The pain of losing an All-Ireland final doesn’t go away. Cillian McDaid frames it as something his Galway side must endure in order to get over the line next time.
Their first showpiece defeat to Kerry in 2022 felt bad. The one-point loss to Armagh last year was worse again.
But the Orchard’s experience of braving four penalty shoot-out beatings, including one against the Tribesmen, offers a lesson in perseverance.
Until they obtain Sam Maguire, that defeat won’t be reconciled.
Inside Gaelic Games: The weekly GAA newsletter from The Irish Times
Dean Rock: Defeat to Meath could be just the spur Dublin need to recalibrate All-Ireland bid
Louth manager Ger Brennan enraged by ‘terrible’ organising for Leinster semi-final
Galway must reconcile painful final defeats by lifting Sam Maguire, says Cillian McDaid
“It’ll be there forever,” says McDaid. “It’s a tough one to get over and you might never really get over it.
“We reviewed it as a team. You have to park it then. Once you know where you went wrong and where you need to improve, that’s enough.
“It was tough at the time. Definitely, it was a tough room to be in, but that’s just it. To try and win it, you have to be willing to go through losing and the pain.
“We’ve gone through it a couple of times and we’ll go through it again. We just want to win one so you have to be willing to go through the other side of it.
“We’ve bounced back very well. We know it’s very difficult to get there, for sure, but we’re up for the fight and we want to get back there.
“We’re ready for that again and we’ll try our best to get there, no matter what the route.”
Every year you don’t win, McDaid reckons, there’ll always be a painful defeat to agonise over.
In 2023, that loss was the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final at home to Sunday’s Connacht final opponents, Mayo.
In 2024, the Maroon men kicked three consecutive stoppage-time frees to pip Mayo for provincial honours. McDaid cites that victory as a turning point for their season following their great escape against Sligo.
“It kick-started our season. It was a big win for us at home and it just showed us that we were on the right track despite what happened a few weeks before in Sligo.”
McDaid didn’t play in either of those games as he recuperated from a broken leg and groin surgery during an eight-month lay-off.
He increased his minutes throughout the group stage before completing his first 70 with a man of the match award and the scalp of Dublin.
Injuries have haunted the 2022 All-Star all too regularly. Broken fingers disrupted his brief Galway hurling career, recovering to feature off the bench to win an All-Ireland minor title in 2015. A stress fracture in his foot ended his time in Australia with AFL side Carlton. A recurring knee problem saw him step away from the Galway panel in 2021.
Given such rotten luck, did he ever doubt he would make it back to play a role last year?
“Definitely. It wasn’t clearing up as fast as I’d want. Like, the injuries were fine. It was more just a bit of pain.
“Where I broke the leg was very sore and I couldn’t ... it was hard to push through it. I was afraid it was going to damage it more.
“Despite all the reassurances, I still was hesitant but, in fairness, I did what I was told. The medical team got me there.
“There was a stage when we thought it was time to put it on ice and wait for next year. So it was worth pushing through.”
McDaid’s injury disruption has been such that 2025 was his first time completing the final round of the League. Galway have bounced back well and so, too, has the Monivea-Abbey midfielder.
“It gives you a bit of confidence that you’ve done the work. Other years, you’re 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. You’re just playing catch-up.
“At least when you have that training done and banked early, you know deep down that you can last a full game or you can play two weeks in a row, three weeks in a row.”
With injury worries behind him, this Connacht decider is all about Galway’s bid for four in a row.
