Confident McKaigue doesn’t worry about Derry’s doubters
Admittedly, a victory on Sunday over holders and All-Ireland champions Dublin would elevate Derry into joint fifth place in the all-time roll of honour.
Kerry aside on 19 titles, Derry would then be right in the middle of a clutch of chasing teams that includes Dublin and Cork.
Yet while those are impressive spring stats overall, the corresponding figures for each summer immediately after those strong league campaigns is worrying, to say the least.
For a start, Derry have never won the Championship after winning the league.
Nor have they ever followed it up with an Ulster title success.
In fact, when they last won the league in 2008, they were subsequently knocked out of Ulster by Fermanagh and lost a first-round qualifier to Monaghan.
They would return to another league final in 2009 but the scale of that summer achievements was minimal also, with just two wins, both over Monaghan in Ulster and the qualifiers.
Full-back Chrissy McKaigue believes that all of those bald statistics fail to reflect the testing Championship circumstances on many occasions.
“I’ve heard that talk a fair few times, that it’s a good league followed by a bad Championship for Derry, and I’m not sure I completely agree with it,” said McKaigue.
“If you look at the records, where Derry had good league campaigns and poor Championships, an awful lot of the time it was through missing key personnel.
“That has been a factor in the Ulster championship, which is hugely competitive and it has to be considered when people are saying that. If we keep our best players fit, we can be competitive and can compete with the best teams. I know Dublin are the best team in the country at the minute. There’s no shying away from that.
“But we believe that this will be a good barometer for where we’re truly at.”
Whatever the summer holds — and an opener against 2012 All-Ireland champions Donegal is about as tricky as it gets, even on home soil — the Derry dressing room is an extremely positive one right now.
During a Q&A session that preceded this week’s launch of the league finals, Dublin’s Eoghan O’Gara pointed to Derry as the form team in all of Ireland.
O’Gara’s words came across as sincere, even if he was sitting just a metre away from McKaigue, whom he will probably mark on Sunday.
The high point of Derry’s campaign, even allowing for their spirited semi-final defeat of Mayo, was beating Dublin in the group stage.
McKaigue still rates them as the true pace-setters though and referenced their incredible come-from-behind semi-final win over Cork.
“It was pretty special, wasn’t it?” said McKaigue. “That’s the way the modern game is going, you can be nine or 10 points up and a game isn’t really over because it’s so fast flowing, it’s non-stop and there’s no hauling down now or cynical play.
“You just can’t get away with that any more so the comebacks are very, very common now. And we know Dublin’s forward line and what they’re capable of.
“I think that is their most impressive area. Connolly, Bernard Brogan, O’Gara, McManamon, Paddy Andrews, Alan Brogan, yeah, they’re a special outfit.”
Crucially, Derry believe they’re a special outfit too. When selector Paul McIver was asked after the win over Mayo if his team had ‘overachieved’ by reaching the final, his face was a picture of genuine astonishment.
“Mayo and Dublin have brought in this attack-minded football now and we’ve decided that if the best teams in the country are doing it, we’re going to have to follow suit to be capable of beating the best teams,” said McKaigue.
“And we have gone for the all-out attack approach. Mark Lynch has been terrific in the forward line. His form this season is a big reason why we’re playing so well. Gerard O’Kane, (Sean Leo) McGoldrick, (Aidan) McAlynn, you could pick so many. Maybe they just haven’t got the recognition. Time will tell if we’re up there with the top teams. So far, our conditioning has been good and we’ve worked hard on that. But it’s early in the year. We’re not getting carried away.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
