"You're 29, will you win an All-Ireland?" was the question posed to Derry midfielder Brendan Rogers on the BBC's The GAA Social podcast, just two days after he was on the losing side of a semi-final against Kerry.
"Yeah," replied Rogers without hesitation.
"If you don't wholeheartedly believe you'll win one, especially after playing two semi-finals, what's the point? Why would you brother training?
"I was sure before Sunday [that we're good enough]. That's reassuring, Sunday, that we're good enough."
Derry had led the reigning All-Ireland champions by three points at half-time, and by two as it entered the final five minutes of normal time.
16 July 2023; David Clifford of Kerry is shown the yellow card by referee Joe McQuillan during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Derry and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Referee Joe McQuillan then awarded Kerry what former inter-county official Maurice Deegan called a "soft" free for a foul by Gareth McKinless on Stephen O'Brien. Sean O'Shea kicked Kerry's first score in 17 minutes from the free. David Clifford equalised shortly after, and Kerry went on to win by two points.
"It's the angle," Rogers said about that contentious free.
"The angle Joe is seeing it from is so different from what everyone else sees it, even on the ground. You could look at it and say, 'Ah, he never touched him', depending on your seat.
"Whereas, from Joe's perspective, he could have said, 'Yeah, that's what it looked like'. At the time, it's devastating, but you get on with it, try to get the next score.
"The game wasn't out of sight at that point. We were still in the mix. To say it was game deciding is probably an easy answer for a lot of people.
"I don't think he was the difference in the game. We had a lot in our control. There's a lot going on in those games for Joe to be calling everything 100 per cent perfectly. It's not human.
"I don't look at Joe's performance as having any kind of set in stone bearing on the game. I still think we had more than enough chances, we just didn't take it."
16 July 2023; Brendan Rogers of Derry is tackled by Jack Barry of Kerry during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Derry and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Rogers believes that though they came out on the wrong end of the result, Derry were the better team on the day.
"Given that we dominated the game for the most part, and you're leading up until maybe the 65th minute, you'd like to think that you were the better team on the day," he said.
"Chances are everything in Gaelic football. I guess we had a few to keep ourselves in the driving seat, and when you're not taking them against a team that has arguably the best scorer ever, you're not giving yourself that platform.
"I know people would have their opinions about 'if this had happened, if that had happened'. At the end of the day, we had chances. It's different to last year where in the second half, we didn't create as much as we would have liked, never mind the execution of it.
"When you're not plugging away at scores, the momentum starts to seep away and that's when it starts to get hard going down their stretch.
"Their subs came on and were threatening. It adds that wee bit more difficulty to it with that fresh set of legs. Kerry had to win the game as well. They took their scores. So they're not exactly a bad team.
"There's a bit of refinement to do on our side but we have a good profile of a team. If we make the same improvements over this year that we did from last year, we would like to think we'd be in a better place to be pushing on for a final."
See Also: Former GAA Ref Thought Crucial Kerry Decision Vs Derry Was 'Soft'
