CONOR’S YELLOW JERSEY REVEAL
“It wasn’t necessarily, ‘We’re not putting out a team because we want to play them (Dublin) in a League Final.’”
Glass says Derry “absolutely do” want to play in a League final.
The likes of Mayo and Galway — last year’s Division 1 finalists - don’t appear to have any interest in playing in the Allianz decider.
“Connacht is obviously a bit different in so far as they’re out the week after the League Final, whereas we have a couple of weeks’ leeway afterwards,” said Glass. “A League Final would be a fantastic place to be. Especially for boys who haven’t played in one.
“I think Chrissy McKaigue might be the only person to play in a League final and that was 30 years ago for Chrissy!
Short
“It would be a good experience for us if we do get there.”
He continued: “You’ve got to win as much as you can, in what is a short period of time.
“The building blocks from winning a Division 1 title would be massive for Derry.
“Yes, we’ve had a bit of success over the last two years but if you look before that there hasn’t been much.
“So any sort of silverware would be good for us and good for the county.”
When Glass returned from Australian Rules at the end of the 2020 season, Derry had just been promoted out of Division 4.
He says he’s surprised that Derry have been so successful so quickly, winning back to back Ulster titles and bridging a gap going back to 1998.
“I was speaking to Emmett Bradley on the way to the Dublin game,”remarked Glass.
“He’s been through the whole up and down of playing Division 1 and 4.
“I think they were playing Wicklow or Waterford in Division 4. The attendance was announced, I think it was 40 or 50.
“Being packed out, 13-14,000 that day (against Dublin), shows the progression of where players like Emmett, Chrissy, Brendan Rogers have come from.
Tourism
“The city of Derry will be grateful as well, with the hotels booked out, restaurants, bars, it brings a bit of tourism back to Derry as well, which is good.”
Glass always believed Derry would be “back dining at the top table again.”
“To be able to go this quickly into it, probably not,” said the Maghera man.
CONOR GLASS has lifted the lid on his mysterious yellow jersey post All-Ireland club final celebrations.
The Derry skipper sported a Tour de France ‘maillot jaune’ as Glen celebrated landing the Andy Merrigan Cup at the end of January.
Photos of Glass and his colleague appeared on social media, leading to questions about why the AllIreland final goal scoring hero was wearing one of the most iconic jerseys in sport.
“People actually think that I don’t drink and that I was off cycling the morning after,” he laughed.
“That was not the case. It was just a running joke within the group.
“We had a theme of the Tour de
France for last year.
So it was a running joke and the people from
Maghera were the ones that got the joke and everyone else was, like, ‘Is this man out cycling the morning after?!’
“But it definitely wasn’t the case. It was different stages of the Tour de France.
“Obviously we had the Derry Championship, Ulster Championship and then the Andy Merrigan, the All-Ireland.
Stage
“So we just kind of took it stage by stage and that was the idea of having a theme for it, splitting it up into those stages. Using past experiences of cyclists.
“Stephen Roche was an Irish cyclist who won the TDF.
“So using his experience is sort of just wee ways of getting yourself focused and making it relevant as such.”
“But we have the players and it was always in my mind that we’d be able to get there at some stage.
“It is a long-term thing. We want to be staying in Division 1 as long as possible.
“We’ve had a lot of minor success, Under-20 success.
“We’ve been in Division 1 before. In the space of four or five years, we were in Division 4. We know how quickly it can change. We’ve got our house in order in terms of the County Board.
“Stephen Barker is doing a fantastic job behind the scenes. We’re in a good place at the minute.
“Not only on a football front, whether it be ladies football, camogie, hurling — the hurlers are going very well at the minute. It’s all going well for Derry at the minute, thank God.”