But there will only ever be so much consolation in a loss.
The Highlanders fought hard in the first half, got cracked open by the rampant Blues in the early stages of the second half, and completely dominated the final 10 minutes before signing for a 47-40 loss in the Gordon Hunter Memorial Trophy game.
"I enjoyed the finish, and I enjoyed the first half, actually, and how we got our way back into the game," Dermody told the Otago Daily Times.
"But that five to 10 minutes after halftime . . . we gave them a couple of easy entries into the 22m and it sort of got away from us there.
"We left ourselves too much to do to come back."
The Blues got their tails up when they started bashing away with their physical ball-runners.
Dermody said the Highlanders knew to expect that and had done a good job of scrambling out of trouble before that sticky patch in the second half.
"We’d addressed the team at halftime about riding tackles. They’re big men and that’s their game.
"I felt like when we got in front of them and stopped them, we were getting the ball back and we had the ability to shift it, and we played some good rugby when we had our chances.
"There were some things that were definitely encouraging as we go into the next block of games.
"To score that many tries . . . that’s been a long time coming for us, so hopefully we can kick on now."
It was just one performance but the Highlanders might have solved the question mark hanging over the halfback spot.
Adam Lennox sizzled in his second start of the season, scampering for a game-high 95m — 41m more than any other player on the field — and scoring two brilliant individual tries.
He played the whole 80 minutes, too, finishing the game on the wing in a sign of his versatility.
"He was awesome, wasn’t he?" Dermody said.
"He loves attacking the line as a 9, which is good, and then he found himself on the wing and didn’t look out of place there.
"It definitely adds value to the team when you’ve got guys who can play multiple positions like that."
The other player to enhance his reputation — which was already at a high level, to be fair — was Highlanders co-captain Ethan de Groot.
He was again in destructive form as the Highlanders marched all over the Blues at scrum time.
"I think he’s playing the best rugby he has for the Highlanders," Dermody said.
"Ethan was pretty open at the start of the season about wanting to play good Super Rugby and not just play well for the All Blacks, and I think he’s doing that.
"He looks fitter than he has been in the past for us, and he’s definitely influential.
"The boys are doing a lot of hard work on our scrum behind the scenes, and really owning it. That makes it easy to coach.
"They’re getting the reward, and now it’s about putting our whole game together."
It seems certain star Highlanders winger Caleb Tangitau will miss a week or two after being knocked out on Friday night.
Dermody said it "didn’t look good on the field" when the winger was clobbered by Zarn Sullivan but Tangitau would need to go through the usual protocols to see how he progressed.
The Highlanders are still just five points off the playoff spots but have dropped to ninth on the Super Rugby table.
