THESE DAYS ARE not common in Derry football.
With only two All-Ireland senior final appearances in the county’s history, a loss in 1958 and a win in 1993, the chances to get to a decider are precious.
If they had no complaints over last year’s semi-final defeat to Galway, this one against Kerry was harder to take as they came up short after a brilliant performance.
“The dressing room is in a state of shock, including myself,” remarked manager Ciarán Meenagh afterwards.
“It is a hugely disappointing changing room, I spoke to the lads for a couple of minutes but there is not an awful lot that can be said. The overriding feeling is that they did themselves proud and Derry proud for so long but ultimately we did not do enough to; get across the line.
“We were very confident coming into the game, we felt we were going to win it, we thought we had the tools. When the draw was made and we were coming back up the road, I would say within 60 seconds sorted, we felt we had the players to take out a lot of their key threats. We also thought we had an attacking plan and we worked ferociously hard on that attacking plan in our training, based on the model that we knew Kerry would defend on.
“There has been a lot of punditry and a lot of commentary about our style of play and a lot of that is fair but that also created a lot of opportunity for us because Kerry might have looked like that as well. We decided we would really go for it.
“We were intent on going for it and we did and I was very pleased with a lot of those aspects of the play.
“We felt that that experience (last year against Galway) would stand to us. So the reason we were in a state of shock and such devastation was because we expected to win. And for much a large portion of the game, right up to until coming down the straight, it looked like we were going to win.”
Meenagh felt the decision to award Kerry a 66th minute free for a foul on StepheN O’Brien, which Seán O’Shea converted, was a major moment.
“Absolutely massive moment in the game I felt. From where I was standing it was a tight call against us, in the context of the game. They got another free after it, I don’t know.
“Look, I suppose, being fair, it mightn’t be right for me to comment because on the balance of play and Joe has refereed us a number of times this year, he is a very good referee. So you have to look at things in the wider context.”
The Derry boss hailed the development of his group of players, the back-to-back Ulster champions who have contested successive All-Ireland semi-final ties.
“It was a big opportunity for us and it is a long, long way back but the word I used to the players in the changing room, is a word I have used a lot in the last 10 weeks. The word is perspective, the perspective of where we came from.
“Look at where the team has come from in a short period of time. There’s a lot of players in that changing room that played Division Four football. I think for every county in Ireland that are in Division Three or Division Four or are straddling Division Two and Three, Derry’s a great example of how if you get your house in order over a period of time and get momentum, you can progress. I think it’s a good example and gives great hope to everyone else.”
