'There is life, death, taxes, and away to St Naul's in the championship' - McDaid 

After winning Glenwilly’s first two senior championship titles as manager over a decade ago, Gary McDaid is back in the hot seat again at Páirc Naomh Columba. And he is relishing the challenge. 

The club’s most successful manager’s last outing patrolling the sideline for Glenswilly was back in the 2018 championship and a semi-final defeat at the hands of Naomh Conaill. 

“I remember it well. It was a real ding-dong game on a Saturday night in Ballybofey. Brick Molloy bagged the goal and that was the difference in the end,” McDaid told Donegal Live. 

“It was the end of that team at the time. We had got everything we could out of them. 

“They had won three championships, 2011, ’13, and ’16, and played in four finals and were one of the top teams in the county over that period. Those boys owed the club nothing.”

Gary Copper McFadden, Caolan Kelly, and Michael Murphy are the only survivors from those championship teams on what is a new look and young Glenswilly side. 

“They are the over 30 brigade in the current team. The rest are quite a bit younger and are from last year’s minor championship-winning team, with 10 of them playing senior league this year.

“And from last year’s U-21 team that was beaten by Gaoth Dobhair, in the final, 15 of them played in this year's league.

“We have gone full circle of bringing those young lads through and playing in Division 1 which is much more testing than playing in Division 2.”

The new man replaced Pauric Bonner who had begun the rebuilding process and had guided Glenswilly back to Division 1 after a number of seasons in the league’s second tier.

Glenswilly finished up mid-table in the league on their first season back at the top table after Michael Murphy returned for the last few games. 

“It was good to have him back for the last few games. His leadership on the field is massive to the young bucks and now that he is down training all the time they are constantly learning from him. 

“I am steadily saying to the young lads watch our older players like Michael, Copper, and Caolan. They have the medals in their pockets. 

“We cannot take them for granted because they won’t be around forever.

“I’m constantly telling the young lads to watch the way Michael, Copper, and Caolan prepare for training.

“Watch what they do before training. Watch what they do after training and talk to them about recovery, lifestyle management, etc. They are the lads with experience.” 

“You don’t have the comfort in Division 1 that you have in Division 2 where there are always a couple of games where you can pick up enough points to stay safe.  

“Looking back on the league, we were safe and retained our status with one game to go. 

“I was just saying to the lads in my whole time with the team previously, playing, coaching, and managing, we were never safe with a game to go. So, that was a huge achievement this year.”  

All during his previous term in the top job, Glenswilly were very much seen as a championship team and as a consequence, they often struggled in the league.  

“It all goes back to our roots. Our roots in the Glen are built on the championship and that will never change. We are a championship club.”

McDaid takes his new charges to Gerard Gallagher Memorial Park in Mountcharles this evening where St Naul’s will provide the opposition.

“Someone said to me the championship draw is like life. There is life, death, taxes, and away to St Naul’s in the championship.

“This is the fourth year in a row we have drawn St Naul’s in the championship.

“We beat them in a couple of games and they have beaten us too. So there has been very little between us.  

“The aim right now is to get a performance against St Naul’s and we will review that and see where we are at.”