Mickey Harte ready to lead Derry to a final date with Dublin’s danger men

You see, there’s always been unbeatable teams, or players who are in the ‘greatest ever’ conversation. There’s consistently issues around competition structures and the demands on players. The game itself lurches in or out of crisis, depending on your viewpoint. But when you’ve been around the game as long as Harte has, you come to learn that it’s all just a moment.

Perhaps that’s why he’s been quite matter of fact about his move to Derry. It was a peculiar series of events that brought him from Tyrone to Louth then into Derry. So many plates had to shift and dominoes had to fall for the godfather of the modern Tyrone to hop the Sperrins in search of another All-Ireland as manager.

But it happened and he’s here, heading into another Croke Park final.

​Their place in the league final had only been confirmed a few minutes beforehand, but after the Roscommon game last Sunday, Harte was already referencing the Dublin “juggernaut” that is coming at them at headquarters on Sunday.

And at the launch of the Ulster championship on Monday night and after Dublin had dismantled his native Tyrone, he was asked whether the Dubs looked a “scary prospect” on current form.

“They do, they do,” he agreed. “And I think that’s maybe their way of letting people know that... this isn’t exactly the six in a row team, but watch out what’s coming. I think that’s what they’re saying, they’re making a statement of intent here again.

“Because people were tending to say that a lot to those older statesmen are gone and Dublin are not what they used to be, and they had to take that for a while and I think they weren’t too enamoured about that. But I think they are firing back and saying ‘just take care what you say about us because we’ll show you we’re not a spent force’.”

And while Dublin have been pulling up trees, Harte has made a near perfect start to life as Derry boss. They won the McKenna Cup and carried that momentum into the league, beating Kerry in Killarney in round one. After Sunday’s dismissal of Roscommon in Celtic Park, their record under Harte reads 10 wins from 11, their only defeat coming at the hands of Dessie Farrell’s Dubs.

Derry didn’t field a full strength team that day. Conor Glass, one of the form players in the country, watched from the stands. Eoin McEvoy and Young Footballer of the Year, Ethan Doherty, came off the bench at half-time, while All-Star centre-back Gareth McKinless didn’t feature.

It wasn’t quite deliberate, but Harte suggests that sometimes the long-term goal has to trump the short-term gain.

“Well we didn’t put out the best team that we had,” he agreed. “It was kind of, I suppose, a precaution because number one, if you put out your best team there’s no guarantee we’d win anyway.

“But if you did win then this unbeaten run is on in the league, and the talk is on because you won four games in a row that big things will happen and all of that and there isn’t the substance to be saying that if you’ve sense.

“But if you’re an outsider looking in and want to paint a picture and create a narrative you can do that. So I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world that we didn’t win that game. I think it helps us to be where we are today.”

There’ll be no holding back this time around. Harte expects both sides to be as close to full strength as possible and didn’t rule out the return of some Dublin front-liners.

“They have a kind of habit of doing that when they used to meet Tyrone. They didn’t bring out anything but the best.

“I’m sure if there is anybody else ready to come back they will want to give them time as well and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the serious operators with two pockets full of medals appear again.”

And will Derry bring their strongest team? “We’ll put out whoever is available and fit and well. We will put out the best team we have that’s available,” added Harte.

Harte is bringing a team to a big match in Croke Park. Nothing new in that. But there’s no dimming of his desire either.