That was a fierce nasty act back in 03
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Joe Brolly: ‘It was a shocking and outrageous act which made me ashamed to be a Derry man’
Joe Brolly
May 18 2024 09:34 PM
The night of the Ulster final, when they arrived home with the cup, Jimmy McGuinness stood in front of his players and addressed the huge crowd.
“These next three games are massive for us. Really, really big games. And we have got to put them front and centre. These players are a different animal now. They were here [he held his hand at chest height]. Now, they are here [he held his hand above his head]. And they are here now purely because they are Ulster champions.
“We have to find a way to harness that belief. We have taken two massive steps: Promotion to Division 1. Today, Ulster champions. Now there is only one thing left, and we are going to go after that with everything we have.”
As the crowd went wild, you could almost see the Donegal boys getting taller. Meanwhile, you can see the Derry boys shrinking.
I worried about the psychological damage caused by our humiliation in Celtic Park. I had hoped that Mickey Harte would take responsibility for that tactical and strategic disaster. After all, it was his responsibility.
Before the throw-in at Salthill, he was asked about that. When he said, “It was not any one person’s fault. It was a collective malfunction,” I knew we were in serious trouble. The players are not stupid.
Like everyone else in the country — apart from The Sunday Game panel — they knew it was Harte’s responsibility. Instead of manning up and absolving the players, instead of being honest about it, Mickey passed the blame around and did what he always does — came to Salthill hoping for the best, hoping that we could just go back to things the way we were before that savaging. Hoping that the players could pretend it never happened. Nothing is ever Mickey’s fault.
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Derry, predictably, were a mess.
Mickey said before the Donegal match that his assistant, Gavin Devlin, was the best coach in Ireland. I wouldn’t like to see the worst one. In Salthill, we were an embarrassment. Not trusting each other. No one believing. Players not trusting management. There was no plan, except to bring everybody back behind the ’45 and hope for the best.
By the second minute, the Derry ’keeper was back on the halfway line for the first Galway kick-out. As soon as he saw it coming long, he turned and sprinted back towards his goals in a panic, like a mother in the carpark in Tesco realising she has left the baby in the grocery aisle.
We couldn’t tackle. We couldn’t catch a ball over our heads. There was no cohesion. We couldn’t shoot. Five times in the first half, we kicked a ball into the goalie’s hands.
The indiscipline, which is a by-product of not believing, was shocking. In the 21st minute, Gareth McKinless was sent off for stamping on Damien Comer’s ankle off the ball. It was a shocking and outrageous act which made me ashamed to be a Derry man. Gareth was sent off and after soldiering on for as long as he could, Comer eventually had to limp off the field in the 45th minute. I can only apologise on behalf of the Derry GAA community.
Jimmy identified Derry’s lack of size around midfield and targeted it with long kick-outs. Galway did the same.
By half-time, Galway were enjoying themselves and we were sitting ducks. The intensity and efficiency that marked us out under Rory Gallagher had disappeared.
For the second game in a row, without guidance or structure, we collapsed. When Galway decided after half-time to press our kick-out, it collapsed too.
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In the 41st minute, Seán Kelly intercepted a terrible short kick-out and returned it for a goal to put them four up. It was painful to watch.
Galway were six up by the 50th minute and the game was long since over. Another counter-attacking goal in the 63rd minute had Galway high fiving and smiling broadly.
Mickey Harte’s Derry is what the media calls us. Let us hope for Mickey’s sake there isn’t a performance clause in his contract.
Jimmy’s bursting bubbles.
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3 Likes
Mckinless must be the first player to ever to break the rules in gaelic football?
I disagree about the ‘sloppy start’ part, it was just a case of teams being out of their depth. Ulster championship is really good for excitement, but fairly dreadful on quality. We have forgotten what a good footballer is up here, which is why we have some of the most overrated players in the country. The standard of proper skills coaching at underage is dreadful so don’t expect any changes anytime soon either.
1 Like
A brilliant Throne team are the All-Ireland under 20 champions. Tyrone also won this title in 2022.
Derry are the All-Ireland children’s champions (beating Monaghan in the final). Derry also won this title in 2020.
Glen are the All-Ireland senior club champions.
St. Patrick’s Cullyhanna are the All-Ireland Intermediate club champions.
Arvagh are the All-Ireland Junior club champions.
Derry are the NFL champions.
Seems a strange time to be talking about Ulster being “overrated”.
2 Likes
The outrage at derry winning the league hasn’t subsided any. May god forgive them for their ambition.
It feels like a conspiracy.
It feels like bias
Eastern based
So a clear trend of lads winning something at an early age, thinking they’re all that and a bag of chips and then going to shit?
Some crowd at Croke Park. You can see the public absolutely love this format.
https://twitter.com/DubGAAOfficial/status/1794403336428609809
The hoodoo could be about to end, although we all know it won’t.
Real clever scheduling to have this go up against Manchester United in FA Cup final, Celtic v Rangers in a Scottish Cup final and Leinster in a Heino final.
https://twitter.com/JohnFogartyIrl/status/1794411773325648080
Sheepstealers going alright here
Louth 3-5 Meath 0-5 HT
49 years of hurt are about to end.
Con with a lovely use of the arse
The ground in Inniskeen will be hopping.
Goal Dublin sends it out to seven. Roscommon had Basquel boxed up only for the defender to shoulder him into the clear.
Bugler has two points since coming on.
#paneldepth