It's one of the toughest NFL Division 1 campaigns in many years and Derry will hope to get off to a flying start against neighbours Tyrone at Celtic Park on Saturday night. Derry manager Damian Cassidy has named an experimental side for the game. Gerard O'Kane has been selected as captain for the forthcoming season and has been handed the task of filling the problematic full-back berth for the NFL opener. O'Kane will be joined in the full-back line by Dermot McBride and Brian McAlary who spent the pre-season in Queen's colours. James Kielt did likewise and he will return to the centre forward position alongside Caolan O'Boyle who has also returned from University duty (with Jordanstown). All four featured in UUJ's one-point Sigerson Cup win over Queen's on Wednesday. Andrew McCartney and Charlie Kielt will also making their debuts.
Despite the fresh look of the Oak Leaf line-up, it has an extremely solid and experienced spine with Mark Lynch starting at centre-back, Patsy Bradley and Fergal Doherty continuing at midfield, Kielt at centre-forward and Eoin Bradley at full-forward. Damian Cassidy will hope that this central unit can win the game, and also help the younger players through the challenge posed by the Red Hands.
Liam Hinphey and Raymond Wilkinson return to the side after missing last year's action, with the Ballinderry-man likely to assume a free role around midfield in the hope that he can pick up breaks and create attacking opportunites for the inside duo of Seamus and Eoin Bradley.
Barry Gillis starts in goals. He will be under pressure this year from Steelstown's Martin Dunne, who had a decent McKenna Cup campaign. No doubt he will get further opportunity to impress during later league outings.
Tyrone may be without the injured Stephen O'Neill, Sean Cavanagh, Owen Mulligan and Brian Dooher, but they have named an experienced side. The McMahon brothers, Conor Gormley, Enda McGinley and Brian McGuigan all start, while the Derry defence will be kept busy by the presence of the in-form forward trio of Martin Penrose, Kyle Coney and Tommy McGuigan.
The bookmakers have Tyrone as 8/11 favourites, and it's hard to argue. They appear to have scoring options throughout their forward line, and this will surely pose problems for a rookie Derry defence. By contrast, in the absence of Paddy Bradley and Enda Muldoon, Derry's scoring hopes will lie mainly on the shoulders of Eoin Bradley, and he'll be up against a hardened Tyrone back-line. Overall, Mickey Harte's men seem well set up to claim victory here, despite their poor recent record at Celtic Park.
When the sides met last year however, Derry were expected to claim the points - but it didn't quite work out that way at Healy Park. Damian Cassidy will hope his side can emulate Tyrone's victory last March to similarly upset the odds.
The experimental nature of the Oak Leaf side should make for an interesting match on Saturday night, and it may be more of a learning exercise for his young size than a point-gaining one. The opening round of league fixtures are always difficult to call, however I'll reluctantly go for a three-point victory for Tyrone.
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