Mickey Harte: Joe Brolly urges Derry County Board to 'bring an end to the agony' after All-Ireland quarter-final defeat

Joe Brolly has urged the Derry County Board to "bring an end to the agony" by dismissing Mickey Harte. Derry were eliminated from the Championship last Sunday, losing 0-15 to 0-10 against Kerry in the quarter-finals.

This brought a dramatic season for Harte's team to a close, which started with triumph in the Division One title. However, a crushing defeat to Donegal in the Ulster Championship followed, before the side barely made it through the All-Ireland group stages, suffering losses to Galway and Armagh.

Despite victory in a penalty shootout with Mayo in the preliminary quarter-finals, Derry were subsequently defeated by Kerry. Now, Brolly - who claimed an All-Ireland title with Derry in '93 - is requesting that the Derry County Board release Harte, reports the Irish Mirror.

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On his Free State Podcast, Brolly stated: "I do not expect Mickey to do the decent thing. I don't think it is in his nature. The Derry board need to step in now, do what's right and bring an end to this agony, because that's really what it's been.

"It's been absolute agony, and it's alright, I have been there and done it, I'm happy with my Derry-ness and my loyalty to Derry. But what about our boys who are out there, in the most important years of their career?

"Their careers are being flushed down the toilet by a fellow who hasn't a clue about how to play in the modern game, whose almost every decision has been catastrophic, and has seen the team serially humiliated."

Following Derry's loss to Kerry, Harte expressed his intention to continue into the 2025 season. The Tyrone native confessed: "Thank God I am able to leave things down. I will be hugely disappointed and forever there will be a degree of disappointment in the days that you lose and believe that you could do better.

"So yes, I'll always be disappointed about that result and that outcome. But I'm pretty much an optimistic person and I look ahead. The past can't be changed. We can try to do something different for the future. And I take life on a day-to-day basis like that.

"Obviously, if you win Division One of the league, that's something to be happy about. Disappointing in Ulster in the Championship, disappointing in the round-robin games. But the fact that we survived to reach a quarter-final here today, I suppose, makes it reasonable as well. But obviously, highly disappointing.

"We did intend to be back for a few more games here, at least one, maybe two, and that's not happening. And that's very disappointing because it's a long time until the beginning of the new season and it looks so far away now for everybody involved. But that's life and sport now. It's going to be over in the first half of the year."

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