'The best days of my life so far have been playing for Galway in championship'
CILLIAN MCDAID COULD have travelled down a different sporting path.
It is a decade since he won an All-Ireland minor hurling title, numbering future Galway seniors like Brian Concannon, Tom Monaghan, Fintan Burke, and Cianan Fahy amongst his colleagues.
In October 2018 he came home after a year in Australia, having taken a punt at Aussie Rules with Carlton.
Ultimately he found a natural sporting fit at home.
Now he is Galway's football vice-captain, an All-Star in 2022, and a central component to a team that has won the last three Connacht championships, while contesting two of the last three All-Ireland finals.
Regrets at other sporting opportunities not realised?
'No, no regrets. No, look, it probably took to go out there (Australia) to realise how much I want to play for Galway.
'When I came back Galway probably weren't competing in the latter stages of the championships. The best days of my life so far have been playing for Galway in championship games. There's not really anything that can replace that at the minute anyway.'
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Resilience has been required to become so pivotal to Galway's aspirations. Injury has repeatedly shunted him towards the sideline. He's had problems with his foot and knee over the years, before a fractured tibia sustained in a club intermediate semi-final in 2023 threatened to derail last year.
The injury was slow to heal but he timed his comeback expertly, sweetly striking over three points in his first full game back as Galway dumped Dublin out of the All-Ireland series last June.
This season has been refreshing in terms of gametime, straightforward and uninterrupted.
'I was playing catch up last summer definitely but I was happy to kind of get there in the end.
'I never played the last round of the league, I don't think, since I joined. I think we've been in three or four league finals and I never played in any of them either. So, yeah, it's been great to get a full batch of training and games during the league (this year).
'It gives you a bit of confidence that you've done the work. Other years you're kind of trying to come back in the middle of a championship when the pace is quick and there's lads who've trained for six, seven, eight months straight. So, you're just kind of playing catch up.'
Fitness has been one challenge, coping with the setback of defeat another. In 2022, Galway were felled by a Kerry team inspired by David Clifford. McDaid and Shane Walsh starred that day with a stunning combined haul of 0-13.
Last year's final loss felt different, a tight and tense encounter edged by Armagh, and Galway left with the aching sense of pain that comes with under-performance.
'I suppose it'll be there forever,' says McDaid as he reflects on getting over the 2024 loss.
2It's a tough one to get over and you might never really get over it. It's one of those big games where you didn't get over the line but we reviewed it and we went through it as a team. You kind of have to park it then.
'They (All-Ireland final losses) were both pretty bad, pretty tough, but maybe the second time around, having been there before, maybe the distractions leading up to it that people would say, we didn't really have that and we were very focused on the game.
'But at the end of the day, if you don't take your chances, you won't win the game. That's kind of what happened.'
Galway are back now in full focus for what lies ahead. Mayo in Castlebar on Sunday. Last year's meeting featured a dramatic late revival to sweep the Tribesmen to victory. The end target remains the same.
'The writing was on the wall,' recalls McDaid of that day.
'We were going to lose a Connacht final at home to probably our biggest rivals. That day Shane [Walsh], John Maher and Mattie Tierney all came off the bench, so we were getting a few bodies back and starting to really strengthen.
'There's a few lads in our dressing room who have five or six Connacht titles. A good portion have none.
'It's just one game, it's not four-in-a-row. it's just another game we need to win.'
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