Greatest Derry hurling display of all time hails McGarvey after Christy Ring Cup victory

Goals from Connor Melaugh (2) and Shea Cassidy helped McGarvey's inspired squad finally end Derry's 20 year wait for the trophy and with it secure a first ever appearance in next season's Joe McDonagh Cup.

"It's a different feeling. Unbelievable," smiled McGarvey who has guided Derry to four finals in four years in charge.

"Relief and pride, those are the two feelings. In my opinion, it was the greatest Derry hurling performance of all time. From the referee dropped it until he blew the final whistle, I thought we controlled the game.

"We were totally dominant in the puck outs and maybe what surprised Kerry was we were going at them. A lot of people probably felt with their running game they were going to come at us. We met fire with fire and thank God it worked out for us."

Such has been the turnover of players that McGarvey has had to deal with during his tenure as county manager, that he's used 70 players across his four seasons and handed out a remarkable 41 debuts, making his consistency and success even more remarkable.

It all culminated in Saturday’s brilliant 3-24 to 3-19 victory which, when you consider Kerry won 0-12 to 5-23 in Celtic Park in the opening league game of the season, speaks volumes about the character of a special panel of players.

"We never doubted and that's the key,"explained the Lavey native, "That's so important and it's alright saying it but when you actually go out in a game in Croke Park, or in Celtic Park or in Trim, that's when you find out if they're just words or if someone really believes.

"There were plenty of bad days along the way; days when we didn't play particularly well and didn't get results but we just went back to training, chatted it out, worked on it and I don't think we had any doubts about this at all.

"We didn't dwell on the past. Last year we maybe dwelt a bit on previous games but this week what happened before was never mentioned. This was about today, taking THIS opportunity and we always felt that when we were in this game after 10 or 15 minutes, then Kerry would be spooked.

"I think that's how it turned out. And yes, it got touchy enough at the end there (laughing), I would have preferred it a bit easier but, look, we had men on no legs out there. We were making substitutions based on who could get us to the end.

"I was listening to the song 'We could be heroes' there on the way in and those boys were just heroic today."

And next season's Joe McDonagh debut?

"Joe McDonagh is a 2027 problem," he laughed, "It's one we will worry about another day!"