Mickey Harte warns developing Derry will be ‘serious operators’

Mickey Harte says he’s hoping the great sleeping giant of Ulster football doesn’t reawaken this weekend.

The Tyrone boss believes something’s stirring in the Sperrins, and Derry are on their way back from an unthinkably low ebb.

Having hurtled right down to the bottom tier of Gaelic football’s league standings, the Oak Leafers have begun to climb out, with promotion from Division 4, and they’re hoping to make another statement on Sunday by shocking their northwest neighbours at Healy Park.

“It’s a false position they were in, we all know that. They were never a Division 4 team,” said Harte. “But I still think they would be honest enough as well to say that they’re not a top division side yet either.

“So they have work to do, they’re a work in progress, they’re a developing side, and I think in time they’ll be serious operators.

“But I just hope they’re not at that level right now.”

Slaughtneil’s decline as the premier force in Ulster football has boosted the county team, giving Derry manager Damian McErlean full access to his best players for the first time. With the likes of Chrissy McKaigue, Brendan Rogers, and Shane McGuigan in the mix, the Oak Leafers have some serious talent in their set-up.

“It’s obvious that the constant availability of the Slaughtneil players was very useful to them,” said Harte.

“I think if they had that luxury last year, they wouldn’t have been in Division 4 for a start, because that makes up a serious part of their team.

They gave them that stability and that experience and the confidence as well, through Division 4, so I would definitely say of those players had been available last year to the same extent, they wouldn’t have been in that division at all.

“They know that themselves too. They believe that they’re a much better outfit than the division they played in, and I suppose the ranking that they’ve got at the moment within the country.

“So I think they’re honest and realistic enough to know that that’s what brought them to where they were, but also confident enough to know that that’s not a true reflection of where they ought to be.”

However, Harte believes Derry will experience difficulty in adapting from the pace of Division Four League football to the speed and ferocity of Championship action.

All the significant factors point to a Tyrone win, but Championship football is unpredictable. Derry’s last visit to Healy Park for an Anglo-Celt Cup clash with Tyrone provided one of the shocks of the decade, with the visitors scoring a sensational win over the reigning All-Ireland champions back in 2006.