New Derry manager Mickey Harte has insisted that he would take little personal satisfaction from another All-Ireland win, claiming it is all about the “greater good” for him these days.
The Tyrone great, who led his native county to three Sam Maguire Cup successes, is adamant that “I’m not doing anything for me any more” as he prepares for his latest challenge.
Harte shocked not just Louth supporters but the GAA community in September when he exited the Wee County after three successful seasons to become Derry manager.
His first competitive game in charge of the back-to-back Ulster champions will be next Wednesday evening’s Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup Round 1 clash in Cavan.
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Harte’s clear target for 2024 will be to lead Derry to a first All-Ireland win since 1993, as unpalatable as that would be to Tyrone people.
Asked if an All-Ireland success with Derry would mean as much as any of the ones he collected with Tyrone, Harte shrugged.
“Any All-Ireland that I’ve been involved with winning, I felt it was for the greater good, it was for the players as a unit and for the people that support those players,” he said. “That’s what gives me more pleasure than anything. If you were to win something big, it would be the value and the feelgood factor that it would give to people who felt ownership of that.
“It’s not for me, I’m not doing anything for me any more – I’m doing it for the people on the pitch, their families, and the people who support them. That’s where you get your real feelgood factor from, that you’re making other people feel good.”
Surely, though, there were some close to Harte who advised him against taking on the Derry job?
“I think people know me well enough that they mightn’t give me that kind of advice,” laughed the Glencull veteran. “I’m not that good at ... if I decide I’m doing something, I kind of go after it.”
Harte seemed genuinely nonplussed about the scale of the reaction to his move to Derry. He said that despite some criticism of the switch, he won’t be trying any harder than normal to succeed.
“I’m not going to be reacting to anybody, either in Tyrone or Derry, because of what they feel or what they don’t feel,” he said. “I’m reacting to a bunch of players that I, and Gavin Devlin and my management team, want to be responsible for helping to move their game forward. That’s my total goal. Really, people in the arena can say and be and do what they want, they’ve every right to feel whatever they want to feel. I just want to be involved in a sporting context.”
Harte said it is a relatively straightforward situation for him, Tyrone didn’t need him so he opted to accept invitations to manage elsewhere, bringing him firstly to Louth and now to Derry.
“Look, that’s life,” he said. “I’ve spent 30 years with Tyrone and I’ve loved every minute of it. I gave my all for them. I always said that at a time when Tyrone didn’t need me or want me, and I was still interested in working at this level of football, then I would certainly go to someone who did want me. And that’s how I’ve ended up now where I’m going to be on the other side of the line to Tyrone.”
There could yet be a preseason meeting between Derry and Tyrone but they are guaranteed to clash on February 4th in Round 2 of the National League at Celtic Park.
That is a game that Derry goalkeeper Odhran Lynch, taken off with a hamstring injury in the county final, could miss.
“He’ll be doing well, I suppose, to be ready for the start of the league,” said Harte of the Magherafelt man.
There’ll be some new additions too, such as Glen’s Ulster final star Eunan Mulholland, though Harte was coy on exactly who he’ll be bringing in from the All-Ireland semi-finalists.
“There’s maybe a few that we have an eye on but that will all be revealed in good time,” he said.
What’s certain, in Harte’s mind at least, is that the McKenna Cup competition offers an invaluable opportunity for squad rotation and personnel assessment. The Gaelic Players Association, meanwhile, have argued that it should be scrapped to allow for a proper build-up to the National League.
“We all need it,” argued Harte. “People talk about trying to do away with the subsidiary competitions but if you do away with them, what’s going to replace them only a load of challenge matches which are of no particular value to anybody, I think. Here you’ve got an organised competition, the media are very interested in it and you’ve got a cup at the end of it. What we have here is well worth going after and I’ve been an advocate of it over the years and I’m glad to be back in this arena again because I love the McKenna Cup.
“I think now with the way the league starts before the end of January, counties need competitive games to get ready for the league. It gives the Ulster teams a bit of a head start I believe in the competition stakes.”
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