He was the first Derry man to get his hands on the Anglo Celt Cup in 24 years and Chrissy McKaigue's desire to win the Ulster Championship remains undiminished.
Others have argued that the provincial championships have been diluted by the new All-Ireland structure while former Mayo star Lee Keegan feels the draws for the forthcoming group stages should have taken place after the provincial finals.
Derry’s ‘one game at a time’ philosophy has served them well this season as they annexed the pre-season Dr McKenna Cup before securing a return to Division One for the first time since 2015.
Read more: Ciaran McFaul return is a huge plus says Chrissy McKaigue as Derry target Ulster double
They will clinch back-to-back Ulster titles for only the second time in their history should they overcome Armagh at Clones on Sunday and that remains the primary focus according to McKaigue.
“We knew from the outset this year that all these things were happening anyway. It wasn’t a surprise to any of us that whoever was in the Ulster Final would know the seedings for the Sam Maguire and so on,” said McKaigue.
“For us, as a team, and Rory’s Gallagher’s track record in Ulster would show this, we just have a huge amount of time for the Ulster Championship. We feel it is a very exciting place, you get tested all the time, you get to play the best teams a lot of the time.
“It is a great place to be. Rory has spoken about it numerous times over his tenure, it is very special to be part of Ulster Final day.
“It has been our sole focus since the start of the Ulster Championship. I’ll be honest, nothing else has been mentioned.
“In fairness, when the season started, nothing was mentioned only the McKenna Cup. As soon as the McKenna Cup was ended, nothing was mentioned only the League. Last year, the way the League finished didn’t sit well with us. We want to be a Division One team and we didn’t achieve that last year, but we have achieved it now. That was a massive part of this year too.
“The next objective now is to try and be really competitive with Armagh and see where that takes us - that’s where it starts and ends.”
Both Armagh and Derry will progress to the All-Ireland series later this month with the losers entering Group Two along with Galway, Tyrone and Westmeath while the winners go into Group Four with Clare, Monaghan and Donegal.
With only one team being eliminated from each group, both Ulster finalists will fancy their chances of progressing further in the All-Ireland series.
Yet, McKaigue knows Armagh will be keen to end their 15-year wait for a provincial title and cautioned against the losers of Sunday’s game being written off.
“We are certainly on a fairly upward trajectory. I understand that and cold, hard facts were that Derry, until last year, weren’t Ulster champions since 1998,” stated McKaigue.
“The bottom line is that, in the majority of those years, Derry were still in Division One, we got to a few All-Ireland semi-finals.
“Slaughtneil, Loup, Ballinderry and now Glen were doing well and there are other examples.
“I think we’ve become so fixated, and we’re all guilty, on one team and have they won X, Y and Z?
“At the end of the day only one team in any given year can ever be Ulster champions. Only one team in any given year can ever be All-Ireland champions. Does that mean every other team in every other year has been a failure?
“We champion the best team and then everybody else isn’t worth looking at. That’s just not the reality and it isn’t the message that any of us should be putting out there.
“The last number of months has been great for Derry and that has made us hungrier for more.
“I would safely say that if any team at the minute that is as equally hungry as Derry, it is certainly Armagh and we are very aware of that.”
McKaigue is often Rory Gallagher’s go-to man for key man-marking jobs and Armagh have no shortage of target men in their forward unit with Rian O’Neill, Conor Turbitt and Andrew Murnin likely to be singled out for attention on Sunday.
Murnin remains an injury doubt along with Ciaran Mackin and Ben Crealey after all three failed to finish Armagh’s Ulster SFC semi-final win over Down in Clones earlier this month.
Kieran McGeeney’s men rifled in four goals against the Mournemen and could have had a couple more with Jason Duffy crashing two shots off the crossbar.
Derry have also conceded four goals in their wins over Fermanagh and Monaghan and McKaigue admits they’ll need to do better against an in-form Armagh outfit.
“We’ve many things we want to work on offensively and defensively - we wouldn’t be happy with the manner in which we conceded some of those goals,” added the Slaughtneil clubman.
“Relatively this year, we’ve been fairly solid defensively also, there’s a bit of balance to be struck there.
“We’d be very foolish to go into the final thinking Armagh’s only strength is to put high balls in against us to get scores.
“They’ve many threats and we’re very aware of them. To be one of the best teams, you have to be a team for all seasons, all conditions and all circumstances. We’ll be prepared for Armagh just like they’ll be prepared for us.”
He added: “It isn’t just me who has massive roles. Conor McCluskey has stepped up massively, Eoin McEvoy this year, particularly for a cub of 19 years of age. Padraig McGrogan is super-duper. Conor Doherty probably doesn't get enough credit for some of the jobs he does on big players.
“We haven’t achieved what we’ve achieved so far without being a decent team, but the beauty of it is that, every day you go out, you have to prove it. It is another chance to prove it next Sunday.”
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