No flowers. Donations to Dessie Farrell (GPA).
Derry GAA: 1888 – 2016.
There have been some dark championship days for Derry Gaels in recent years.
A lot of the agony though was down to the fact that they actually had a fantastic team throughout the last decade but failed to show that in success.
Men like Kevin McGuckin, Niall McCuskar, Sean Marty Lockhart, Paul McFlynn, Gerard O’Kane, Fergal Doherty, Enda Muldoon, Paddy, Eoin and Patsy Bradley don’t just lie around in every county but they were all wearing the Oak Leaf crest at one time together.
Derry should’ve done better than their 2008 National League success. They were better but never proved it to the rest of the island who always had an inkling.
Last weekend though was a new low.
Tyrone came to Celtic Park and ran over the top of their neighbours with nothing but disregard for Derry.
Damian Barton isn’t blessed with the same squad of players that has just passed but, while the natives probably weren’t expecting much more than a loss on Sunday, they would’ve certainly demanded a better showing. They’re owed heart and fight and they didn’t get any of it.
Instead, three first half goals ended the contest before it even got a sniff of getting going and Joe Brolly was one of the Derry folk that were not happy.
Writing in his Sunday Independent, the RTÉ pundit penned his own county’s death notice having passed away “at her home in Celtic Park, surrounded by her loving family, after a long illness.”
Dramatic, maybe. Witty, definitely.
