FORMER DERRY DEFENDER Kevin McCloy suspected it was all just rumour mill fodder when he first heard of the impending Mickey Harte appointment.
He had his candidates in mind for the Derry vacancy: Malachy O’Rourke, the former Monaghan boss with a deep understanding of Ulster football, was chief among them. So, when a son of a rival county got the nod, McCloy was stunned. But after letting the thought simmer for a bit, he quickly saw the logic in a multi-All-Ireland-winning manager taking the reins of a team on the rise.
“Who knows Ulster football better than Mickey Harte?” the 2007 All-Star tells The 42.
“It would take a big name to go in there as Derry is a top-four team so Mickey’s credentials come before him. What he’s won with Tyrone probably won’t be matched. It probably won’t sit well with a lot of Derry supporters but where the team is now, they just need that extra push. Mickey is probably that person who can bring that expertise to get over the line.”
The enemy lines between Derry and Tyrone has certainly been a discussion point in the aftermath of the Harte announcement. A slightly peculiar sidebar, given that almost every county in Ulster shares a rivalry — of varied extents — with each other. Harte’s coach Gavin Devlin also has plenty of experience with the Derry football scene, including a stint with the famous Slaughtneil club. Ciarán Meenagh, who was the interim Derry manager for much of the 2023 championship, is a native of Tyrone too. That didn’t hold him back as he guided Derry to back-to-back Ulster titles, as well as an All-Ireland semi-final appearance against Kerry.
But while the evidence of a Derry/Tyrone feud has been less pronounced in the last 20 years, McCloy can recall a time when the relations were fiery.
“There’s a rivalry from the early 90s even up to now,” McCloy says, reminding us all of the way things were.
“Even when Derry weren’t going well, there still would have been a rivalry. We turned them over in 2006 and that went down sore with them. The one they always bring up is the one when they beat us with 13 men [In the 1995 Ulster semi-final]. It never sits too well and I don’t think the rivalry will ever disappear. It might have lessened a bit when Tyrone were very successful.
“They probably gave us a thumping over the next few years but now that Derry is back in the driving seat, the rivalry will be built back up again and that will add a bit more chemistry to it when Mickey is in charge of us instead of his home county.”
There will be high standards for Harte to aim for with Derry when the 2024 season gets underway. Following their league promotion earlier this year, retaining their Division 1 status will be a big box to tick. Derry fans will be expecting an Ulster three-in-a-row too, and another All-Ireland semi-final to go with it. Those are all all minimum requirements and they won’t be easy to achieve.
McCloy points out that even progressing out of the province will difficult this year, considering that Donegal and Jim McGuinness have linked up again for the long awaited sequel.
A heady mix of factors that will make the Derry story of 2024 all the more intriguing to watch.
“Mickey’s first goal will be to get out of Ulster. There’s no given right now [to progress]. You have [Jim] McGuinness coming back in with Donegal. Tyrone always come strong every year but no matter what Derry’s path is, I would expect them to get to a quarter-final or semi-final again. Mickey’s coming into a group of players that are very driven, they’ll work hard for him. How they will get on with him is a totally different story. He’s a different manager and it’ll just depend on how quickly he settles with them.
“Going into last year’s semi-final, we had no expectation to get by a semi-final. The way the game [against Kerry] ended up, a lot of people came away very disappointed. It’s hard to take those defeats when you know you were inches away from getting into an All-Ireland final. There’ll be a certain expectation from the Derry supporters for Mickey to take us one more step.
“Mickey needs to blood a few more players and there’ll be no better place to do that than in Division 1. He’s sitting on a good platform to see how good his panel is.
“Mickey sets up a team that is very hard to play against and I don’t see him doing any different with Derry. The only thing I think he will have to do is set Derry up more attacking if he wants to take one more step across the line.”
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