GOING to the end of the provincial road has made the step into the group stage tough – but Derry wouldn’t change the way they’ve arrived at this stage of the football championship.
Speaking after their five-point win over Donegal that leaves them needing to better Monaghan’s result on the final day to snatch top spot, the Ulster champions’ captain Conor Glass and manager Ciaran Meenagh both agreed that the difference had perhaps been visible on the opening weekend.
Of the eight provincial finalists, the only ones that probably hit their levels in the first round were surprise packets Sligo, who like Westmeath have put up a very creditable showing so far.
Asked if the early round-robin struggles might force teams, particularly in Ulster, to review how hard they go at the provincial series in future, Glass responded: “No, I don’t think so. I want to win as many provincials as possible. Ask anyone in Ulster, they’d be the exact same. They want to be there in Clones on Ulster final day. That’s just the short of it. You want to be winning the Ulster trophy.”
Meenagh was of a similar mind but perhaps leaning more towards a final judgement once the year has ended and they can look back on the impact as a whole.
The Oak Leaf boss admitted that it had been “tough” after the emotional rollercoaster of the Ulster final penalty shootout and the celebrations afterwards.
“If ourselves and Armagh don’t go deep into the championship, that will be the narrative. If we do go deep into the championship, it’ll be the narrative that the Ulster Championship fairly prepares you and battle-hardens you.
“Everybody’s quare and wise in hindsight. Who knows at the minute?
“In terms of freshness and whatnot, winning that Ulster is tough. You can see, Armagh are finding it tough. We partied for a few days after it, to get back on the horse after that and the penalties and the emotion of it, that is tough.
“If we can dust ourselves down – and psychologically getting through that today is a big thing for us, it almost creates a bit of a relief. And we have two weeks now to prepare for Clare, that’s also important for us.
“To answer your question, who knows. It was still an amazing occasion to win that back-to-back Ulster in Clones but if it does come back to harm us later in the year, that’ll probably be the prognosis after it that that’s what worked against us.”
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Glass wasn’t quite in agreement that Derry had blown off some cobwebs in their win over Donegal on Sunday but felt they were much more like themselves.
“I wouldn’t say cobwebs. We were obviously under-par against Monaghan. We were very passive but a lot of the teams were the exact same. It was the unknown of these round-robin games. We were a bit more like ourselves today. We brought the intent, albeit we might have been a bit over-the-top in the first half, giving away a lot of free kicks. It set a good platform for us.”
It’s hard to know quite where Derry are at. Most observers would have them on the fringe of the group of contenders for one of the most open All-Ireland series’ for years.
Then it’s hard to know where anyone is at. Mayo were brilliant in Kerry and then just scraped past Louth at the weekend.
Kerry themselves aren’t answering the questions being thrown at them. Dublin haven’t exactly impressed. A lot of eyes have turned towards Galway, even though their group stage performances have dipped a small bit too.
“That comes down to good coaching,” says Glass of the tight nature of the round-robin so far, where the average winning margin has been 3.6 points.
“Over the last year or so, football’s changed. A lot of teams are playing very similar. You don’t necessarily have to have the best forward line. Teams are just planting each other back.
“Football’s changing and that’s reflected in the scores over the last year or so, any team can beat any team on a given day.
“We want to top the group, it looks like the easiest pathway going forward. One less game, that’s the short of it really.
“The games are coming thick and fast, if you get injured at this stage you could miss the rest of the season so one less game to get the body right.
“A lot of teams that didn’t play in the provincials probably came back and performed to their highest tier in the first game, like Monaghan and Mayo. That time off does give you time to reflect, get a bit of training in and get the body right.”
