Karl McKaigue’s modesty at his outrageous defensive stats is pure Slaughtneil

It's not about Karl McKaigue. It's about Slaughtneil.

It's always about Slaughtneil. The small rural community between Maghera and Swatragh suffered a crushing loss at the weekend. Leading by three points and holding a two man advantage over red hot favourites Na Piarsaigh in last Saturday's All-Ireland senior club hurling semi-final, the Derry club were in with a shot. From there it went downhill. They went onto lose by 7, and speaking to the side's corner back, Karl McKaigue, on the Monday morning after, it's clear the wounds are still raw. It means so much to him. It means so much to Slaughtneil, this run they're on, and that opportunity going a begging is irking him.

"It was disappointing, because it was there for the taking," he said to us at an AIB GAA event.

If there's one thing we know about Slaughtneil, it's that they don't feel sorry for themselves. They get up and go again. They won't dwell on this. Slaughtneil Robert Emmet's GAA club and the 300 families that make it the most admirable GAA club in the country have a football semi-final to look forward to, now, and that's their drive. That's their focus. Nemo Rangers are over the horizon.

"At least we’ve something to completely take our mind off the painful defeat. The hurling is taking a back seat in the mind now and it’s all systems go for the football."

That's Karl McKaigue's now. Doing his place, his people and his teammates proud. Doing it for Slaughtneil. It could easily be all about this corner back. His stats, as pointed out by Michael McMullan, from the 2017 club campaign are some of the best any corner back has ever produced in a consistent period of time. https://twitter.com/malmcmullan/status/941392487058419712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportsjoe.ie%2Fgaa%2Fslaughtneils-karl-mckaigue-must-surely-best-defensive-stats-2017-144376 Keeping your man scoreless is many a corner back's dream, it's Karl McKaigue's bread and butter. In 12 games, throughout Slaughtneil's Derry and Ulster hurling and football campaigns in 2017, McKaigue kept 11 of the corner forwards he marked scoreless for 60+ minutes. And the corner forwards he was up against were no slouches. In the Derry SFC:

• James Kearney (Swatragh)
• Conleith Gilligan (Ballinderry)
• Danny Tallon (Glen)
• Shane Mulgrew (Ballinascreen)

In the Ulster SFC:

• Ronan O'Neill (Omagh)
• Jerome Johnston (Kilcoo)
• Ryan McHugh (Kilcar)
• Seanie Johnston (Cavan Gaels)

None of those 8 registered a score off him. The only player who did was Danny Toner of Ballygaglet, who hit two on him in the Ulster SHC final. That day, McKaigue hit three. We asked him about these ridiculous stats, and his answer was predictably modest. It was predictably Slaughtneil.

“As a defender, first and foremost, you try and keep your man scoreless. That probably was a wee bit, to be honest, I don’t know if it reads through. A lot of the time, I was getting dragged out the field with some opponents, I wasn’t actually in the full back line."

It wasn't about him.

"A lot of the time, as well, Brendan Rogers and Patsy Bradley in the full back line beside me pulled me out of holes. My man could have scored and then there was a block in by one of them - "So it wasn’t down to my performances that they didn’t score. It is a nice stat, one that puts a bit more pressure on me, now, with that target on my back but it’s a nice one to have. Hopefully I can try, along with my other defenders beside me, try and keep that going into this football campaign.

He's keen to keep it going. He's keen to keep the dream going.

“It does, when you’re marking good forwards and they end up not scoring, but it’s a reflection on the team, our defensive unit, especially in football is quite strong and we don’t tend to ship much scores to any team. We take a lot of pride in trying to keep teams down to 10 or 12 points, so it’s probably down to that more-so than the individual performance."

And they're going the right way about it up in Derry. Slaughtneil's Karl McKaigue is pictured ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Club Championships Semi-Final taking place at O'Connor Park on Saturday, 17th of February where the Derry Club will face Cork's Nemo Rangers. For exclusive content and behind the scenes action throughout the AIB GAA and Camogie Club Championships follow AIB GAA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat and www.aib.ie/GAA.