Another tough test awaits Derry in Ballybofey this weekend

All-Ireland Senior Championship

Donegal vs. Derry

Ballybofey

Sunday, 4pm

Derry head to Ballybofey this Sunday for a first meeting with Donegal since their memorable extra time victory in the 2022 Ulster final against their old rivals.

On that memorable day, Derry not only won the Ulster title, but they also recorded their first Championship win over Donegal since 2008. The paths of both teams have since taken different roads, but just how far apart the teams are in 2023 will be judged better this weekend, 

It’s a short turnaround for Derry following last week’s opener against Monaghan, but Ciaran Meenagh has full faith in his players ahead of another difficult game this weekend.

The Derry boss explained how players train and prepare “like professionals” who are playing week in and week out. And sometimes more often.

“You have to get on with it and tailor your training to suit,” he said. “Who knows what the best approach is. That will become clearer as the year moves on.”

“I haven’t thought of what happens now; it was only in terms of living in the moment and preparing. It is going to be another huge task in MacCumhaill Park.”

A point lost or a point gained? It was a bit of both in the eyes of Meenagh after Karl O’Connell earned Monaghan a draw with the last kick of Saturday’s dramatic All-Ireland encounter at Celtic Park.  

With 10 minutes to go he’d have taken a draw. Even a share of the spoils was looking bleak at the sight of Rory Beggan’s monster ‘45’ putting Monaghan three points clear for the second time in the second half.

A Lachlan Murray point with his first touch followed. Then Benny Heron’s interception of a Beggan kick-out led to a score. Two more Shane McGuigan points came.

The key factors all contributed to Derry finding themselves in front with seconds remaining pointed to other emotion in Meenagh’s mind, the disappointment in not closing out the game.

“The pressure of these games and the nature of the last two games is tough,” Meenagh admitted.

“The character of the players can’t be in doubt because everything looked like it was going against us for a lot of the second half in terms of how they (Monaghan) managed the black card.”

It was a game Derry were worried about, something Meenagh had said in his post-game interview minutes after their penalty shoot-out win over Armagh.

“The emotion of that Ulster final and the comedown of that,” he said. “You have to take all those things into consideration and the players have been through a lot.

“There has been a lot of emotion involved and then you have to take into account the Monaghan team. The respect we would have for them, the warriors they have been for 10 plus years.”

Meenagh pointed to the Farney side being backboned by their Ulster minor and senior double in 2013.

He also referenced their grit to bounce back from going under, 1-21 to 2-10, in their last outing. A convincing defeat.

“They weren’t going to take it lying down and that left them an exceptionally difficult proposition they were smart in terms of how they set themselves up,” Meenagh added, highlighting how they kept some of their experienced players until the game opened up.

“They were always going to be a difficult task. To get a point out of it, that’s some satisfaction but overall, we’d have a lot of elements of our performance that we’d need to improve on.”

No hangover

Meenagh wasn’t buying into any suggestion of an Ulster final ‘hangover’ being the reason for his side chasing the game for much of the second half. 

That would’ve been “unjust” on Monaghan and how they bounced back from their defeat to Derry.

“Maybe we got the bounce of the ball and maybe things went our way, and we built a lead,” Meenagh said. “They obviously learned a lot of lessons. They had four weeks to sit in the long grass and prepare accordingly and they did so.

“You have to take your hats off to them. They deserve amazing respect. The manner in which we beat them the last day, the way they dusted themselves down,” Meenagh added.

“It was a wounded animal coming here and was always going to leave them a difficult proposition for us and they will be difficult for everybody moving forward.