Chrissy McKaigue: Ulster semi-final the little All-Ireland

Chrissy McKaigue of Slaughtneil, Derry, ahead of the AIB GAA Ulster Senior Hurling Championship final, which takes place at Corrigan Park on Sunday, December 19th, and will see Slaughtneil face off against Ballycran. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Derry football captain Chrissy McKaigue reckons Sunday’s AIB Ulster club football semi-final between Glen and Kilcoo could be the real All-Ireland decider.

McKaigue was part of the Slaughtneil team that lost the Derry final to Glen and the Maghera men will face reigning provincial champions Kilcoo in Sunday’s Ulster semi-final. Glen and Kilcoo are second and third favourites respectively for the All-Ireland, behind Kilmacud Crokes, though McKaigue reckons they’re probably the top-two in Ireland.

“Kilcoo are Ulster champions and in my opinion currently Glen look to be the best team in Ulster, they’re absolutely flying with one of the best managers in the country in Malachy O’Rourke so obviously it’s stacking up as a very high profile game,” said McKaigue.

“To call that one would be difficult but I do firmly believe that in Kilcoo and Glen it’s a bit strange that it’s a provincial semi-final because I believe currently that they could be classified as number one and two in the country.”

Dual player McKaigue has a huge provincial game on Sunday himself though in hurling with his native Slaughtneil, who play Ballycran.

The Corrigan Park Ulster final offers Slaughtneil the opportunity to claim back to back provincial titles having previously won it in 2019.

In 2018, Ballycran surprisingly stripped the south Derry outfit of their Ulster title so revenge is the obvious narrative this time. “While there have been good days with Slaughtneil, there have been some very hard, harsh days and 2018 was one of them days,” said McKaigue. “We were beaten comprehensively. Nothing went right. We will see on Sunday whether we’ve learned from it because it’s the same opposition again.”

At 32, and having backboned successful Slaughtneil teams in both codes for a decade, ex-AFL player McKaigue has acknowledged his days as a dual player will soon end.

“It does get a bit more difficult once you get over the age of 30, there’s no doubt about that. I suppose, sooner rather than later, and I haven’t thought too much about it, I will have to come to a decision with the club anyway whether I can continue to play dual. You’d be really naive to say that day isn’t coming at some point.”

Loughmore Castleiney (Tipperary), Naas (Kildare), St Eunan’s (Donegal) and Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) all achieved senior doubles this season and Slaughtneil came close to emulating them, losing out in the football decider.

“There’s no doubt that there throughout the Derry championship, when we were combining hurling and football, we looked at times a very tired and a very stagnant team,” said McKaigue. “As great as it would be to be in both (provincial championships), we’re not, we’re only in the one and we just want to put our best foot forward in the hurling.”

McKaigue confirmed he’ll return to inter-county football duty in 2022 with Derry. They’ve been drawn to play Tyrone or Fermanagh in Ulster and will warm up in a Division 2 National League campaign that includes Cork, Meath and Galway. “Division 2 this year is going to be scary good,” said McKaigue.