AT a loss to explain a third consecutive championship defeat, Mickey Harte wonders aloud at the suggestion that it’s all psychological.
Nine weeks ago, they were on top of the world. Not only had they beaten Dublin in the league final, but they’d done it with such panache that even the doubters started to believe.
What has happened since is hard to wrap your head around. Donegal scored 4-11 in Celtic Park, Galway took 2-15 in Salthill and now Armagh have plundered 3-17 to bury Derry’s All-Ireland dream in their own back yard.
They need to beat Westmeath just to stay in the competition but beyond that, it’s very hard to see how they salvage the contendership that they looked certain to bring a little over two months ago.
“I’m not a psychologist, but it looks [psychological], obviously.
“You can’t play the level of football that our boys played on March 31 or whatever it was [the league final], and then have your next three performances the way they were.
“It doesn’t make sense, unless there’s a mental problem there of… maybe it’s fatigue, maybe it’s coming off the high of winning the league.
“Could be loads of things. Injuries play a part in it as well.
“So, there’s a whole lot of stuff going on there, but the end result is not good for us at the minute.”
In other moments, Harte said it was “very hard to explain what has happened.”
“I mean, we can only look at it and see what our eyes are telling us that we’re getting bad beatings, you know, and it’s very hard to put your finger on it.
“Yes, Armagh played with a huge intensity there today, but I think we gifted them the key to the door, so to speak.
“You might say that comes with the pressure and intensity they put on, but I think if you take a closer look at it, I think we gave away some crucial balls that it wasn’t really all intensity that gave it, it was errors on our part, and it’s very hard to deal with that.
“And then, when you’re trying to beat your way back into a bit of form and concede goals like we did there in the first half, then it’s an uphill battle all the way, and we did start the second half with a bit of a flurry, but you know, you needed to really work, continue that without giving anything away to them, or at least get very close to them before they got another score or two themselves, and when that happened, it was a question of just finishing out the game, I suppose. It was inevitable they were going to win.”
The Oak Leaf boss deflected from Derry’s body language and energy, which were both miles off, putting the way that Armagh cut through them in the first half particularly down to the nature of the turnovers and how committed they were in terms of attacking numbers.
That they’ve lost three straight championship games and are still actually in the competition at all is a very unique place to be, even for a manager of his experience, and he admitted that if he wasn’t Derry manager and needing that safety net, he doesn’t like it that way.
“I’d like to be part of that indictment,” he replied when asked about the indictments of the current system, adding: “Changes happen all the time and people will be reviewing this and I’m sure they will make adjustments if the people that are involved in making those changes decide that it’s not a good thing to lose three games and still stay in, which everybody’s entitled to their opinion.
“If I wasn’t in this position, I might agree with it too.”
Kieran McGeeney, with his left arm still in a sling after recent shoulder surgery, would have sensed Derry’s vulnerability but he even couldn’t have foreseen the level of it.
The Armagh boss was in good form but not to the point of getting carried away. “Yes, it’s a good result, but we played just as well against Donegal in terms of getting scores and stuff like that there, but I suppose we got a couple of goals today and that gave us a bit of a cushion.”
The victory was testament to the squad he’s built over a long period, that they were able to absorb the loss of Ciaran Mackin to an unfortunate cruciate ligament tear less than a fortnight after his sister Aimee suffered the same fate, as well as Andrew Murnin and Conor O’Neill.
McGeeney paid particular tribute to Ross McQuillan and Niall Grimley, who was starting his first game in over two years.
“It was a tough week, but the boys that came in, I thought Ross McQuillan was outstanding, this last two weeks he’s been flying at training now and he’s really pushed on and he came in today and I thought he was fantastic.
“And Niall Grimley. Now he’s had a tough year himself personally and he’s been always close and to put in a performance like he did today, I’m delighted for him and his family.”
