Hurling & Camogie

Favourites Slaughtneil will 'ignore outside noise' ahead of Ballycran clash: Chrissy McKaigue

Conor Woods's Ballycran and Chrissy McKaigue's Slaughtneil will meet at Corrigan Park in Sunday's AIB Ulster Club SHC final. Picture by Sportsfile
Conor Woods's Ballycran and Chrissy McKaigue's Slaughtneil will meet at Corrigan Park in Sunday's AIB Ulster Club SHC final. Picture by Sportsfile Conor Woods's Ballycran and Chrissy McKaigue's Slaughtneil will meet at Corrigan Park in Sunday's AIB Ulster Club SHC final. Picture by Sportsfile

SLAUGHTNEIL will turn a blind eye to any talk that ‘the real Ulster hurling final’ took place last weekend – with Chrissy McKaigue admitting their stunning 2018 defeat to Ballycran was one of many lessons the reigning provincial kingpins have learned along the way.

The Emmet’s came out the other side of their last four clash with Dunloy to seal a spot in Sunday’s decider, and a first meeting with the Down champions since Ballycran defied odds of 9/1 to end Slaughtneil’s bid for a third Ulster title in-a-row at the semi-final stage.

The Derry club bounced back in impressive fashion the following year, reclaiming the Four Seasons Cup before narrowly losing out in a thrilling All-Ireland semi-final against eventual champions Ballyhale Shamrocks.

And McKaigue insists they will be “ignoring the outside noise” when they go into Sunday’s Corrigan Park clash with Ballycran as huge favourites once more.

“This current team, we’ve been on the beaten track as a collective at least 10 years,” he said at the launch of AIB’s All-Ireland camogie and club media day.

“The one thing we’ve learned more than anything else, with the greatest respect to everyone else’s opinion, different narratives are created, we do tend at this stage to ignore it.

“Because we have been in the arena, we have the experiences, we have done the preparation. And while there have been good days with Slaughtneil, there have been some very hard, harsh days - 2018 was one of them days.

“We were beaten comprehensively. Nothing went right. We will see on Sunday whether we’ve learnt from it because it’s the same opposition. I couldn’t say that defeat learned us more lessons than any other defeat - every day is different.”

While Slaughtneil have only seven days to recover in time for Sunday’s final after last week’s battle with Dunloy, Ballycran have been waiting for their Championship campaign to recommence since toppling Portaferry in the Down decider seven weeks ago.

And McKaigue admits the respective turnaround times are “not ideal for any of the teams”.

“We’ve been thankful in many respects that we had the lead-in to the Dunloy that we did, coming off a very demanding Derry football championship where we needed the preparation time.

“Because there is quite a lot of time of a lead-in for ourselves, Ballycran and Dunloy as well, do you play challenge games? Who do you play challenge games against? I’m sure Ballycran have faced that same headache.

“The reality is, it is good in many ways to have the Ulster club hurling championship finished up before Christmas comes too. It’s an impossible situation for the Ulster Council.

“Okay, we only have a week after Dunloy to prepare for an Ulster final but at the same time, you have to be respectful of Ballycran. It’s very difficult for all sides to have their preparation perfect.”

And, having turned 32 earlier this year, McKaigue admits his days of dual activity with the club could be nearing an end.

“It does get a bit more difficult once you get over the age of 30, there's no doubt about that. I suppose sooner rather than later, and I haven't thought too much about it, I will have to come to a decision - with the club anyway - whether I can continue to play dual.

“You’d be really naïve to say that day isn’t coming at some point. It’s feasible at the minute, especially in our club, because we have a really good template going. After that, you take it year in, year out.

“I suppose with Derry, the last couple of years before Rory [Gallagher] came in, around Division Four, Division Three, it always wasn’t the most enjoyable place to be because you want to be successful with your county and you want to play against the best teams.

“But since Rory came in, I feel that I want to continue to play for as long as is physically possible. And however long I’m able to do that, I’m going to try and do that.

“Right now, things are grand – but I do know that it’s going to be dependent upon a bit of luck and how the body holds up. There’s going to come a stage where I’m going to have to be smart too… I don’t feel that day is quite here just yet.”