By John Harrington

As special as it felt to captain Derry to their first Ulster Senior Football Championship since 1998, Chrissy McKaigue does not think the current championship structure is fit for purpose.

He believes Ulster teams are at a disadvantage to teams from other provinces that aren’t quite so competitive, and would prefer a championship format that would level the playing field.

“It's difficult to know what I'd replace it with but I've put my cards on the table with this one,” said McKaigue.

“Our system's broken and it needs fixed, irregardless of how special it was for us Sunday.

“I still think we can do better with the system and I think we can make it a more attractive proposition and a better model with higher quality games. I know next year, we're moving towards that, but I would welcome that.

“You look at it for the overall health of the competition, as special as it was, I think the teams in Ulster are at a disadvantage compared to other provinces and how competitive it is.

**“**Opinions are great but the reality is Monaghan, Tyrone, Donegal and Armagh, all Ulster, all Division One, Derry and Down, albeit Down were relegated, so that's six out of the province Division 1 or 2.

“There is no other province to my knowledge that can boast that same record so it's competitive to say the least and that's grand to a certain extent but it's not great if you are beaten in the first round.

“We have drawn Tyrone and Donegal how many times over the last decade and that makes things harder.

“It's not really a great system when you are comparing other provinces who get it slightly easier at times.

“A freshness is needed too and some way to incorporate the provincial system within that and use it as a grading towards it or as a seeding format perhaps.

“But I think you would be a wee bit untruthful if we all didn't admit that a change in the system is needed at this stage.”

Many critics have lined up to have a cut at the defensive nature of Sunday’s Ulster Football Final but McKaigue doesn’t believe much of what they said really adds up.

He believes the quality of Gaelic Football being played at the highest level is higher than ever before, and that the statistics back him up.

“There's narratives that grow legs as we know - it's hard to please everybody but irrespective of what anybody thought of the game, you look at the amount of scores now being scored in inter-county football in comparison to ten/fifteen years ago and it's chalk and cheese,” said McKaigue.

“The thing is that as much as we pride ourselves in being well stocked defensively, the reality is that Donegal have a reputation over the last number of years of being fantastic defensively too.

“They don’t get the credit for how tactically well-tuned in they are. Their attacks are premeditated and very well structured and you get the feeling that everything they do, they know exactly who they want to shoot and how they want to orchestrate the shot.

“You look at the number of scores they’ve got in Division One over the last two or three years and they’ve averaged 17-18 points. That’s not talked about much in the media. We want to use the term ‘defensive football’ we want to use the verbiage ‘arm-wrestles’ and that kind of stuff but when you look at the stats of how much teams are scoring in inter-county now in comparison to 10 years ago, it’s day and night.

“Sometimes we fall short a wee bit in terms of portraying our game into something it’s not always. There’s a level of our game now tactically, physically…look at the crowds now going to the games.

“I think the game is in really good health and I know all the boys and girls that I know of want to be playing GAA. I think GAA in Derry and I do believe in Ulster and beyond is in really good health at the minute. I honestly do believe that.”