2024 All Ireland Senior Football Championship

In his interview on gaa go after the game.

He was waiting a while for that.

https://twitter.com/SmallerFishGAA/status/1792122558482915340?s=19

1 Like

Fire up the quote there. Spoofer

Impressive windmilling from @glenshane this morning

Shur this doesn’t even mean anything: Utter garbage

Whether it was a free or not is completely irrelevant. Mickey engaging in a bit of whataboutery.

1 Like

You’re seething pal :rofl:

He’s all Harte

1 Like

That was a fierce nasty act back in 03

PREMIUM

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

Read More Articles

Niamh Cusack: ‘We were all very proud of Cyril’s acting – but he wasn’t cut out for fatherhood’

Celebrity Features

Eddie Hutch Junior, nephew of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, dies at home

Irish news

Woman (80s) hospitalised after attack by group of men in Dublin city centre

Irish news

Read More Top Stories

Sad news about Eddie Hutch

3 Likes

Mckinless must be the first player to ever to break the rules in gaelic football?

Cc @Halfpipe

1 Like

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?