Where were they at? The most polite answer seemed lodged somewhere between the extremes of their mid-summer form and the crushing defeats that bookended the season once Kerry were finished with them. For all the progress made through a modest qualifier draw, Derry had crucially failed when pitted against a team pitched a level above them. They went into meltdown.
Having introduced six new players and restructured their half-forward line, Derry held off Monaghan comfortably but didn’t spread their scores far beyond Enda Muldoon and Paddy Bradley. Of the 1-12 Derry managed from play, Bradley and Muldoon contributed 1-9. Against Kerry, no other starting forward scored. Derry may point to their need to flood centre field with attackers, leaving Bradley and Muldoon upfield, but the onus on Derry to unveil some variety in their play has rarely been as pressing.
After three weeks on the road, restoration and maintenance are the buzzwords floating around Armagh but they can cope. Derry are likely to place a sweeper in front of Steven McDonnell and Ronan Clarke but Oisín McConville’s and John McEntee’s delivery of ball has been precise enough to circumvent that.
It might concern Armagh that cracks in their form have been masked by Fermanagh’s tactical implosion and Donegal’s collective mental breakdown last weekend but few teams have the same ability to concentrate under all kinds of strain. Today is all about mind over matter. Armagh to win. oListening to Brian McEniff after last weekend’s replay in Clones it was hard to resist the interesting, if unintentional, parallel between the Ulster football championship and the grotesque world of Royston Vasey and its League of Gentlemen. Local referees for local people was the essence of McEniff’s plea, but in a more measured moment he would surely accept that even an intimate knowledge of the regional nuances can’t quell a dogfight in Ulster when the blood gets up.
It was a week for Donegal to look at themselves, not others. While the disciplinary committee’s decision to rescind his straight red card was acceptable in the context of the specific incidents, the sum of Adrian Sweeney’s previous sins deserved a red.
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His return, along with Brian Roper and Eamon McGee despite last week’s rash of red cards, further reflects how the disciplinary system still fails the game, but has cut Donegal a break.
Donegal’s difficulty in maintaining the concentration required to close out games remains a huge problem and a good start for Wicklow could land them in trouble. We still expect them to pull through, but have long since lost the capacity to be surprised by them.