Few teams boast a National Football League-final record better than Derry’s. They’ve won five of their last seven finals, including a replay victory over Meath in 2000, and also won three titles within five years in the 1990s.
However, few teams have then failed to maintain that form into the subsequent championship worse than Derry. When they beat Kerry in the 2008 league final they were later stunned by Fermanagh, in the Ulster Championship semi-final, before losing to Monaghan in the first round of the qualifiers. Indeed they have not won an Ulster title since 1998. So it is not the first time their impressive league form is being viewed with caution.
Chrissy McKaigue sees it a little differently. The 24-year-old defender – now one of their star performers after returning to Derry following a three-year sojourn with the Sydney Swans in Australia – already has one eye on the championship, especially with Donegal coming to Celtic Park on May 25th.
With that fixture in mind Sunday’s league final against Dublin in Croke Park is as much about topping off their championship preparations as anything else. McKaigue is also reluctant agree with the idea that a good league run by Derry will always result in an early championship exit.
“I’ve heard that said a fair few times,” he says. “And I’m not sure I completely agree with it. If you look at the records, where Derry had good league campaigns and poor championships, it was through missing key personnel. That has been a factor in the Ulster Championship, which is hugely competitive.
“But 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. So we will see this game on Sunday as a barometer of where we’re truly at.
Availability of key players
"And this year we've had a relatively clean bill of health, which helps us. We've a relatively small playing population so we need our best players all the time, if we want to compete with the best teams. That's very, very vital for us. And touch wood so far this year we have had that."
They’ve shown it too, not just in beating Mayo in the semi-final, but beating Dublin also (1-16 to 0-13), back in round five of the league. But Dublin were weakened on that occasion and McKaigue expects different opposition on Sunday.
“What we took from that game, at that stage of the year, was that we needed two points because the league is competitive and anybody could have went down. The games went down to nearly two or three points in every game. So it was just two points that we won, we didn’t get carried away with it. We just wanted to win every game we could possibly win and especially at Celtic Park. So it was what it was.”
McKaigue was also marking Eoghan O’Gara that day, keeping him scoreless, although again he expects a different challenge in the final.
“He’s certainly a handful,” he says, pondering the prospect of marking O’Gara again. “I suppose one thing I’ve learned this year in Division One is that you’ve got to be adaptable. Some days you’re marking a James O’Donoghue type player, then a Jamie Clarke. Other days you’re marking an O’Gara or Tomas O’Connor. So you’ve got to be adaptable. But he’s certainly a tremendous athlete, fast strong and very, very powerful, so he’ll be a big challenge for whoever picks him up on Sunday.
“And I think you meet all sorts, in every kind of sport, but he’s that kind of agile quick athlete that’s got the physical strength and size along with it. So Dublin are quite lucky to have that kind of player. Not every county has that kind of target man. I have met a few of them before but he’s a very good athlete, for sure.”
Missing personnel
Derry won't be at maximum strength on Sunday, as they will start without injured defender Sean Leo McGoldrick, but they will boast arguably the most influential player of the 2014 league in centre forward Mark Lynch. And this time McKaigue nods in
agreement.
“I think Mayo and Dublin have brought in this attack-minded football now. And we’ve decided if the best teams are doing it, we’re going to have to follow suit to be capable of beating the best teams . . . we have gone for the all-out attack approach, and Mark Lynch has been terrific in the forward line. He could probably play centre back as well, but his form this season is a big reason why we’re playing so well.
“But Mark was probably in as good form last year, but because we were in Division Two, he didn’t get that same level of recognition. But he is a tremendous player who has revelled in the captain’s role. And I would say he’s by far our best leader. He puts in massive hours on the training track and thank God it’s paying dividends now.
McKaigue also credits manager Brian McIver and his “calm and composure, which I think a lot of the Derry players have responded to”. But again, none of this will count for much unless they reproduce it on May 25th: “We’re not going to get carried away. Dublin are great preparation for the championship, but Donegal will ultimately prove where we’re at as a team. Because Donegal are one of the best teams in the country.”
