the players were disappointed with their own performances," he added.
Derry face a difficult campaign before Christmas in Division One of the league. They start at home to Tyrone, and then meet Kerry, Cavan and Cork. The selectors intend, however, to introduce some new faces to a team that has remained quite static since winning the All-Ireland in 1993.
"We're looking for an injection of new talent," admitted Kearney. "Our minors got to the All-Ireland final last year and our under-21s got to the Ulster final this year, so there is some potential there and we will be using six or seven of them through the league."
He stressed, however, that there would be no major purge of the existing panel. "There's no question of that, it wouldn't be realistic. All the fellows on the panel will be given an opportunity to justify their existence.
Some of them are a bit long in the tooth, but we will be talking to them all and they can answer the speculation about their future. Some of the veterans keep producing it for Derry," he added.
