Conor Glass says Derry are treating talk that National League holders Mayo aren’t interested in reaching another final ‘with a pinch of salt’.
The Glen colossus is expected to return to the Derry lineup for Sunday’s trip to Castlebar.
A win for Derry, currently two points clear of Mayo, Dublin and Kerry at the top of Division One, could secure their final place with a game to spare.
Mayo, meanwhile, appear desperate to avoid a repeat of last year’s nightmare when they lost a Connacht SFC opener the weekend after featuring in the Division 1 final.
Mayo are scheduled for another Connacht opener, in New York, the weekend after this season’s League decider and, speaking after their recent win over Roscommon, boss Kevin McStay said ‘down with that sort of talk’ when reacting to a question about reaching the final.
Those quotes travelled far and wide and were picked up on by Glass.
“You have to take it with a pinch of salt,” said Glass at the launch of the John West Feile 2014.
“You always want to win every game that’s in front of you. Yes, you want to win the Connacht championship but both teams are going to be going hell for leather to win this weekend’s game. Like, it’s Division 1 at the end of the day and we’ll be going down there to take the two points and I’m sure they’ll be approaching it the same way.”
Mickey Harte’s decision to rest Glass, and several others, for Derry’s round five tie against Dublin could be interpreted as a sign that they aren’t overly interested in chasing League glory either.
They’d already got eight points on the board at that stage and opted to experiment, ultimately losing to Dublin, though Glass maintained they’d dearly love to win the league.
“We do, absolutely we do,” said the former Allstar.
“Connacht is obviously different in so far as they’re out the week after the league final whereas we have a couple of weeks’ leeway afterwards.
“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!
“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 One title would be massive for Derry.”
Asked if he would have liked to play against Dublin at Celtic Park earlier this month, Glass said: “100 per cent, as a competitor I would have absolutely loved it.”
But having started the previous four games, and having lined out in round one against Kerry just six days after Glen’s All-Ireland club final win, he said it is important ‘to pick your fights to a certain degree’.
It was with this in mind also that he skipped the Sigerson Cup and Ulster University’s eventual success.
“Obviously the Sigerson is a fantastic competition, it’s just unfortunate the way it falls for certain players, the workload it involves,” said the student. “I got a break to Tenerife with my fiancee so that was the reason for missing the final. I just needed to get a bit of a holiday and the Sigerson final was the sacrifice.”
Glass was honest too about rushing back for the Kerry game, acknowledging the ‘backlash of it would have been very, very harsh’ if he’d been injured. But he said that ‘four days of celebrations’ following the All-Ireland win was enough and that he fancied ‘getting back to a routine’.
The former AFL player shook his head when asked if he thinks an injury or fatigue awaits him further down the line.
“No, I don’t,” he maintained.
On the general injury front, Glass said that goalkeeper Odhran Lynch and Gareth McKinless, who have both missed the last three games, are making progress.
“Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we’ll have a full pick, whether that be a league final or the Ulster championship against Donegal,” he said.
