‘Just wait until we click into top gear’
Best is yet to come from Derry, insists evergreen McKaigue
MINUTES after blitzing Roscommon to reach a first Allianz League Division 1 final in a decade, Derry’s Chrissy McKaigue made an admission that should unnerve all prospective opponents.
Roscommon were desperately scrapping for a win that might preserve their top-flight status but they were steamrolled — and outscored by 1-11 to 0-1 — in the final 32 minutes of Sunday’s tie at Celtic Park.
‘It wasn’t a great performance but I don’t think so far in this League campaign we have had a good performance but we find a way to win,’ explained Derry’s veteran defender.
Including the pre-season McKenna Cup, they have won 10 out of 11 games this term, with their average winning margin running at just under six points a game.
While McKaigue could be accused of being cute in playing down his side’s form, there is an element of truth to his assertion.
For 40 minutes against Roscommon, despite being the better team, Derry were distracted and sloppy, coughing up four clear goal chances and yet no one in the modest attendance of just over 3,000 in Celtic Park doubted the outcome.
‘That is something we have learned over the journey, when we are not at your best in spells of games we can still find a way to win. If you want to beat the best teams and be around on the biggest days, it is not always going to be perfect but you have to find different ways of winning,’ added McKaigue.
Over the last six years they have become natural born winners and in the process of going from football’s basement to the top — winning two lower League titles and back-to-back Ulster Championships along the way — they have built up a real sense that they are only just getting started.
For McKaigue, though, there is no hiding from the reality that he is not that far from finishing.
The former All-Star defender will turn 35 later this summer, and his longevity is underlined by the fact that he will play in his third Division 1 final on Sunday.
In his rookie season, he scored a point from wing-back as Derry lost to Kerry in the 2009 spring decider and, along with Ciarán McFaul, they are the only survivor from the team that took a thumping from Dublin 10 years ago.
And McKaigue is very clear that the prospect of winning a first Division 1 title for Derry since 2008 is something that very much excites and motivates him.
‘I think winning Division 1 means so much to whatever team and I have seen that across the years. I think the chatter now is because of what happened last year.
‘I don’t think it was right what happened Mayo last year in terms of having to play so close to Championship, I just think that was so wrong because we sat and watched that Mayo game last year after Dublin beat us in the Division 2 final and the intensity and the quality of that game, and then for Mayo to have to go out a week later in the Championship was massively unfair,’ he said.
‘This year they seem to have taken a bit of feedback on, and the League is now set up so you can have a go at it and play with a bit of enjoyment and freedom in it because we only have so many competitions in the GAA and not everyone can win the Sam Maguire.’
Adding to the appeal of that prize is the fact that they will face the All-Ireland champions in the final in what will be billed as a showdown between the top two teams in the game.
Dublin hit Derry for five in last year’s Division 2 final, but when they inflicted the Oak Leafers’ only defeat of the season in their fourth round clash in Celtic Park, Mickey Harte pulled the handbrake more than a little as he fielded a somewhat weakened side.
With a three-week gap after Sunday’s final to their Ulster SFC clash with Donegal, that will not be the case this time.
‘We try to win every game, irrespective of who we have available,’ insisted McKaigue.
‘It is Dublin in the final and that is obviously a massive game because playing Dublin in Croke Park is where we all aspire to be but the reality is that we are going to need a performance because I still don’t believe we have had a performance in this Division 1 campaign to what we are capable of.
‘And we are going to have to be playing at that level to be competitive with Dublin first and foremost, never mind anything else so there will be a big focus on that this week to try and get ourselves to that level.
‘Because, let’s be honest, Donegal here in a few weeks is the biggest game of the year and everything is building towards that so what better preparation to have than the Dubs in Croke Park.’
Derry’s rise to the top is timely given that it comes as McKaigue’s career enters its twilight years, and he insists that the best is yet to come.
‘For me, I am a different age and I wouldn’t say I appreciate it more but I definitely have a deep appreciation of it. The likes of Conor Glass and the Shane McGuigan in particular, they went through their whole careers with St Pat’s Maghera and the Derry minors, they were used to winning with Derry. I didn’t have that privilege of being used to winning with Derry.
‘I am just deeply grateful for it and I know that I am definitely closer to the end than I am to the beginning but, look, it is just a great place to be and I have a great belief in this group of players and I also have a great belief in the players that are coming behind.
‘Derry has been on the rise for a long number of years now and there is a conveyor belt of quality coming through. It is not by coincidence we see the things we see today.
‘I think Derry are going to be competitive for a long, long time.’
“When we’re not at our best, we still find ways to win”
“We have a conveyor belt of quality coming through”