McDaid hopes senior players who 'bring so much' to Glenswilly stay on

Gary McDaid admits he’s hoping his senior players don’t decide to hang up their boots in the wake of Glenswilly’s exit from the Donegal SFC at the quarter-final stage.

Searching for a first last-four appearance in the competition since 2018, Glenswilly, who were four from four in the opening round this season, went down 2-8 to 0-13 in Falcarragh against Dungloe, with the Rosses team grabbing early goals through Daire Gallagher and Darren Curran.

With Glenswilly flourishing at underage level, McDaid said the more experienced players - like Michael Murphy, Gary McFadden, Caolan Kelly, Ruairí Crawford and Keelan McFadden - are vital towards their progression.

“We have to keep turning up and keep bringing the energy,” the Glenswilly manager said. “We have a good mix and hopefully the older lads don’t do anything rash because they bring so much to the team. They’re all over 30 now. We’re doing a lot of things right. If we keep doing what we are doing one day hopefully we’ll get there again.”

And so, for the third successive season, Glenswilly’s season ground to a halt at the quarter-final stage and they’ll have to mull over for the time being before returning in 2025. Last year they lost out to an Oisin Gallen-inspired MacCumhaill's having given eventual champions Naomh Conaill a run for their money in 2022.

“Having gone unbeaten and then to lose out in the quarter-finals is disappointing,” McDaid added. “People from outside the camp would’ve been saying that getting Dungloe was a draw we would’ve wanted. I think Dungloe getting us was a draw they would’ve wanted as to be honest, with St Eunan’s playing Naomh Conaill, that suited the other clubs.

“Fair play to Dungloe. They got the two goals in the first 10 minutes and it wasn’t like us to get caught like that. The first was from a mistake and I felt we gave Dungloe too much time and space to work the second. It’s something that they’re good at and we knew it before the game. We felt if we could keep the goals out then we would put ourselves in a good position to win the game but we ended up chasing.

“We got level having kicked into life and the senior players really drove us on. Cormac Callaghan and Oisin Crawford gave us an energy from the bench. We were chasing for a long time and good luck to Dungloe going forward. It was a sick feeling and looking now, September, it’s a long time before we come back but come back we will.”