Derek Rogers began his playing career with Home Farm. He represented Ireland at each age level from u-15 to u-18. Equally comfortable at right-back or centre-back the young Dubliner was in fact in the dressing room at Elland road the night Jack Charlton stepped on the toes of the Irish management team and hastened the departure of Liam Tuohy and Brian Kerr, who both coached Derek at Home Farm. He went from the ‘Farm Academy' to Shamrock Rovers. "We had a very strong ‘B' team at Rovers with 6-8 youth internationals. All of that team went on to play in the League of Ireland." On Dermot Keeley's advice, Tony Mannion took a gamble on Rogers, taking the 18 year old to a different environment but with more opportunity for first team football. The young defender had been offered a contract at Notts County but declined in order to finish his education. In fact the day I spoke with him he was busily juggling his study for a degree in English and Economics while working in NUIG, not to forget fitting in a school run as well. Who says you can't have it all! "I don't know if Galway people appreciate the place enough and I loved it once I arrived in 1986. There was a shortage of work and I was fortunate to get a job in Thermo King. Often we would start early so we would be able to train for Galway United at night and then play at the weekend."

Derek played for Galway United for 11 years winning 5 medals: FAI Cup in 1991, 1st Division Title in 92-93, 1st Division Shield 1992-93, League Cup and 1st Division Shield 1996-97. He played 330 matches for the club and was captain in his last two seasons. In 1997-98 he played for Athlone Town and they reached the semi-final of the FAI Cup. At that stage family and work priorities took over and he hung up his boots. "When I played I was totally consumed in the game. I would of course love to be involved again and I think that there are a lot of ex-players around with a wealth of experience that could be tapped on. I love watching players like Tevez, who I believe is a real street-player. I think that sometimes kids are over-coached and it would be nice to ‘just let them play.' I'd love to see groups of kids knocking a ball around in different areas around Galway. Let them play matches themselves, observe and then refine their skills." This is what is now being introduced in a lesser known sport, Tennis. It is working very well in the U.S.A. where instead of bogging the kids down or even worse boring them, with too much technical jargon, you show them the basics, let them play and then refine their technique. ‘Play and Stay' could be the way for football too! On the whole argument of Professional v Part-time the former Galway Captain suggested that what clubs should look at is the Scandinavian System. "Many players work 4 hours a day and train 4 hours a day. This system has worked very well and there is always room for a few professional players to be brought in for experience. I also think that being a University Town we should look at UCD's approach. They have stayed in the Premier Division consistently using a mixture of College players and experienced league players. A further step would be if NUIG expanded the Soccer Scholarship scheme into a worldwide search for talented players with the offer of Free Education and accommodation assistance and Galway United could pay them part-time as well. This would be a way of attracting new talent to the club for a few years and the players would benefit educationally as well as financially. It costs so much to run a club these days and with the loss of The Connacht Senior League, which provided many Galway United players over the years, there needs to be a constant production line of local talent. Mervue and Salthill Devon will be developing more players and gaining more experience by entering the League of Ireland this summer so local players should get more exposure to playing at a higher level."

Derek still supports Galway United regularly and when he enters Terryland the memories keep flooding back. "In 1991 we played St. James' Gate in the semi-final. Surprisingly Joey Malone, the manager, left the pre-match talk to coach Adrian Walsh. He told us to sit down, and produced a frying pan with copious notes on it. After going through the notes he said ‘I suppose ye are wondering about the frying pan lads?' We nodded and he replied: ‘If ye don't win this match I'll beat the heads off ye with it!' It worked and we won 3-1! In the final itself we were so relaxed that John Cleary was singing at half-time in the dressing room." I wonder will Jeff Kenna use those tactics!!!!

- Mike Geraghty        http://www.mgwords.com/