Seeing Michael Murphy retire from Donegal last week got Derry captain Chrissy McKaigue "A wee bit emotional."
It resonated with the 33-year-old Ulster Championship winning skipper who openly says he thinks about retirement every day. Donegal icon Murphy debuted in 2007 for his county, while McKaigue made his Derry bow the following season as a teenager.
But the skipper isn't ready to call it quits just yet. One of the main reasons McKaigue is ploughing on next year is his belief that “the sky’s the limit” for Derry after this season’s Anglo-Celt Cup triumph - their first since 1998.
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“It does get a wee bit emotional at the minute when I see Michael Murphy retire,” said McKaigue. “He is actually a month younger than me," he told Belfast Live.
“I see Lee Keegan, who is the same age as me, talk about potentially retiring and I see different people stepping away. It is not as if I am oblivious to that.”
McKaigue - who changed jobs last July from teaching to become his native Slaughneil’s first full-time Games Promotion Officer - says walking away from inter-county football is something that crosses his mind “every day.”
“Of course it does,” he continues. “Are you good enough any more? Do you have what it takes any more?
“Do you have the motivation to go through another pre-season? Another League campaign?
“Things like that and the day where I think to myself that that question is leaning towards, ‘I can’t,’ that’s the day I will just pack it in.
“But at the minute I feel physically quite good. Mentally I feel re-energised.
“Largely because of the Derry management team and the structure within the county.
“And I suppose my own club is still knocking about and still has the potential to be very successful.
“I think that makes my decision a lot easier. So grateful for them and long may it continue.”
McKaigue is one of the longest serving footballers left at the top level.
The Slaughtneil man made his Derry senior debut back in 2008.
Laois’ Ross Munnelly debuted in 2003, Antrim’s Michael McCann made his bow in 2005, while Cavan goalkeeper Raymond Galligan and Offaly forward Niall McNamee both started out at senior inter-county level in 2006.
“I must say that my appetite and hunger at the minute to keep playing for Derry for as long as I can has never been as strong as it is,” said McKaigue.
“Naturally that's coming off the end of a very good season, personally and collectively.
“I just think I'm so motivated currently because of the way Derry are going as a county.
“Stephen Barker, as the CEO, has been a breath of fresh air, what he's doing around Owenbeg - the centre of excellence, facility wise, structurally wise.
“We've had a fantastic management team with the Derry senior footballers and of course the club scene, the school scene, all the structures from grassroots right up to the Derry senior football team.
“The county is on a real high and I would be very optimistic about that. Naturally that enthuses me to keep going as long as I can because I do think it's worth hanging on for.”
McKaigue pulls no punches about Derry GAA's long term goal, which is to win an All-Ireland and stand alongside the men of 1993.
“The reality is with the nature of the new structures in place, and Rory (Gallagher) has no reservations in saying it - we're no different to others in a block of probably five or six teams perhaps.
“We want to achieve the ultimate. That's why we play the game. We want to be playing against the best teams.
“We beat Tyrone this year, the reigning All-Ireland champions, so we know we're capable of knocking at the top table but we have to develop and we have to get better.
“We probably need to tweak a few things, but our aspirations as a county is to try to replicate the men of 1993 I suppose - to be one of those teams.
“That's not to say we're not aware of how much improving we have to do.
“But why would we not have those kinds of aspirations to try to be the best team, and to try to beat the best teams, like Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone, etc?
“Ultimately, that's the sort of legacy that we want to leave behind. We have a lot of work to do, starting with a massive league campaign in Division 2.
“We have an ambitious manager, an ambitious CEO and with that a very ambitious playing group.”
McKaigue sums up his year as “disappointment followed by absolutely unbelievable enjoyment and satisfaction, but followed by disappointment again.”
He continues: “We set our stall out to be a Division 1 team.
“We finished with 11 points - was it? Maybe the highest tally ever for a Division 2 team not to get promoted, was it?
“Somebody with the record books can correct me on that, but it was something like that anyway.
“Ultimately one bad day against Galway ruined our chances of promotion and usually Division 2 promotion is not as ruthless as that. But that was a massive setback.
“Something that hit me probably very hard because I guess my sights were set on trying to get back to Division 1 again.
“That’s ultimately where you want to be.
“Number one as a player and secondly where you can fast track development as a team.
“Then obviously we had an unbelievably successful Ulster Championship campaign.
“Beating the three big guns in the manner that we did, and naturally finished off in disappointment, getting beaten by Galway.
“When you reflect back on it now we are probably ahead of the development that we originally set out for.
“So a lot to be positive about. The team has room for massive improvement.
“For me, the sky’s the limit with this Derry squad, if we can continue to commit to each other and do the right things."
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