BY RYAN FERRY

LETTERKENNY Gaels captain Darren Hunter feels that the freshness brought by Aidy Glackin and his management team has really helped to get the Pairc na nGael residents back on track.

The Gaels won the Junior title in 2022 but the team started to break up the following season.

They played Intermediate football for two seasons but struggled in the league and championship and confidence was low when they were relegated back to the Junior ranks last term.

The club’s committee were keen to arrest the slide and they moved early to get Glackin in place.

Glackin is a former Glenswilly senior team manager, while he has had good success with his native club at reserve and Under 21 level.

Ex-Donegal senior team performance analyst David Cafferkey is part of the management while former Kilcar and Aodh Ruadh manager, Conor Cunningham is doing the coaching.

They started the year with a clean slate, and Hunter says the players have all responded well.

“Well first of all, the amount of experience the fella has, it’s been incredible,” said Hunter of Glackin.

“He’s brought a bit of freshness to it which has helped everybody.

“We had a tough couple of years for different reasons but Aidy’s come in and he’s brought a bit of freshness in to it.

“The goal of the year was to just build again, get the belief back in the squad and what we’re capable of doing, and that’s what he’s done.

“His experience is incredible, so he’s brought that and he’s just got the fellas going well (and they’re) happy out.

“I think his experience is the main thing he’s brought, he’s got a cool, calm head and a fresh voice which is just what we needed.”

Despite the new management, Gaels started the league slowly and were never really in the promotion picture in Division 3, but Hunter feels in some ways that actually helped the team.

“I suppose we were kind of affected by injuries early on and boys away, stuff like that, so that probably stubbed a bit of momentum in the league early doors and we dropped a few points.

“Especially in the likes of Division 3, if you don’t take any points at all (from matches), it can do big damage to your promotion hopes.

“That’s what kind of happened to us, we lost a game or two early on and the teams that beat us were ahead of us.

“It probably helped us a wee bit, it gave us a chance to build towards championship then without the pressure of going for a promotion spot, so we were able to build and eventually get more settled.

“We never really had the same team going out every week so we were finally able to start getting settled, getting the same team out and worked out a wee bit better for us, few boys came back into it then that were away, obviously added strength in depth to the whole thing and thankfully it’s just gelled together at the right time coming into the championship.

“That’s what you want so we’re happy with where we’re at. “

Hunter and the Gaels got a good look at Carn during the group stages and he is adamant that they aren’t a one-man team even if Conor O’Donnell is widely regarded as the most talented player in Junior Football.

“They’re a very, very good team.

“We played them in the group stage of the championship and they deservedly beat us.

“They have Conor O’Donnell, we know he’s a fantastic player. We all saw it on the national stage what he can do.

“He’s an All Star contender and all the rest of it so we have him to contend with but they went very well in Division Two without Connor O’Donnell.

“They have a lot of very good footballers, they’re a very good team, well balanced backs, forwards, midfield, across the team there’s strength everywhere, so there will be a lot of men to look about, it’s not just a one man show by any means.

“They were very, very good against us, we had a lot of lads that put their hands up and said ‘jeekers, there’s a lot of fires to put out here’ to try and even contain them, so we know we’re going to be absolutely up against it.

“They have the experience of playing against senior or intermediate grade teams all year that we didn’t have in the league side of things, so they have that as well, they’ve taken a couple of big wins throughout their league, which would give them good momentum going into this, so I’d say they’re confident, but all we can do is just give it our best shot and hope we can perform on the day and put it up to them.”