Many of the great rivalries that define the GAA have been diminished in recent years. Cork/Kerry, Dublin/Meath, are two obvious examples of rivalries watered down by vast competitive imbalance.
Another is Derry/Tyrone. The sides meet in the Ulster Championship this weekend in a game that looks set to continue the recent trend of complete Tyrone dominance. Mickey Harte's team beat Derry just the five times in 2016, which included a championship game in Celtic Park in which Tyrone led by 11 points at half-time.
In fact, you have to go all the way back o February 2011 for the last time Derry actually beat Tyrone.
Writing in his Paddy Power column, Owen Mulligan admits that the clash is no longer a rivalry, and was highly dismissive of the Derry threat:
There’s a lot of politics in Derry football. You hear about it the whole time with clubs rowing and lads not wanting to play for the county. That’s not right and I don’t see how a team can compete when they’re carrying that kind of baggage.
Back in my day, the likes of Enda Muldoon, Paddy Bradley and Sean Marty Lockhart would’ve died for the jersey. You definitely can’t say the same about the current crop.
I remember going to Celtic Park and working myself to the bone to get out of there with a Championship win or a National League point. Is that the case now? Absolutely not.
It was an annihilation last year and Derry looked as though they were about to apologise for being there. Crazy!
They also looked massively, massively out of shape in that contest compared to our lads who are pure athletes. I can only see one result on Sunday and that’s a Tyrone win.
You can read the full column here.
