WHAT a difference a year makes.
There’s no great need to rake over the coals as we look into what 2025 could hold, but context is important; moreso with Derry than anybody else.
Because, outside of Armagh’s amazing All-Ireland triumph, the manner in which the wheels came off the Oak Leaf challenge was the most remarkable story of the year, certainly from an Ulster perspective.
Even now it seems barely believable.
Coming into 2024, despite the odd rumbling of discontent surrounding the appointment of Mickey Harte, Derry were still right up there when early season talk turned to who might be in the mix at the business end of proceedings.
Before the first home game of the Tyrone All-Ireland winner’s reign - a Dr McKenna Cup clash with Down - the Celtic Park PA system filled the night sky with the sound of Feargal Sharkey’s ‘A Good Heart’.
“It was a great welcome to Derry,” smiled county chairman Stephen Barker, standing beside Harte outside the changing rooms afterwards.
Those positive vibes were further emboldened as Derry continued to fly from the traps, winning the pre-season competition in classic Mickey style.
Glen’s All-Ireland triumph, becoming the first Derry club to lift the Andy Merrigan Cup since Ballinderry 22 years earlier, further cemented the county’s place at Gaelic footballl’s top table.
A first Division One title in 16 years followed in the spring, before the Dubs were dramatically downed at Croke Park to take the League title. Derry in dreamland; where would this season end?
Yet, while all appeared well, concerns were beginning to come to the surface - about Harte’s reliance on largely the same 15, about tiredness, about mounting injuries, about a lack of depth to see them through.
A team holiday to Portugal spawned further suggestions all was not well, but the real shock and awe moment was to come weeks later - Donegal running in four goals at a stunned Celtic Park, Derry’s Ulster title defence collapsing in spectacular style.
From that point onwards, Harte’s beleaguered side bore the look of a boxer attempting to survive the championship rounds of a world title fight on instinct. The confidence, the control of the previous year - the previous months - had been knocked out of them completely.
Eventual All-Ireland finalists Galway and Armagh smelled blood and inflicted further pain until, after wobbling beyond Westmeath, the Oak Leafs managed one last kick in Castlebar to send Mayo out the exit door on penalties.
The end, though, was already under way. Almost a year after going hell for leather with Kerry in a brilliant, breathless All-Ireland semi-final, Derry offered little resistance as a businesslike Kingdom put them out of their misery.
Harte’s exit, less than 10 months after his appointment, followed eight days later.
But Derry’s annus horribilis was not complete yet; despite a process being put in place to find a successor straight away, it was another 129 days before Paddy Tally – part of Harte’s Tyrone coaching team in the early Noughties – ended an at times interminable wait.
None of what happened was ideal but, for Tally, none of what went before can matter either. The Galbally man would not be blamed for banning any mention of 2024 at all.
As a consequence, there aren’t too many talking about Ulster and All-Ireland titles any more. Armagh come in as the county for all to beat, Donegal are being tipped for big things in Jim McGuinness’s second year at the helm, while much is expected of a rejuvenated Tyrone with Malachy O’Rourke at the helm.
One connection has already been severed following Chrissy McKaigue’s retirement and, even with the emergence of Diarmuid Baker in the corner last year, as well as Eoin McEvoy staying put – for now – in the face of serious AFL interest, a fair bit of defensive surgery will be required.
Padraig McGrogan is expected to be sidelined until March due to a cruciate ligament injury suffered last April, Conor McCluskey underwent groin surgery before the club championship and is still working his way back to fitness, while Gareth McKinless remains at the heart of Ballinderry’s All-Ireland IFC ambitions.
Elsewhere, Tally has brought Callum McGrogan onboard, so too Newbridge club-mate James Gribbin, alongside the Lavey quartet Louis Regan, Patrick McGurk, Rory McGill and Ryan Mulholland, Glenullin’s Neill McNicholl, Magherafelt’s Conall Heron, Glen’s Jody McDermott and Bellaghy’s Charlie Diamond.
Anton Tohill, Dan Higgins and Jack Doherty have returned to the panel, while there are high hopes that Desertmartin forward Lachlan Murray will carry on along the same trajectory.
Yet what still remains is a lot of the unknown.
The core members of the side that led Derry to back-to-back Ulster crowns – men like McCluskey, McKinless, McGrogan, Conor Glass, Brendan Rogers, Ciaran McFaul, Paul Cassidy, Ethan Doherty and Shane McGuigan – remain of an age to dictate their own destiny in the years to come.
The ground, though, has shifted. New rules, another new manager, and a new landscape at provincial and national level in which the Oak Leafs no longer occupy the same lofty position as before.
That is the big question mark hanging over Derry heading into this year; for all the short-term suffering endured last year, what sort of long-term impact have the events of 2024 had?
Looking at how last year’s Championship panned out, with Ulster rivals Armagh bolting from the pack when it mattered, did Derry miss their window of opportunity? Only time will tell - but they face a long road to bring themselves back into that conversation.
Fixtures (Division One)
Sat Jan 25th: Tyrone (a) Healy Park, 6pm
Sun Feb 2nd: Kerry (H) Celtic Park, 3.45pm
Sat Feb 15th: Galway (H) Celtic Park, 5pm
Sat Feb 22nd: Dublin (a) Croke Park, 7.30pm
Sun March 2nd: Donegal (a) Ballyshannon, 1.45pm
Sun March 16th: Mayo (H) Celtic Park, 1.30pm
Sun March 23rd: Armagh (a) Athletic Grounds, 3.45pm
Ulster SFC preliminary round: Donegal (a)
2024 League results (Division One)
Kerry 2-8 Derry 0-15
Derry 1-12 Tyrone 0-9
Derry 3-17 Monaghan 0-13
Galway 1-11 Derry 3-10
Derry 1-11 Dublin 1-16
Mayo 2-13 Derry 3-15
Derry 2-19 Roscommon 1-9
2024 Championship results
Ulster SFC quarter-final: Derry 0-17 Donegal 4-11
All-Ireland SFC Group One
Galway 2-14 Derry 0-15
Derry 0-15 Armagh 3-17
Derry 2-7 Westmeath 0-9 (in Newry)
All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final: Mayo 1-12 Derry 0-15 (aet) (Derry win 4-3 on penalties)
All-Ireland SFC quarter-final: Kerry 0-15 Derry 0-10
Five-year record
2024: Division One; Points: 12; Position: 1st
2023: Division Two; Points: 13; Position: 1st, promoted
2022: Division Two; Points: 11; Position: 3rd
2021: Division Three North; Points: 6; Position: 1st of 4, promoted
2020: Division Three; Points: 9; Position: Third
