Madden focused on job in hand
Madden’s Derry side face Donegal in a third round All-Ireland qualifier in Ballybofey tomorrow evening and he has parked any show of sentimentality even though he will be making his way to Clones the following day.
“It is certainly a big week in terms of preparation for the Derry-Donegal game. My focus right now is solely on Derry. I obviously still have ties to Antrim having played with them for 10 years and you would be wanting them to do well Sunday and pull off a shock result.
“I don’t have any ties with them anymore though.
“I am just another supporter who wants to see them do their best. I threw my lot in with Derry at the start of the year and football management is a selfish business regardless of where you might have grown up.”
Antrim may not have hit the heights during Madden’s time playing but he did as much as he could to drag the county off the floor and onto its feet despite injury and a heart condition which required two operations.
The last time Antrim met Tyrone in the championship was six long years ago when the Portglenone man’s contribution of 1-5 wasn’t good enough to prevent Mickey Harte’s team progressing to the provincial decider.
Few expect a different outcome on Sunday despite Antrim’s ability to plunder victories under the noses of home sides in both Ballybofey and Breffni Park. The bookies certainly don’t if odds of up to 16/1 on for Tyrone are anything to go by. Insulting?
“Whether it is insulting or not I am not so sure. Maybe it is a bit naive on the part of the bookies and I’d like to see the handicap betting. The facts point to how far Antrim have come, I suppose.
“They haven’t been to an Ulster final in 39 years and then you look at Tyrone: three All-Irelands in the last five years and current champions. The odds are fair looking at it that way but Antrim were able to go to Ballybofey and win.
“They produced a performance against Cavan that really should have been a nine or 10-point win so, looking at it like that, you would have to say that those odds are very unfair even if Tyrone have to be favourites.”
Antrim would do well to take a leaf out of Derry’s book in that regard. When Damien Cassidy’s side were soundly beaten by Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final and rumours of an exit from the panel by Paddy Bradley did the rounds it was hard to see their season growing legs.
But it did. Bradley’s ‘departure’ proved to be no more of a molehill than a mountain and Derry emphasised their good health with a highly entertaining defeat of Monaghan in the qualifiers last weekend.
“Most people on the outside looking in were looking at all the headlines we were making over the Paddy Bradley thing and probably thinking that all was not well in the Derry camp but it was a story that was made up about nothing,” said Madden.
“The unity that there is within the squad showed on Saturday when it needed to so it might have been a bit of a shock to other people but it wasn’t a shock to us. We had been preaching that attacking football all year.
“We had produced it in spells in the National League but, unfortunately, we were missing a few guys against Tyrone and Tyrone are Tyrone. They are difficult to break down and we probably didn’t do ourselves justice.”
History has shown that it is foolish to write Derry off. Though they have lost five Ulster semi-finals in a row, Derry have rebounded as far as an All-Ireland semi-final in 2004, the final round of qualifiers a year later and an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2007.
It is a back-door record that few counties can compare with and it particularly praiseworthy given the fact that they would hold such realistic provincial aspirations year on year.
“Whilst it might be disappointing to go out of the provincial championship, all is not lost and the big prize is handed out on the third Sunday in September.
“It’s all about getting the win under your belts and picking up momentum from there. We got the win against Monaghan and we have another tough task going to Ballybofey at the weekend. Win that and you’re not a kick in the arse off Croke Park.”
