AFTER TYRONE WERE dispatched in the Ulster quarter-final, Chrissy McKaigue was surrounded by a posse of reporters, eager to hear the thoughts of one of the most eloquent speakers on Gaelic Games.
“I have never been involved in a Derry team that is as technically attuned. That’s one thing that our manager has brought in… Gallagher’s tactical nous is first-class,” he said.
It’s not as if Derry were disregarded going into that game, but their late-league tail-off in drawing with Roscommon before an 11-point thumping at home to today’s All-Ireland semi-final opponents Galway, had few believing in them.
And, if he’s being honest, some of the old doubts were bubbling under for McKaigue.
“Absolutely,” he admits, “but I suppose when you take the emotion out of it, as much as Galway deserved to win that game and as good a side as they are and were on that day, the vast majority of their scores were given to them by us and our poor play.
“But, the one thing I will say now is, Rory Gallagher had no doubts. I can still vividly remember what he said to us in the changing rooms after Galway and I can still remember what he said to us on the Tuesday night after. He had no doubts.
“He said he didn’t believe that that game had been us. He didn’t believe we had anything to be worried about. We had had our bad day. He mentioned that our league preparation hadn’t been great but also that it was outside our control. We were victims of our own success in having very strong club. He was unerring.
“I have been in plenty of changing rooms when managers have come in and said the token gesture piece but you could hear in his voice, you could see in his eyes, he had no doubts.
“I’m not saying I totally believed him. I have a bit more mental scarring having been around Derry set-ups before and was thinking ‘Here we go again,’ but he didn’t.
“That is just who he is and when someone of his intellect is saying things like that, even the most sceptical like me start to think, ‘Well, maybe he knows more than me on this one’ and in fairness he has been proved correct. It was one bad day.”
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That ‘mental scarring’ line is notable. Throughout the last decade, McKaigue has been the standard-bearer for Derry senior team.
He was leading a life of sporting bigamy, with one relationship more exciting and thrilling than the other. With Slaughtneil, they were chasing All-Ireland titles in hurling and football. With Derry, a different story.
They got to a league final in 2014, receiving a drubbing from Dublin. And after a while they began a long, slow slide into near oblivion.
Only once – once – did the final whistle blow on an Ulster Championship game and McKaigue was still in the Championship, back in 2015 after they beat Down in Celtic Park.
And yet this year, once Glen were beaten by Kilcoo in the Ulster club semi-final, and later when Slaughtneil hurlers were edged by eventual All-Ireland winners Ballygunnar in the semi-final, it was straight down to work for the Derry cause.
“That’s the culture that has been set within Derry now,” McKaigue explains.
“There are people who want to be inter-county footballers in Derry. I’m not saying it is THE most important thing in their lives but it is certainly one of the most important things in their lives.”
He continues, “I just think now there is more of a shared thing going on. Also the management now are very much the standard bearers. As much as we talk about it being player driven, we talk about players having to take initiative, if you don’t have the leadership from the management team and that ambition and ruthlessness with Rory and his backroom team have, it is very difficult to establish it within the playing group.
“It is not dissimilar to Slaughtneil. We were very players driven but it was Mickey Moran who unlocked it to the magnitude that it had the potential of.
“We can talk about players and other things but you need a leader and a very, very special one to unlock special things and I would hold Rory at this stage in the same sort of charisma and specialness as I would Mickey Moran.
“When you analyse the two of them you see success is never too far away from either of them.”
Still though, for any manager it’s essential to have the sort of quality that McKaigue brings, on the pitch.
These things are always decided in the shake-up of the last two games for teams, but at this stage McKaigue is the frontrunner for Footballer Of The Year for what he has accomplished against quality opposition.
Against Tyrone, Darren McCurry was almost completely shut down, save for two wonder points.
Since then he stopped Monaghan’s Jack McCarron and Donegal’s Patrick McBrearty from even registering a single point from play.
He went into the All-Ireland quarter-final with Clare’s Keelan Sexton as his brief. Sexton had just taken Roscommon for 2-6. Up against McKaigue he was hailed ashore after 53 minutes.
Part of that is what he credits as a massive footballing education from their present manager.
“You are always learning but no matter what I’ve learned on my own, and I know the players would say the same thing, what we have learned over the past two and a half years under Rory has been mind-blowing, the level of detail,” he states.
“You only thought you knew football. You only thought you knew what a set up was. You only thought you knew what competing at the top level was in comparison to now.
“I suppose in many ways I would love to be Matthew Downey and Lachlan Murray’s age again to go forward from that but no, Rory has to take huge plaudits for what he has done. Not just the success but the education and the culture that he has given me and the players has been unbelievable.”
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'What we have learned over the past 2.5 years under Rory has been mind-blowing'
AFTER TYRONE WERE dispatched in the Ulster quarter-final, Chrissy McKaigue was surrounded by a posse of reporters, eager to hear the thoughts of one of the most eloquent speakers on Gaelic Games.
“I have never been involved in a Derry team that is as technically attuned. That’s one thing that our manager has brought in… Gallagher’s tactical nous is first-class,” he said.
It’s not as if Derry were disregarded going into that game, but their late-league tail-off in drawing with Roscommon before an 11-point thumping at home to today’s All-Ireland semi-final opponents Galway, had few believing in them.
And, if he’s being honest, some of the old doubts were bubbling under for McKaigue.
“Absolutely,” he admits, “but I suppose when you take the emotion out of it, as much as Galway deserved to win that game and as good a side as they are and were on that day, the vast majority of their scores were given to them by us and our poor play.
“But, the one thing I will say now is, Rory Gallagher had no doubts. I can still vividly remember what he said to us in the changing rooms after Galway and I can still remember what he said to us on the Tuesday night after. He had no doubts.
“He said he didn’t believe that that game had been us. He didn’t believe we had anything to be worried about. We had had our bad day. He mentioned that our league preparation hadn’t been great but also that it was outside our control. We were victims of our own success in having very strong club. He was unerring.
“I have been in plenty of changing rooms when managers have come in and said the token gesture piece but you could hear in his voice, you could see in his eyes, he had no doubts.
“I’m not saying I totally believed him. I have a bit more mental scarring having been around Derry set-ups before and was thinking ‘Here we go again,’ but he didn’t.
“That is just who he is and when someone of his intellect is saying things like that, even the most sceptical like me start to think, ‘Well, maybe he knows more than me on this one’ and in fairness he has been proved correct. It was one bad day.”
That ‘mental scarring’ line is notable. Throughout the last decade, McKaigue has been the standard-bearer for Derry senior team.
He was leading a life of sporting bigamy, with one relationship more exciting and thrilling than the other. With Slaughtneil, they were chasing All-Ireland titles in hurling and football. With Derry, a different story.
They got to a league final in 2014, receiving a drubbing from Dublin. And after a while they began a long, slow slide into near oblivion.
Only once – once – did the final whistle blow on an Ulster Championship game and McKaigue was still in the Championship, back in 2015 after they beat Down in Celtic Park.
And yet this year, once Glen were beaten by Kilcoo in the Ulster club semi-final, and later when Slaughtneil hurlers were edged by eventual All-Ireland winners Ballygunnar in the semi-final, it was straight down to work for the Derry cause.
“That’s the culture that has been set within Derry now,” McKaigue explains.
“There are people who want to be inter-county footballers in Derry. I’m not saying it is THE most important thing in their lives but it is certainly one of the most important things in their lives.”
He continues, “I just think now there is more of a shared thing going on. Also the management now are very much the standard bearers. As much as we talk about it being player driven, we talk about players having to take initiative, if you don’t have the leadership from the management team and that ambition and ruthlessness with Rory and his backroom team have, it is very difficult to establish it within the playing group.
“It is not dissimilar to Slaughtneil. We were very players driven but it was Mickey Moran who unlocked it to the magnitude that it had the potential of.
“We can talk about players and other things but you need a leader and a very, very special one to unlock special things and I would hold Rory at this stage in the same sort of charisma and specialness as I would Mickey Moran.
“When you analyse the two of them you see success is never too far away from either of them.”
Still though, for any manager it’s essential to have the sort of quality that McKaigue brings, on the pitch.
These things are always decided in the shake-up of the last two games for teams, but at this stage McKaigue is the frontrunner for Footballer Of The Year for what he has accomplished against quality opposition.
Against Tyrone, Darren McCurry was almost completely shut down, save for two wonder points.
Since then he stopped Monaghan’s Jack McCarron and Donegal’s Patrick McBrearty from even registering a single point from play.
He went into the All-Ireland quarter-final with Clare’s Keelan Sexton as his brief. Sexton had just taken Roscommon for 2-6. Up against McKaigue he was hailed ashore after 53 minutes.
Part of that is what he credits as a massive footballing education from their present manager.
“You are always learning but no matter what I’ve learned on my own, and I know the players would say the same thing, what we have learned over the past two and a half years under Rory has been mind-blowing, the level of detail,” he states.
“You only thought you knew football. You only thought you knew what a set up was. You only thought you knew what competing at the top level was in comparison to now.
“I suppose in many ways I would love to be Matthew Downey and Lachlan Murray’s age again to go forward from that but no, Rory has to take huge plaudits for what he has done. Not just the success but the education and the culture that he has given me and the players has been unbelievable.”
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Leader Derry