Primed to atone for years of famine

All-Ireland SFC Semi-final/Derry v Kerry: Seán Moran talks to two former selectors about the fall and rise of Derry

Decline set in on May 29th, 1994. It was hardly much consolation to Derry that the cataclysmic defeat would pass into legend as the match of the decade. When the sun went down on that bright afternoon in Celtic Park over 10 years ago, it was also setting on Derry football.

You'd have had few takers for the theory at the time.

For All-Ireland champions to lose at the start of the provincial championship isn't unprecedented. But the task of defending the All-Ireland hadn't yet taken on the Herculean proportions of nowadays when the 15-year gap since a team retained the title is historically unprecedented.

So it mattered not that Derry lost the match of the decade to a Down team that would win that year's All-Ireland and by the end of the summer manager Eamonn Coleman had been bounced out of his position as manager of the team.

After Derry had won the 1993 All-Ireland, most thought that such a formidable team wouldn't leave it at one. But tomorrow when the county take the field at Croke Park to play Kerry in the Bank of Ireland All-Ireland semi-final, it will be only their second appearance at this level since the heady days of 11 years ago, in which time they've yet to return to a final.

Admittedly, few would have risked loose change on Derry's chances of reaching the last four after May's humiliating defeat by Tyrone in the Ulster championship. But a long, morale-building tour of this summer's qualifier system has restored confidence with a sequence of wins against solid but beatable teams.

When reviewing all the interim disappointment opinions vary as to the impact of Coleman's removal all those years ago.

Current manager Mickey Moran was Coleman's coach and he took over but, after a players' boycott and despite a league win in his first year, things were never the same for the team again.

Harry Gribben was a selector with Coleman and Moran and believes the team was a little unlucky in Celtic Park but isn't sure about the long-term impact of Coleman's treatment.

"I would say they did underachieve. There was no back door in 1994 and we were beaten by what I felt was, compared to other years, a poor enough Down team that went on to win the All-Ireland. Derry were good enough to win and I thought the referee made two decisions that changed the match. But anyway we slipped up and they won. That happens.

"The dispute over Eamonn didn't help and some of the team were past their best. The 1993 side were exceptional and it's a pity they didn't win more. I don't think the decline was anything to do with the fall-out in that the players all came back and played again."

Damien Cassidy, left-wing forward on the team and a selector with Coleman when he was eventually reappointed in 1998, emphatically disagrees with this perspective.

"Events around the displacement of Eamonn Coleman were about the single biggest reason why that team didn't achieve more and anyone who tries to argue differently is living on a different planet.

"I'd be scathing of how the county board handled that situation. I think there was a clear underestimation of Coleman's role in developing the character of that team."

Neither Coleman nor Moran managed another Ulster title despite being in charge for all but three seasons since 1993. When Derry took their only provincial title in 1998, Brian Mullins was in charge and the team's challenge was brushed aside by a Galway team on the way to an All-Ireland.

A more encouraging development was the 1997 under-21 All-Ireland title. Yet only four of its graduates start tomorrow.

Again there is a sense of unfulfilled potential. Gribben managed the side and says those players still have something to offer.

"I felt there would have been more players from the 1997 team who'd make it as seniors. That year we beat a Meath side that had the nucleus of an All-Ireland senior winning team.

"At one time there were seven of them on the Derry panel and I think some of them could still make a contribution."

The failure of that team to make more of an impact is at least partly due to misfortune. Two of the players, David O'Neill and Adrian McGuckin, had their senior football careers ruined by debilitating illness.

McGuckin overcame his condition and a broken leg to captain Ballinderry to the All-Ireland club title two years ago but isn't currently playing.

Others had a taste of football at the top but couldn't sustain it. Joe Cassidy was one of the players considered to have a bright future but after a promising start his inter-county star dimmed and he is back with the club, in the view of some playing well enough to be reconsidered. But at 28, he is at odds with the youth policy being pursued by Moran, who has begun to draft in members of the 2002 All-Ireland-winning minors.

"Too much football too young," is Damien Cassidy's explanation of his brother's fate. "It suits some players and not others. Without a doubt it was burnout - between colleges, under-21 and club and we're not talking about ordinary club football.

"Bellaghy were in the middle of a period of having a very successful group of players. They won county titles and got to Ulster club finals each year. Joe wouldn't have had a big, strong build and wasn't physically able for it all."

Even those who have made the grade have at times struggled. Seán Martin Lockhart and Paul McFlynn have largely been fixtures on the county team but Johnny McBride, who captained the 1997 under-21s, has had a fitful career whereas managers have found it hard to identify an optimum outlet for Enda Muldoon's undisputed talent.

"He played midfield and centre forward for us and could play between the positions," says Gribben. "He has the ability to catch ball and take scores and is a very intelligent footballer, capable of hitting passes from 20 and 30 yards. This year he's put up some good scores but he's always been a good free-taker."

Cassidy strongly believes, however, the player is best positioned where Moran and the current Derry management place him, close to goal. "Without doubt Muldoon is made for the full-forward line but over the past two years Derry have been playing him out the pitch around midfield.

"Now he's great to catch a ball and his passing is top drawer.

"But midfield is about covering ground in a massive way and that's where he doesn't score as highly. He gets away with it at club football but he doesn't have that big engine that's needed for county football and that's why the full forwards have always suited him best."

In the All-Ireland semi-final of three years ago Muldoon scored a great goal from full forward but again Derry lost to a Galway side en route to better things. The promise of that semi-final proved another false dawn.

Some of the players, like captain Anthony Tohill, were nearing the end of their careers but Damien Cassidy says there was more to the disappointing aftermath than that.

Ballinderry embarked on a campaign that would end in the All-Ireland club title, thus depriving the county team of several important players during the National Football League season, which ended in relegation. Even when they returned there was thunder in the air.

Ballinderry had been drawn against Bellaghy, their predecessors as Ulster champions, in the Derry championship and the upcoming contest consumed the clubs, which between them had about half of the county panel.

"All the focus was on the club game and none on the county," says Cassidy. "The county board inexplicably felt they had to go ahead with that game two weeks before we played Antrim. That led to a lot of players missing training - there were 13 off the panel from the two clubs - and the rest being cheesed off and efforts reduced as a result.

"This year we haven't had a first round played yet in Derry and it's an example of what can be achieved when you let the team focus on the one thing. I'd be pretty confident about the future.

"This year has been a watershed and for the weekend's game there's beenan upsurge in interest among Derry supporters that hasn't been seen for 10 years."

Gribben shares the optimism. "Yes I feel there is a senior All-Ireland in the county. A few more of the minors will probably come through and this year's made them realise they're as good as what's about."