IT’S THE WEEKEND of Slaughtneil’s All-Ireland semi-final against St Vincent’s and manager Mickey Moran is briefing his players on how they will attack this game.
The 2017 season has been a fruitful one so far for the Derry club. They’re chasing senior All-Irelands in three of the four codes, as the hurling, football and camogie teams remain in the hunt. In fact, the camogie team are aiming for back-to-back success.
But this weekend is about Moran’s men, and they’re up against a much-fancied Dublin outfit. The opposition have some deadly forwards and the match-ups will be key. Enda Varley will need watching, as will former Dublin forward Tomás Quinn. Shane Carthy could be bothersome too if not contained. But Diarmuid Connolly, one of the best footballers in Ireland at this point, poses the biggest threat. Slaughtneil need a specialist man-marker for this mission, making Chrissy McKaigue the obvious choice.
Assistant manager John-Joe Kearney, however, is worried. Not about McKaigue’s ability to measure up to Connolly, but about McKaigue’s faith in his ability to measure up to Connolly. Nothing was said to give rise to this fear. It was just something in his body language that gave something away. Kearney took the Slaughtneil centre-back to one side to offer an encouraging word, urging him that Connolly should be the fearful one. As game day arrived, he checked in on McKaigue one last time.
“What about Connolly?” Kearney asked on the team bus heading to Newry for the semi-final showdown.
“I think you’re more worried about him than I am,” came the reply.
The exchange didn’t go any further. It didn’t need to.
The true final word of the day? McKaigue outscored Connolly by 0-4 to 0-1 as Slaughtneil upset the Dublin giants to march on to the All-Ireland final.
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Chrissy McKaigue announced his retirement from the Derry footballers this week after a career that stretches back to 2008 when he made his debut as a substitute against Monaghan. The latter years were the most successful, winning back-to-back Ulster titles, a Division 1 title and an All-Star, all between 2022 and 2024.
McKaigue also contributed to Derry’s rise from Division 4 to Division 1 over a six-year period which started in 2019. His dedication to the county jersey was briefly interrupted by a two-year spell with Sydney Swans in the AFL. But otherwise, he was all in with Derry.
At home in Slaughtneil, he’s a dual player who was key to that incredible run in 2017. As it turned out, the camogie team were the sole All-Ireland winners that year, while the footballers lost out to Dr Crokes of Kerry in the Croke Park decider. The hurlers were undone by Dublin’s Cuala at the semi-final stage. McKaigue featured prominently for both groups.
“He was very easy to manage, very dedicated,” says Kearney, who was part of Moran’s backroom team between 2014 and 2017 as Slaughtneil swept the Derry championship for four titles on the bounce.
“And professional. He worked hard on his game.”
McKaigue was a player that Antrim native Michael McShane was looking forward to working with when he became the new Slaughtneil hurling manager in 2015. Slaughtneil had won two Derry championships in a row at this point, and contested the 2014 Ulster semi-final. Cushendall eventually shook them off after a replay. They wanted to be the first Derry club to win an Ulster title, and a breakthrough was close. McShane, looking on with interest at their progress, wanted to help them take those final strides to glory.
He soon discovered McKaigue’s importance towards achieving that goal.
“I would have seen (him) almost as an extension of the management team in terms of his input. He’d be coming forward with ideas to improve the team and I always valued that. If Chrissy came forward with 10 ideas, you’d be could be fairly certain that eight or nine of them would be on the money.
“We weren’t always on the same page with things but he was always very respectful of management and appreciated that the manager’s say was the final say. He put his point across strongly, we would have argued things out.
“But we never fell out. Ultimately, we understood what we were trying to do was do the best for the group. He’s a strong character. I’m sure every player who has played with him will tell you that. He demands the best and doesn’t suffer fools.”
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McKaigue is currently on a break from playing, but is still submitting himself to the Slaughtneil cause through his role as the GPO [Games Promotion Officer]. He’s a notable absentee from the hurling team who outlasted their Antrim rivals Cushendall last weekend to book their spot in next weekend’s Ulster final.
A popular character locally, McKaigue’s appointment has been celebrated by all who know him, as he looks to expand on the excellent example he’s set over the years as a player. Derry and Slaughtneil star Brendan Rogers articulated that to the media this week in the wake of McKaigue’s exit.
“A brilliant career whether he got any trophies or not,” Rogers said. “He was always marking top-calibre people. 35 years of age marking David Clifford and doing a good job on him. That’s a testament to his preparation.”
McKaigue has left a lasting impression on those he has worked with. Interview requests for this piece were met with speedy replies, and an enthusiasm to take part. John Joe Kearney still chats to him over the phone and assures that “nobody would have a bad word to say about him.”
His exploits on the pitch are well known. The witnesses of his battle with Diarmuid Connolly will always remember how McKaigue outgunned the exchanges.
But that’s Chrissy McKaigue the player. You have to bank the time before you can come to know person behind the jersey. That’s what McShane discovered during his nine-year stint as McKaigue’s hurling manager, during which time they achieved nine-in-a-row in Derry, and four Ulster championships together.
“He’s not an easy character to get to know or get close to,” says McShane. “He’s quite guarded and it takes some time to gain his trust. But once you do, he’s a super fella. He’s actually got a really good sense of humour and he can throw a one-liner out there that could cut you in half laughing.
“He reminds me of a Roy Keane type of character. He’s a winner.”
The Derry chapter of Chrissy McKaigue’s story may be over, but there are still plenty of passages yet to be written. He still has a major part to play in the Slaughtneil cause.
Fingers crossed it’s nothing too career threatening for Heaslip. Just sanction for Pape as well – I’d imagine a mid-range ban of 10 weeks is coming his way. And is Barnes gonna be stood down as well for his all-round inability to ref??
If he hasn’t been stood down by now (this stage of his “career”), I doubt there would be anything for him to worry about now.
Probably be given the world cup final…
Too right. Wayne Barnes neglecting to give Pape a red card for the incident highlights the kind of woeful reffing performance he put in on Saturday.
If it’s intentional isn’t it automatically a red?
It’s a bit of a balls at this stage though, fair enough he got sin binned, but he is probably going to be banned for one of, if not both of the England and Wales games, which is punishing Ireland in a way!
I agree, unfortunately Wales and England benefit while one of our best players could miss the rest of the champions.
Hope he gets a hefty ban.
Very dirty thing to do.
Maybe he should get the same ban that heaslip got for the same thing?
A ban for the referee is in order here too!
Everyone could see it was a cite-able offence, never mind a red card. A yellow was a cop out.
With doctors and coaches under so much scrutiny regarding concussions and player welfare, it’s about time referees were made answerable for their decisions. Why was Pape allowed back on to the pitch following such dangerous play?
Murray, I’m sure you are already lining up you analysis pieces for the week but given the less than glowing response to a victory over the French (madness considering our record against them) maybe you could look at where we are failing in an attacking sense considering the calibre of players wee have in the backline….
Although naturally as a Munster fan I can totally appreciate grinding teams down for results…
The reason we couldnt score any tries was because Barnes consisently penalised Ireland at the breakdown when in France’s half which was largely because we didnt commit enough players to the breakdown.
We conceded 11 penalties which is the most we have ever conceded under Schmidt. As a result we had to adapt tactically and play a more kicking game than go wide through building phases.
What goes around comes around. Heaslip did the same thing to a Kiwi head a few years ago. Still not right but if you give it you must expect it!
Heaslip was just swinging his knee! If Richie McCaw wasn’t offside there would have been no issue.
And sure that’s all Pascal was doing
“Swinging a knee” is a complete understatement, Heaslip repeatedly kneed McCaw in the head, however McCaw was on the completely wrong side of the ruck (as per usual). Heaslip got a red card but none of the New Zealand boys got anything when they started laying into him on the ground in retaliation… Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t it Barnes that refereed that game and ordered Heaslip off?
Too many eyes in rugby now. I fear the game may become a bit ‘soft’. (Personal opinion not province based – although I do loath the ‘cult of referee superstars’ that is now a thing).