It may be a watching brief now for Padraig McGrogan, but the injured Derry defender is confident in his conviction that his team-mates can bounce back from their Ulster capitulation to have a major say in this season's All-Ireland race.
After back-to-back provincial titles and All-Ireland semi-final appearances in 2022 and '23, coupled with a Division 1 success back in the spring, Mickey Harte’s side had been placed high up on the Sam Maguire contenders list.
That lofty positioning was rattled though when Donegal landed in Celtic Park for their Ulster clash and tore them asunder, and things only got worse in the days after as the Newbridge player suffered an ACL injury in training.
That was then and this is now though, and the prospect of a fresh start four weeks on – and a trip to face Galway this Saturday in their All-Ireland group opener – has refocused Oakleaf minds, according to McGrogan.
"Look, any time you get a bit of a break it's good but if you hear ones talking about maybe losing the game intentionally, that's madness," McGrogan said, speaking at the Allianz Insurance launch of the All-Ireland championship.
"The way Gaelic football is, you go out to win honestly every game no matter what. You don't think about it much and you just want to win everything and beat everybody.
"The wee break has been great. We've worked on things, we've looked at the game, albeit it wasn't nice to watch back. You have to take your time and make the most of what we have now."
"You'd be daft to say you don't hear the hype," he continued.
"Everyone hears it but it's whether or not you listen to it. I don't think that's really what crept in to the result and the way we played against Donegal. I suppose maybe that result was the best way to humble us and bring us back down to earth again.
"If there ever was any complacency - I don't think there was - if there was, it's definitely gone now after that defeat."
The thought of Galway brings back some painful memories for this current Derry squad.
Back in 2022 the sides met in what was essentially a shootout for promotion to Division 1 and Galway came to Derry’s patch and hit four goals – something that would happen again against Donegal a few weeks ago with Dublin doing likewise in the Division 2 final last year.
Also in 2022, with HawkEye malfunctioning and Pádraic Joyce’s side failing to score for the opening 21 minutes, Damien Comer stood up to bring the Tribesmen to a first All-Ireland final since 2001 and leave Derry reeling.
"Galway is a team that caused us quite a bit of pain this past couple of years," McGrogan ceded.
"Obviously in the league two seasons ago when they got promoted and we stayed down in Division 2. They dominated us that day on our own kick-out. There was a gale force breeze and they caused us heartache that day.
"It really gave us a kick in the backside, that we needed to look at ourselves, because we thought we were going decent but they just put us back down...not to square one, but they made us take another good look at ourselves to see what was wrong.
"Then obviously in the All-Ireland semi-final, Galway again. Obviously we played them this year [a Division 1 win] but they were missing a hell of a lot of men, so you can take from that what you will. And a few black cards thrown into that game too, so it’s hard to look back on that game with any depth."
A former minor captain and Under-20 star, McGrogan came from a very special group of Derry underage players that have made strides in a number of disciplines.
Fifteen of the Ulster U20 winning side of 2018 went on to break through to the senior ranks while two, Callum Brown and Anton Tohill, headed to the AFL – albeit the latter quickly returned to Ireland.
More recently, Jude McAtamney has signed a professional contract with NFL side New York Giants and McGrogan had plenty of praise for his former team-mate as he tries to make it to the big time of American football.
"I played football with Jude at minors and U20s, and look, I'm delighted for him.
"He took a different path to a lot of Gaelic footballers, and it's great to see it pay off. It just shows how skilful the people in this sport really are and how they can adapt to so many different sports. It’s great for him."
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