Lee Keegan says that Derry's approach to 2024 has been refreshing as the Oak Leafers continue their bright start to 2024.
Already McKenna Cup champions, the defending Kings of Ulster have started a first Division 1 Allianz Football League campaign since 2015 with three victories. It leaves them as the only county to have taken maximum points in the top flight this year.
And, in an era when players are often discouraged from giving too much away to the media in-season, often choosing to answer questions about their ambitions with bland cliches about not looking too far ahead, or the old Johnny Giles line about taking each game on its merits, Keegan reckons that Derry players and management are breaking the mould.
"They're so happy to talk about winning Division 1," he said on the RTÉ GAA Podcast.
"They're not shying away from it and Mickey [Harte] made that clear. They want to win Division 1 or go as far as it's possible.
"They're making no bones about it, they want to win every competition. I was listening to Conor Glass interviewed a couple of weeks ago [and it was] the exact same conversation.
"They want to be as close as possible to winning everything. I thought it was refreshing to hear that from a player, especially of his calibre as well."
This is season one for Harte after his move - controversial in some quarters - from Louth to Derry, the neighbours and rivals of his native Tyrone, with whom he enjoyed so much success.
They comfortably beat Monaghan at the weekend and will head to Galway on Sunday for a repeat of the 2022 All-Ireland semi-final, which the Tribesmen won.
For former Kerry boss Éamonn Fitzmaurice, who was speaking on the same podcast, Harte has targeted squad depth as a key failure for Derry in the last two seasons, which have delivered provincial glory but seen the team come up short in All-Ireland semi-finals against Galway and Kerry respectively.
"[Gaelic Life journalist] Mal McMullan had a thing that Eunan Mulholland came on [at the weekend] and that's the eighth player to get a debut under Mickey Harte," the 2014 All-Ireland winning manager said.
"That was a thing that they had to do, to fatten out their panel. And they had to get more players with experience and they're doing that.
"To be fair to Monaghan they're short [players], it was a bit of a hiding. When the goals went in at the end it probably gave the scoreline a slightly false reflection but I'd also credit Derry with the way they're going at the moment.
"The fitness levels are off the charts."
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