CHRISSY McKAIGUE believes days like last Sunday will add 10 years to his life - but says he feels 10 years older before every big game Slaughtneil play in.
Despite the magnitude of the south Derry club’s historic treble on the provincial stage - in football, hurling and camogie - McKaigue did as good a job during last Sunday’s final as he did in his post-match interviews, capturing the essence of Slaughtneil's incredible success.
"Every day you win a Championship with your club is a special day," said the county ace.
"This was a fantastic day. To do the treble as a club and as a playing group is massively special. We’re just thrilled. We’ve a seriously driven group of players, a seriously driven bunch of men who put a lot of work in and we’ve had many bumps on the road too, and people tend to forget that now. All people want to talk about is how good it has been this year.
“We’ve lost a lot of stuff before this, but a true test of anybody’s character is through adversity and I’m a firm believer on that one. This team has been through a lot of adversity and now we’re starting to learn how to win and this football final was another example of that."
Kilcoo, gallant right to the final play of last Sunday's Ulster Club final in Armagh, managed to keep the Derry champions scoreless for two-thirds of the second-half.
But Slaughtneil never panicked and once Shane McGuigan ended his side's 20-minute barren run with a wonderful attacking break in the 50th minute, Kilcoo could not get to within a point of the eventual winners again.
"You’re nervous yourself [during those scoreless spells], but you don’t want to show it. Kilcoo are a great side. When you come to play at this level you expect tight games, you expect teams to come back at you and Kilcoo were no different.
"Kilcoo are as good a drilled team as there is in the country. We didn’t play that well in the second half but when push came to shove and a wee bit of pressure came on, Slaughtneil stood up one more time.”
McKaigue added: "These days just feel like they add 10 years to your life. The only thing is in the lead-up to the games they feel as if they take 10 years off your life! That’s the nature of playing for Slaughtneil.”
The club's hurling captain and the football team's dynamic centre-back didn't think too deeply about making it a historic treble prior to Sunday's decider with Down champions Kilcoo.
"I suppose if you sat down and thought about it too much it would have been pressurising," he said.
"But we’ve so many great leaders in the team. When people speak, you get so many different slants on things. We have a great management team, we’ve a great committee, we’ve great supporters.
"When you have those people behind you, you almost fell 10 feet tall. When we put on the Slaughtneil shirt we’re full of confidence in each other and thank God we produced the goods.”
Before they take on St Kieran's of London in their All-Ireland Club Football quarter-final on Saturday December 10, McKaigue is looking forward to few days away from the spotlight.
“I’m looking forward to a break and to actually sit down. You could almost cry with the emotion of it… Mentally, it’s tough - it’s football, camogie and hurling - that’s all we’ve been talking about.
"So I just want a few days to sit and think about it and to actually appreciate what we’ve done.”
