Brennan launches six-day war

DERRY manager John Brennan has claimed the Ulster Council washed their hands of his team as they face the onerous task of preparing for an All-Ireland qualifier six days after their Ulster final defeat.

The Lavey man also reiterated his criticism of referee Maurice Deegan’s decision to award Donegal their second-half penalty in Sunday’s provincial decider.

However, Brennan’s attentions are now focused on tackling Kildare in Croke Park on Saturday and becoming only the second beaten provincial finalists ever to win a qualifier six days after the defeat.

However, he has lambasted the Ulster Council as the staging of the provincial final so close to the fourth round qualifiers has hampered Derry’s prospects of reaching the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

“Cork and Kerry, thanks to the Munster Council, have more of a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals than we do in Ulster,” said Brennan.

“Mickey Harte has alluded to it many times in the past and I have voiced my opinion on it. We are only small fish in a big ocean. It is unfair and there’s no reason why Ulster couldn’t bring their final forward by at least one week to give beaten finalists an extra seven days to prepare.

“The Ulster Council are finished up (with football competition) until the club championship starts in October.

“That (Sunday) is their big day over and all they did was wash their hands of us and say ‘you look after yourselves’.”

Brennan claims there is a disconnect between those involved in the running of teams and the people who schedule games in the GAA.

“Cork have had a few weeks to prepare for the Down match. Why can’t Ulster start, say two weeks earlier? We waited three weeks from the semi-final to the final.

“There’s no reason why you can’t bring things forward by a week to make things a little more advantageous to the Ulster finalists. That doesn’t take rocket science or people with any great sense of imagination. I’m involved in football, those people are involved in administration and, unfortunately, they still won. In my view, in a lot of important issues, we are poles apart. A lot of people in administration don’t understand these things, the work we do behind the scenes for these big occasions.”

Deegan’s decision to award Donegal a penalty and later turn down Derry’s claim in the second half still rankles with Brennan.

“Players were off-form, we can take that on the chin. But we had trained for seven months and the turning point in that game was that penalty. We had a meeting and the consensus was that we were treated cruelly by officials. Not to be given a fair opportunity is just wrong and I stand by what I said on Sunday.”

Brennan also revealed Deegan has yet to take up his offer of explaining the decision man-to-man.

“That’s no surprise. People aren’t as honest as that. I’m only a manager. People look at me and say, ‘you’re only a mouth’. I think that’s wrong and unfair.”

Brennan and his players met up on Monday evening to discuss and attempt to move on from Sunday’s defeat.

They trained last night in what Brennan described as the “most important session” of the year.

He accepts Derry didn’t perform in Clones but is adamant Donegal weren’t six points better than his team.

“Life goes on, we’ve had one defeat, only our third this season, and you have to take these defeats. Things didn’t work out for us on the day and the occasion got to our players. A lot of them were nervous.

“We were out on the pitch 25 minutes before the game started, a lot of our players were there for the first time, whereas some of the Donegal players were playing their third or fourth Ulster final. When we equalised and Donegal hadn’t scored from the 19th minute until the penalty in the 38th minute that was the turning point.”

Brennan understands Derry are up against a different and more imposing Kildare team than the one they beat in Division Two back in February. However, he isn’t intimidated by them.

“Like most managers, I wouldn’t worry much about the opposition. Yes, you are aware of the opposition and you have to pick out their strong points and try and deny them those strong points and identify their weaker points.

“We played Kildare in the league and they’re a very good team. The reports are saying they’re a monstrous team. I’m not sure if that’s true or not but they seem to be monstrous.

“We’ve a number of boys who haven’t been to Croke Park and who weren’t on the Clones pitch before we were there before the semi-final.

“Experience-wise, Kildare are streets ahead of us at the Croke Park venue but football-wise I don’t believe there are more teams better than Derry on the day.”

Brennan appreciates Croke Park is a long distance to travel for Derry supporters but insists the trip isn’t as difficult as Sunday’s. “It’s all motorway from Derry to Dublin on the M2. Derry to Dublin is only 45 minutes more than Derry to Clones.

“Getting home from Clones on Sunday would have taken Derry people longer than it would coming from Cork. There were just so many bottlenecks. Croke Park is what we’re looking for. It’s going to be interesting and I’m so glad for the players that they’re getting this opportunity.”