Chrissy McKaigue is delighted that Derry are finally starting to “realise our potential” as a top tier football force.
The back-to-back Ulster winners have made it to the Championship’s last four for the second season running.
They came up short against Galway last summer and will face holders Kerry in this year’s semi-final on July 16.
Former captain McKaigue was pleased that they overcame Cork last weekend “with not too much fuss” but reckons they still have plenty to improve on. His overall feeling is pride that their ambitious group is finally starting to peak after years in the doldrums.
“For this team now, we’re starting to realise our potential,” said McKaigue.
“We’re fairly consistent, back-to-back All-Ireland semi-finals, promotion to Division One this year with minimum fuss also.
“There’s a lot of good happening in the county, the minors are in the All-Ireland final as well. So it’s a good place to be at the minute and us being back in another All-Ireland semi-final will hopefully keep that momentum going within the county.”
Asked if Derry are capable of taking the next step and pushing on for a landmark All-Ireland win, McKaigue shrugged.
“That’ll be the word on everyone’s lips, including all the journalists and the media – have Derry the ability to take that next step?” he said.
“Look, it’s been a difficult year with the circumstances, losing our manager and all those different things. As a player group, we’ve rallied rightly. 'We’ve done ourselves proud this year so far but look, this group is ambitious, we want to be in All-Ireland semi-finals, we want to be playing against the best teams in the competition.
“In the last two years, we can say at least that we’ve done that. It’s been huge progress but we’re certainly ambitious for more.”
Derry were good value for Sunday’s quarter-final win over Cork though should have made life easier for themselves.
Shane McGuigan winced as he wasted a late penalty and then booted a poor wide shortly after, underlining the team’s scope for improvement overall.
“We’re still a team learning our trade but we’d be best served now accelerating our learning because when you get into a semi-final, the levels go up, the pressure goes up. Everything goes up a level and we would be best served realising that we’re going to have to get considerably better for the next day,” said the veteran.
“I think that’s just in general, throughout the team. Defensively we’re usually quite sound. I suppose the biggest thing for us to come away from the Cork game was that we’re creating chances.
“Last year, against Galway, we maybe didn’t. We weren’t as creative as we were against Cork, just the shot execution and maybe some of the final phases were a wee bit sketchy against Cork.
“It’s probably not a bad way to win a quarter-final, plenty of things to work on. If you were being a wee bit greedy, you’d like a good performance every day you go out.” McKaigue revealed earlier this year that he’d been “ready to jack it in” on a couple of occasions in recent seasons. But he stayed on and captained Derry to their breakthrough provincial win in 2022 with even greater gains potentially around the corner now.
“I’ll be 34 in 10 days’ time,” he said.
“So we’ll get through this year anyway. I just love seeing Derry do well. I’ve invested so much of my life in it and even when I finish playing there’ll probably be an investment somewhere in it. It’s just so good to see Derry back at the top table again, that consistency of seeing Derry at the top table is great. Back-to-back Ulster champions means a huge amount to me.
“The thing is, when you’ve got beaten in an All-Ireland semi-final last year, you’re going, “I want one more, you want the next step, you want the next progression’.
“The good thing about this group is that they’re on the same page as me. Yes, you take the small wins and you show a bit of gratitude for where we came from, but please God we’re good enough to take the next step in a couple of weeks’ time.”
