Derry blew the Ulster Championship wide open.
Dumping out the All-Ireland champions and near neighbours is a sweet experience for the Oak leaf.
If Tyrone find themselves in a dark place this week, this is but a fleeting experience compared to the many dark days Derry have experienced in the last decade or so.
Division four was a sobering experience and it is what makes last weekend's win against Tyrone all that sweeter.
The key to Derry's ascension has been Rory Gallagher's appointment.
In any county, the intercounty senior team is the shop window and when it is going well, the counties fortunes tend to follow suit.
They have Owenbeg and a re-developed Celtic Park, a good underage stream of players coming through and their school teams that are back now competing again in McRory finals, so it all bodes well.
Sometimes teams and in this case counties have to go to rock bottom before change occurs.
We will come to what 'rock-bottom' means shortly but you would have to consider that Derry have been there.
At the other end of the scale, in many ways, is Tyrone.
While they won the All-Ireland title last year, they have been consistently competed at the top table for the last number of years, so for me they have lived in a constant period of consistent performance.
Owen Eastwood, a lawyer to the All-Blacks, NATO and other organisations on culture creation programs uses this simple equation;
Performance = Capability + Behaviour.
As you will see from Eastwoods theory, the way you behave will bring out the best or worst of your capabilities, with leaders creating the right environment for the right behaviours to occur.
It isn't rocket science.
Gallagher has had form in both Donegal and Fermanagh.
It was always a difficult act to follow Jim McGuinness but on an equivalent basis, Gallagher was the softest of landings from a professionalism perspective.
The familiarity was also there, in that he knew what was in the Donegal camp to work with.
In many ways he was extremely brave to take the manager's job and again brave to do the same in Fermanagh given the resources.
It didn't appear that the Derry county board hung about when the position was available as manager.
You now see why.
Tyrone, of course, on the day, helped Derry with a limp performance.
Listen, many observers will point to this lack of aggression and hunger as a failing and complacency of the players and managers.
However, I would suggest that this black and white thinking lacks an awareness of what it takes to do back-to-back Ulster and All-Ireland titles.
Tyrone's title last season was as an underdog, in much the way as 2008 to an extent also was.
It takes a lot of physical and emotional energy to do what the Red Hands done last year and unfortunately when that ultimate goal was achieved, the relief can sometimes make way to a drop in standards.
There has been a natural culling of the wider squad, with some serious players deciding to call it a day.
Their reason d'etre achieved, it is very difficult to blame them solely.
I recall in 2011, the season after being beaten in a final, emotionally and physically there was a definite drop-off and some players left the squad unhappy at their lack of playing time.
The result is the replacements needing time to get up to the standard or perhaps in some cases, the replacements are sub-standard.
Also players lose form for a number of different reasons.
The key to staying at the top, when winning, is best demonstrated by teams like Dublin or Kerry (when they ruled), with one or two players coming into the team and driving all the other players on.
It was a refusal to rest on your laurels.
Remaining at the top also takes management to adapt and change and some hard and difficult questions need to be asked in terms of loyalty to your team.
A lot of teams achieve great things with a siege mentality but when you become a champion, suddenly this isn't enough anymore – you are there to be shot at.
I think Tyrone have a great chance via the qualifiers and can certainly gather a bit of momentum.
A rest of a few weeks will allow for a bit of soul searching and indeed facilitate a small window of rest.
I always found that a bit of club football will do no harm either.
Down players will also be joining the club scene over the next few weeks, unhappy in the fact that the Tailteann Cup won't start for a few weeks.
Going back to Owen Eastwood's equation on creating a winning team culture, Down epitomise the very opposite at every level of their organisation.
It was certainly no shock that Monaghan won by ten points, with the number of scores between each side more reflective of the dominance.
Twenty three scores in comparison to nine scores in favour of the Farney-men makes for difficult reading.
Barry Og O'Hagan (joint captain) summed up the general apathy many players will have toward the secondary competition when he stated that he had no interest in playing in the competition.
He will have to set that aside and be professional about the competition – no player worth his salt would want to be there but these are the cards that have been dealt.
Indeed, recently awarded Club player of the Year Eugene Brannigan stated that he had 'no interest' in playing for Down as they didn't have a 'winning mentality'.
There lies-in the problem.
Regardless of where the county is, the real challenge for any club player is their ability to play at the highest of levels, that being intercounty football.
Unfortunately some won't be able too.
I have no doubt that most players in the Down panel are hugely committed but some things are outside their control.
I don't believe they don't have a winning mentality – I believe a lot of factors outside their control leave them unable to compete.
Monaghan certainly meet Owen Eastwood's definition of equating capability plus behaviours to equal performance.
They will be wary of the challenge now ahead – as we seen from the Tyrone vs Fermanagh game, despite having a game behind them, the Red Hands appeared unprepared for what the Oak Leaf brought.
Monaghan were done no favours by Down.
Cavan too, are a dangerous opponent and have Ulster title winners and game changers within their squad capable of giving Donegal a real game.
To a large extent, just as their Ulster final dictated a few seasons ago, a lot will depend on Michael Murphy.
If he plays, or is allowed to dictate the terms of engagement, Donegal will win.
If not, Cavan have every chance.
Despite their league position, they appear prepared to bring that intensity demanded by championship football.
It's war without shooting.
An approach lost on so many teams already who now finding themselves in qualifiers or worse still, The Tailteann Cup.
