He has, however, committed to giving the new generation of young Highlanders players an opportunity to make mistakes while they find their feet at the top level.
It is a period of immense change at the Highlanders, who missed out on the playoffs — albeit only on points differential — this season while managing just five wins from 14 games.
Dermody has only completed his first year as head coach, he had a radically changed coaching structure, Billy Harmon is one year into his captaincy of the club, there are new owners, and the departure of beloved talisman Aaron Smith signals a huge change in era.
Most significantly, there is set to be an overhaul of the playing roster.
Smith, Marino Mikaele-Tu’u, Shannon Frizell and Scott Gregory have already signed off, a couple of senior men are seemingly poised to announce overseas deals, and it is certain a few of the journeymen in the squad will also be let go to seek other opportunities.
The time is ripe for a refresh, and the Highlanders have already made moves to develop for the future.
First five Cam Millar was fast-tracked this year, lock Fabian Holland impressed in his time on the field before injury intervened, and flanker Oli Haig, utility back Jake Te Hiwi and halfback Nathan Hastie all got a taste of Super Rugby a year before taking up full contracts.
The consensus is those who love the Highlanders will need to be a little patient as they wait to see how the youngsters develop.
"We will be a young squad," Dermody said yesterday.
"We will look for some experience to bring these young guys through. But I think it’s exciting.
"The ‘patient’ bit is that we won’t get it right every time, but it won’t be through a lack of effort or a lack of care for the club and the region."
Dermody’s job security effectively relies on getting results, and he does not want to imagine a future where the Highlanders are ever satisfied with mediocrity.
"It’s a hard thing to put a name on. I don’t really like to call it rebuilding.
"I feel like this year, and even next year, the top eight is something that is very achievable.
"I know a few people have thrown stones at the top-eight format but it is what it is."
The emergence of local talent is always exciting but player recruitment remains an issue for the Highlanders.
They cannot simply buy star talent, New Zealand rugby players tend to be reluctant to move around the country anyway, and there are no talent equalisation tools in Super Rugby.
It means the Highlanders, like this year, can lack the real X-factor of other clubs. And where do you find such players?
"Yeah, it’s a good question.
"Obviously, if you’re talking about X-factor players, Jona Nareki was probably our one guy.
"We didn’t have Jona for most of the year, but when he started playing for us, our game was definitely better.
"Traditionally, if you look at our provinces, we probably don’t grow or create X-factor outside backs.
"When you fill gaps with younger players, it’s pretty hard to find them ready to go.
"So it’s a matter of being really smart, which we have been over the past two years, and we will keep being smart in the next two or three years.
"Hard-working forwards and sharp inside backs are not something we lack down here."
The Highlanders have been in intensive debriefing mode since the end of their season.
One-on-one reviews with players revealed a strong sense of disappointment that the team could not do a little better, Dermody said.
"There’s a realisation that we look back at the season and there were definitely opportunities to gain the one more point we would have needed to make the playoffs.
"If we’re honest, we were probably two wins short of where we planned to be.
"We got five, one more than last year, but still not enough."
He highlighted prop Ethan de Groot and loose forward Sean Withy as two outstanding performers, and he enjoyed seeing the development of prop Saula Ma’u.
Dermody, who loves his job and has a deep passion for the Highlanders, was also pleased to send Smith and other departing players out with a dramatic win over the Reds in their final game at home.
