Eoin Bradley’s back. That only means one thing, Derry are back.
Yes, it’s that important.
Take a journey back to Croke Park just a few months ago.
Derry set up ridiculously defensively, they hold Dublin four apiece after 63 minutes. They don’t have enough to get over the line.
They are lambasted, outcasted, scapegoated and tried for murder in the first degree of Gaelic Football.
If Eoin Bradley plays that night, everything changes.
He plays and they have the out they were looking for. They have a target, a fulcrum of attack and they have a match-winner. Eoin Bradley plays and they beat Dublin – probably 0-7 to 0-6 or something like that, who cares?
Eoin Bradley plays and, instead of being criticised, chastised, Brian McIver and Derry are held up as shrewd visionaries who could maybe just make the right kind of noises in the championship.
He didn’t play that night. Derry lost. They were relegated. The nation lined up to slap them on the wrists.
Eoin Bradley does play this Sunday though. And a Derry with a Bradley is a Derry with a shot. A puncher always has a chance.
Back in February, Derry hosted Kerry in Celtic Park and they were bowing to the All-Ireland champions in the first half. Slow, laboured play frustrated the crowd. Bradley came on at half time – momentum swung, viciously.
His dad, and former Antrim manager, Liam Bradley stood in the terraces that day and he let a roar out of him at club mate Gerard O’Kane to stop messing around – hit the f**king thing in, basically. Everyone could see that Bradley was wreaking havoc.
Even when he wasn’t winning the ball, he had the Kerry backline at sixes and sevens, tied up, occupied, worried. If he wasn’t scoring, he was winning frees. Derry rallied.
Two years ago, the same man had the Down defence on toast. He lit up the north west city with electrifying attacking play but, in an open thriller that had pundits aplenty drooling, Derry lost. They lost 2-17 to 1-15.
A month later, they played Down in the qualifiers. They learned their lessons. They copped on. They beat the same outfit 0-13 to 1-5. Down, the same Down who had run riot just four weeks earlier, were restricted to just two single scores from play over 70 minutes of football. The Derry public marveled more at that game, because they won. Because this is a results business.
So Derry would never have opened up against the Mourne men like they did that first day back in 2013 anyway. But, this time, they have practiced their new system. And here’s how they are likely to line up tomorrow.
Paddy Heaney wrote a column in the Irish News two weeks ago about how outdated the coverage of GAA is. He alluded to match programmes as the perfect example. Who plays a 3-3-2-3-3 anymore? Really?
Derry’s ‘wingers’ have been their biggest success story under Brian McIver.
Sean Leo McGoldrick and Enda Lynn have propelled to two of the finest footballers in the province and the ground the pair cover, alongside tireless youngsters, Kevin Johnston and Ciaran McFaul, fits perfectly into the running game that the side deploy.
Now, Chrissy McKaigue has come back from club duty after Slaughtneil’s run to the All-Ireland final and, with young Brendan Rogers impressing everyone in the county, McKaigue could be somewhat let off the leash for the first time in over five years for Derry, free of the shackles of the full back line.
Fergal Doherty’s return back into the fold also gives Mark Lynch more a free rein again to burst like he can in devastating fashion, without having to trod up and down the field all day keeping an eye on an opposing number eight.
Down though, are the form team.
Caolan Mooney’s rise has been unprecedented and he forms part of a 2-2 quartet attack that any team in the land would cry out for.
Mark Poland and Conor Laverty are Down’s hit men and the pair will drift all over the park, inside, deep and wherever the hell they like and they will be equally as effective anywhere.
Peter Turley, in the replayed match with Derry two years ago, dropped into a sweeper role to try to tame Bradley after his antics the first day. McArdle picked him up, Turley helped out and they did a job in limiting the Derry full forward.
They will be needed again this weekend because, at times, Bradley will be the Oak Leafers’ only forward.
But they have the running power.
If this match turns into a footrace, like McIver managed to create the last day out, Derry have the legs.
Fergal Doherty will have his hands full trying to contain Kevin McKernan and a lot of Derry’s success – or lack of – will rely on the Bellaghy midfielder lasting the full 70.
If Down get sucked out too much though and leave space in behind, Bradley will be on. But, if he is on, he will need help because he will be hugely outnumbered.
The ‘wingers’ have been Derry’s best attackers and defenders in recent years. Last season, when the team reached the league final, it was Johnston and McGoldrick prodding from deep that was really hurting teams – the two scored and assisted the goal against Mayo for example in the semi final.
Against Dublin, they were some of the furthest men forward at times – even though attacks were few and far between.
The stats the last time the sides played showed Derry dominated in midfield. They cleaned up in the air, they edged the breaks, they restricted Down to short kickouts. When you do that, you can play the game on your terms. But, that day, they had PJ McCloskey and an inspired Patsy Bradley running the show. Neither of them are there tomorrow.
The away side will be weary of kicking short this time, if it grants Derry time to get men back. It will also mean they will commit bodies forward, which could mean a race back to the other end. But they will also be weary of a certain Bradley patrolling deep inside.
Skinner’s return gives Derry an ace. And gives Down a conundrum they must figure out.
