MASTERCLASS
Derry soar as Harte doles out lesson to home county
TYRONE 0-9 DERRY 1-12
BRIAN Dooher will be forgiven if he struggles to see the truth in that old line which proclaims that every parting is a form of death and every reunion a type of heaven.
There was nothing heavenly in this for Dooher and Tyrone as the catch-up party with Mickey Harte merely served to reaffirm that even though the latter is in a different school these days, he is still the head master and this time the rather brutish lesson was on them.
In the process, such was Derry’s superiority that it probably thieved some of the heat from a reunion that was sold out 72 hours before the throw-in.
Mind, the 11,692 capacity crowd had to squint to see him, as he spent most of the evening with his back pressed against the perimeter fence rather than taking up his place on the sideline.
Perhaps that was because when he is in charge of a team as good as his new charges evidently are, then perhaps eyes should only be on them.
In truth, this was not an afternoon when they were at their best, but yet they still managed to reveal the best of themselves when it was needed most.
As a spectacle, it was to a large degree undetermined by the storm that raged down the field from which Derry played with in the opening half.
As a result, by half-time the momentum was all with Tyrone. They trailed by three points (0-8 to 0-5), which in golfing parlance felt closer to a round in the mid 60s than par, while minutes before the short-whistle Gareth McKinless — Derry’s defensive lynchpin — limped out of the game.
What little joy Derry had squeezed out of the first half was primarily down to Conor Glass, who was his usual imperious self in that opening period, feeding off Niall Morgan’s kick-outs that stalled in the wind.
It was also the main reason why, by the end of the opening quarter, the hosts led by 0-6 to 0-1 with a brace of those points coming off kick-outs won by Glass to go with the two direct assists for points he also notched up.
So, if you did not know any better about Ulster football, the obvious thing to assume was that Tyrone, who had defied the storm to outscore their hosts by 0-4 to 0-2 in the second quarter, had the result in the bag by half-time.
Here is the thing, though; if you gave either of these teams the option they would probably choose to play against the wind in both halves.
Perhaps that is because it suits their mindset to respond to adversity, but primarily it is because it is stitched into their DNA that you control your own destiny when you take care of the ball, rather than letting nature offer a helping hand.
As it turned out, the wind was more a foe than a friend, howling viciously across the field it blew Tyrone’s shooting radar off course to the point that they went without a score for the opening 24 minutes of the second half and chalked up a staggering 10 wides in the second period.
In contrast, Derry were in their element playing against the elements, while yesterday confirmed that the addition of Cormac Murphy has provided the Ulster champions with the new dimension which they craved.
Apart from the three points he scored — the brace he kicked after half-time killed this contest — his trickery and speed asks the kind of questions that Derry’s rehearsed running game is not always able to pose.
One of his scorching plays set up Glass for a third-quarter goal that was disallowed after Murphy had stepped over the end line — one of three goal chances spurned in a dominant second period.
Typically, they found the net when they were not even trying. Glass’ kick in injury time was for a point but the wind forced it to dip under the bar.
It confirmed for Dooher that this was a day sent from hell. DERRY: O Lynch (R Scullion 49); C McKaigue, C McCluskey, D Baker; C Doherty, G McKinless (N Toner 35, P McGrogan; C Glass (D Gilmore 70 & 2), B Rogers; E Doherty, C McFaul, P Cassidy; N Loughlin (D Cassidy 57), S McGuigan, C Murphy. SCORERS: C Glass 1-0, E Doherty, C Murphy 0-3, S McGuigan (1f) 0-3 each, P McGrogan, N Loughlin, C Doherty 0-1 each. TYRONE: N Morgan; C Devlin, P Hampsey, A Clarke; T Quinn, M McKernan (N McCarron, 66), B Cullen (M McGleenan, 52); B Kennedy, A Donaghy; S O’Donnell, N Devlin, C Daly; D McCurry (C Cush, 62), D Canavan, R Canavan (J Oguz, 59). SCORERS: S O’Donnell, C Daly 0-2 each, B Kennedy, A Donaghy,D McCurry, D Canavan (f), N Morgan (f) 0-1 each. REFEREE: N Mooney (Cavan).