Tyrone v Derry 21/6/09

What do yis think of this? All is not well in the Derry camp it seems...

Ballinderry threaten Derry boycott
15 June 2009

Derry's preparations for next Sunday's Ulster SFC semi-final against Tyrone have been plunged into crisis amid reports that Ballinderry are threatening to withdraw their players in the event of James Conway not been reinstated to the panel.


The midfielder was suspended from Damian Cassidy's squad last week after an incident involving county colleague James Kielt in a recent club game between Ballinderry and Kilrea, in which Kielt sustained a broken jaw.

But it's understood that Ballinderry are now demanding talks over Conway's axing from the county squad, and will withdraw their other panel members if they don't get the answers they are looking for.

The Shamrocks currently have three players on the panel - defenders Kevin McGuckin and Niall McCusker, who is vice-captain, and midfielder-cum-attacker Enda Muldoon.

All this combined with all the sh*te in the aftermath of the first round game with us, is all these distractions going to cost Derry against Tyrone? Certainly not ideal preparation anyway.

The only player they have on the team at the minute and for the Tyrone game is Kevin Mc Guckin as Muldoon and Mc Cusker are injured.

Aye but you wouldn't want to lose him surely? And aside from all that it's obviously not a great thing to be hanging over the team before such a big game.

mid-mon man wrote:Aye but you wouldn't want to lose him surely? And aside from all that it's obviously not a great thing to be hanging over the team before such a big game.

To be honest, DC in my opinion wants rid of the Ballinderry players, and there isn't much chat about it around the county to be perfectly honest Ballinderry aren't like much in Derry yes they produce players like Muldoon, Mc Guckin and Mc Cusker but any time there is an incident in club football more often than not Ballinderry are at the core of it. The player who will be missed most will be Muldoon as Mc Guckin and Niall Mc Cusker have replacements who are equally as good. I was talking to a Derry player last night and things are moving along swimmingly in training, I wouldn't read into the media bullshit too much.

MMM i think its just another media side show to take the pressure of the the players - wouldnt surprise me that Cassidy has orchestrated this press release deliberately.

And Niamh who exactly were you thinking of when you say you have a ready made replacement for Mc Guckin????

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

Bright-Oak wrote:James Kielt has only a hair line fracture so may play some part in the proceedings.

I think Canavan had that injury too .............

Same as me there Jayo!

bocerty wrote:MMM i think its just another media side show to take the pressure of the the players - wouldnt surprise me that Cassidy has orchestrated this press release deliberately.

And Niamh who exactly were you thinking of when you say you have a ready made replacement for Mc Guckin????

Sean Martin Lockhart, failing that Geard O Kane ans Chrissy Mc Kaige and Paul Cartin playing on the half back line.

And what are the players views on not being able to play for their county on a decision made by their club? I know a lot of Ballinderry folk and players from through the years and yes there are some Tyrone folk among them but on the whole they are mostly Derryfolk and hardcore Derry at that.

I really hope this is a load of hot air, however as i live away it's hard for me to gain access to the real stories nowadays. If it's not, all i will say is that Ballinderry are not bigger than Derry and do not tell the county board what to do!

All the media Bullshit aside, how do we think this game will go?

I can't look past Derry I never back against them and I shan't start now. They have very talented players just not as many as Tyrone perhaps... I have seen on forums that people hope Tyrone hammer us as we are nothing but scumbags who can't play football and resort to dirty tactics, that's not nice to read and it isn't true either. Derry and Monaghan are not dirty teams they had a match in which a lot of pent up aggression was released in the wrong way, but neither of these teams have been involved in mass brawls or anything, and generally are footballing teams. With all that has happened people seem to forget that Derry have good skilled players capable of winning a match, midfield is an issue for us at the minute with Doc out and Conway AWOL, there has been no confirmation about Bradley yet if he is fit or not, Muldoon is still in a cast. Paul Murphy is reportedly to play in midfield as he plays there for his club, the midfield battle is not important when you play Tyrone as they don't win it in midfield they win it in the half forward and half back lines. Derry have contrasting half back and forward lines a good half back and practically non-existent half forward line. our defence is a good as any in the country and the 2 Bradley's, and Lynch as well as a cameo from Kielt if rumours are to be believed. In all honesty, there is no feeling of upset in Derry regarding the Ballinderry players from what I have heard and spoke to people about. I know everyone thinks Tyrone will run away with it and they could, but I'm staying faithful and I'm going to say Derry by 2. Cailean O Boyle to star...you heard it here first.

If Tyrone really want it then im afraid I cant see Derry winning it, especially with Cavan/Antrim in the final. Im hoping that Derry do win it because then Antrim/Cavan have a better chance of winning!

Tyrone 1-15
Derry 0-14

Administrator wrote:If Tyrone really want it then im afraid I cant see Derry winning it, especially with Cavan/Antrim in the final. Im hoping that Derry do win it because then Antrim/Cavan have a better chance of winning!

Tyrone 1-15
Derry 0-14

Antrim or Cavan have no chance in the Ulster Final, this weekends game IS the Ulster Final!!!!

bald eagle wrote:

Administrator wrote:If Tyrone really want it then im afraid I cant see Derry winning it, especially with Cavan/Antrim in the final. Im hoping that Derry do win it because then Antrim/Cavan have a better chance of winning!

Tyrone 1-15
Derry 0-14

Antrim or Cavan have no chance in the Ulster Final, this weekends game IS the Ulster Final!!!!

yeah, and Donegal thought they were in the final!

Administrator wrote:

bald eagle wrote:

Administrator wrote:If Tyrone really want it then im afraid I cant see Derry winning it, especially with Cavan/Antrim in the final. Im hoping that Derry do win it because then Antrim/Cavan have a better chance of winning!

Tyrone 1-15
Derry 0-14

Antrim or Cavan have no chance in the Ulster Final, this weekends game IS the Ulster Final!!!!

yeah, and Donegal thought they were in the final!

Derry and Tyrone are not Donegal but, I have been saying for months about Donegal being poor even in the league. Not only are Donegal poor Antrim are good and nothing should be taken away from them.

Oh lord Sunday will be a nasty affair and I don't mean on the pitch, I mean in the stands the little taster of it I had over in HS is bringing back horrible memories of Derry v Tyrone matchs.

Mad Dub - 6 foot 4 in for hire as bodyguard. Specialises in Ulster football match protection ......

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Mad Dub - 6 foot 4 in for hire as bodyguard. Specialises in Ulster football match protection ......

Pity they don't specialise in playing Ulster teams...

Ah now young girl in my early days an Ulster team rarely got within 10 points of the Dubs ......

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Ah now young girl in my early days an Ulster team rarely got within 10 points of the Dubs ......

that was 40 years ago Jayo

bocerty wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Ah now young girl in my early days an Ulster team rarely got within 10 points of the Dubs ......

that was 40 years ago Jayo

only 25-30 Boc ..............

Derry and Tyrone may well serve up a game of football
Against the Breeze
By Paddy Heaney
16/06/09

Killers from the egg: the malevolent aged grin. They dance on the surface among the flies.

From the poem ‘Pike’ by Ted Hughes

Education was wasted on me. The intense imagery contained in the above lines should summon pictures of dark pools filled with the lurking menace of predatory pike.

Not for me. The first time I read that opening verse I immediately thought of ‘ill-set’ corner-backs from around Ardboe.

Those with the necessary experience will understand. Lough Neagh. The midges. And those Loughshore men, smirking at the thoughts of their intended misdemeanours.

And yes, I hear the howls of complaint. And I accept the charge. I am biased. I am prejudiced. I stand before you as a guilty Derry man. But I’m merely a product of the propaganda on which I was raised.

Outsiders don’t really understand the nuances of the relationship that exists between Derry and Tyrone. It’s quite complex.

Derry is the much smaller county. Tyrone is a giant, the Cork of the North, with sprawling acreage, a vast population, and 47 clubs, nearly all of which are devoted exclusively to football.

Normally in such circumstances, the smaller county adopts the attitude of the baby brother, forever puffing out his chest and trying to impress his elder sibling. This is the way Fermanagh get on.

Derry men have never felt this sense of inferiority to Tyrone. Truth to be told, we were told on our daddy’s knee that we were a much superior tribe.

It’s about quality, not quantity. Tyrone were uncouth and uncultured. Derry were suave and sophisticated. Our grannies told us that these differences manifested themselves on the football field.

Tyrone were agricultural. We were artists. If they were plough horses, then we were thoroughbreds.

I am not saying it’s true. I’m just saying that’s what the nuns taught us in school. Then came the National League final of 1992, and the All-Ireland title in 1993. These victories only served to reinforce the feelings of supremacy that had been bred into us since the cot.

Of course, while it pains Derry men to admit it, they’ve always been jealous of Tyrone to some degree. It’s a subject that’s rarely mentioned, but the political situation was always awkward in Derry, and we were envious of the climate that pertained across the Sperrins.

Even Derry men rarely talk about it themselves, but my brother was at a party once where the topic of the political divide among our people raised its head.

The debate was threatening to turn violent when Ronan McKenna stood up and addressed the room.

“I can see a time when it’s all going to be different,” said Ronan.

The crowd hushed, anticipating the Martin Luther King moment that was about to come.

Ronan continued: “I can see a time when there will be no North,” he said, “And no South. It will just be�. Derry.”

The partygoers groaned at the sheer impossibility of the idea. They say a voice from the corner of the room muttered: “America will elect a black president with Irish ancestors before that happens.”

And so it came to pass. America elected Barack Obama and Tyrone won three All-Ireland titles. Derry men still struggle to work out which event represents the greatest blip on history’s cardiograph.

Tyrone’s All-Ireland triumvirate has caused untold damage to the Derry psyche. An entire race of people has been forced to question and re-evaluate the beliefs that were once held as fundamental truths.

But the denial couldn’t continue. In the past few years, Derry schoolchildren have been given access to video footage of Frank McGuigan and Peter Canavan. The propaganda had to stop.

So, too, has the long-held belief that our footballers were inherently more skilled and gifted. The Championship victories over the auld enemy in 2001 and 2006 were enjoyed, but they didn’t provide any memories of sumptuous football.

Rather, the performances on those days were a tacit admission that Derry had forsaken any vestiges of pre-eminence over their arch-rivals.

Gone was the idea that we could flourish by the grace of North Derry steel and South Derry sorcery. Any form of pretence completely vanished in 2006 when Derry smothered Tyrone into submission.

It was an exercise in containment. Liam Hinphey, who spent a month studying DVDs of Sean Cavanagh, was able to second guess the Tyrone man’s every move.

Tyrone, who had fresh memories of the space and freedom granted to them by Kerry in the previous year’s All-Ireland final, just couldn’t cope with Derry’s suffocating headlock.

Derry may have won, but it was a victory for vandalism over Tyrone’s well-oiled machine. Derry knifed their tyres and smashed their windscreens.

And this is why Sunday’s game between the two counties holds so much promise. Ridiculous as it may sound, but we could actually be served up a game of football in Casement Park.

And no, I haven’t lost my tiny mind. On Derry’s part, there is unlikely to be any recurrence of the mean-spirited, nastiness which was so prevalent when they played Monaghan.

Monaghan bullied Derry out of Casement Park in 2007, but the Farneymen were naive to think that they could repeat the trick in Celtic Park. That was never going to happen. Cue the misconduct.

Sunday promises to be different. Damian Cassidy has made little secret of the fact that he has modelled Derry on Tyrone. He has tried to develop a team of footballers that has scoring potential in every quarter of the field.

Furthermore, Cassidy’s teams don’t have a history of skulduggery and the meeting between Derry and Tyrone in the League was fast, furious and nearly always fair.

Naturally, it would be daft (and damned disappointing) if Sunday’s game passed off without some unsavoury incidents. As both teams are more than capable of playing by the written and unwritten rules, it’s impossible to predict a game totally devoid of unpleasantness.

But there still remains the very distinct possibility that we’re going to get the rarest treat of all – an actual game of football between Derry and Tyrone. Two teams leaving the changing room with the shared aim of outscoring each other.

The meagre sum of 1-8 allowed Derry to win that last Championship encounter in Healy Park. That total will never suffice at the weekend. Armagh scored a respectable 1-10 against the Red Hands and still lost. The winning team in Casement Park will probably need to chalk up at least 15 or 16 points.

The race to that winning tally should provide some lasting memories of classy football.

If Tyrone win, the status quo remains. If the Oak Leafers prevail by winning a great game of football against the reigning All-Ireland champions, then some of the old faith will be restored.

And who knows after that. Maybe, one day, a united Derry.

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There will be no Ballinderry boycott of the Derry team according to county chairman Seamus McCloy.

Talk of such a boycott ahead of Sunday’s pivotal Ulster SFC semi-final against All-Ireland champions Tyrone emerged following the suspension from the county panel of midfielder James Conway last week.

Ballinderry man Conway was hit with the ban by Oak Leaf boss Damian Cassidy following a club game that saw Derry attacker James Kielt suffer a broken jaw in an off-the-ball incident. Reports then suffered that Conway’s club-mates were to stage a stayaway in response to the suspension.

However, McCloy says such speculation is well wide of the mark, the Derry chief quoted by The Evening Herald as saying: “That's the first I've heard. I spoke to the Ballinderry chairman on Friday and there was nothing mentioned about it then or since.

“The manager is the man who decides who he puts on his panel. James Conway hadn't played all year because he had been injured. Somebody can't just break somebody else's jaw and then come into the dressing room and say 'right boys, tea and buns for everyone'."


Conway’s fellow midfielders Fergal Doherty, Enda Muldoon and Patsy Bradley are all missing ahead of the Tyrone game so Cassidy could certainly do without any more withdrawals.

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I said it was all empty threats, Ballinderry are not bigger than Derry. The lone I bolded was possible one of the funniest thins said in a press interview.

Doire Abú

this is a game i will be looking forward to alot, the best manager in the game with the best team in ireland, the best CHF in ireland( brian mcguigan if he plays, IMO) and the team with the best work rate in the country against the up and coming manger of the year ( aas alot think) and a team on the raise.

seriously this will tell alot about Tyrone, can the raise there game, have they the fight this year? can Derry rattle them?

it is a wonderfull position Derry find themselves in, total out-siders with a poor game under there belt, a string of injurys and a team who very few outside of themselves give any chance to...... but this is Ulster, the provence with more shocks than any other, the provence where 4 of this decade's all-ireland winners have come from. this is the provence of hope. Any one of the 9 teams are capable on any given sunday or saturday of beating the other, ask Antrim!!! hell ask Donegal!!!!

I was impressed with Derry at the start of the year, i like the way the wing backs attacked and Muldoon at mid-field was excellent, he is gone so too are a few others but a team with the two bradleys haev a chance against any team in the coutry. can they do it thought??? i am not convinced but then again i ws sure that antrim would beat donegal and that Sligo will kick seven colours of s***e out of Galway in a couple OF weeks time so what the hell do i know!!!!!


on thing is for sure exepct Fireworks on GAATIPSTER.IE NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!

Tyrone to win pulling up. Derry never operate to their best without Fergal Doherty, Between other injuries and suspensions not to mention in fighting their chances have seriously imploded against the champions. Tyrone were thoroughly professional in blowing off the cobwebs against Armagh and Micky Harte will want them to throw down a truly ruthless performance against Derry with another winking eye cast to their only real challengers who took one hell of a beating against Cork last weekend.

mossbags wrote:Tyrone to win pulling up. Derry never operate to their best without Fergal Doherty, Between other injuries and suspensions not to mention in fighting their chances have seriously imploded against the champions. Tyrone were thoroughly professional in blowing off the cobwebs against Armagh and Micky Harte will want them to throw down a truly ruthless performance against Derry with another winking eye cast to their only real challengers who took one hell of a beating against Cork last weekend.

Derry played their best football last day when Fergal went off. The so-called in fighting has been greatly over exaggerated, the so called Ballinderry boycott was nothing more than press tittle-tattle, and I can assure you there has been little chat about it around the county.

I can see why people are writing us off and in all honesty if I was an outsider I would too but I know there is a good strength and depth in this panel. Daimen Cassidy didn't use 30 odd players in the league for the craic, he used to to do a job.

i think DC is indulging in a few mind games ahead of Sundays game - he reckons Derry would be mad to adapt the defensive tactics they used against Monaghan and that the only way to beat them was to fight fire with fire by playing football.

Excuse me for being cynical but if Derry didnt think they could beat Monaghan by playing football they are hardly likely to get far playing football against Tyrone. In my opinion they only way they can win is by packing the defence and trying to stop good ball into the forward line a la 2006 when they strangled the life out of Tyrone.

Sorry Damian but i can't see Mickey falling for that one