MCDAID DOESN'T EXPECT TO GET OVER ALL-IRELAND FINAL DEFEAT

CILLIAN MCDAID has processed last year's All-Ireland final loss, but he's not sure he'll ever get over it.

- BY PAT NOLAN

Having won three-in-a-row in Connacht, scored a first Championship win over Dublin in 90 years and seen off a fancied Donegal side to reach a second final in three years, Galway were fancied only to be edged out in an extremely tight final by Armagh.

In the close-season, the panel sat down collectively to go through the game and they took whatever lessons they could from it. But there was nothing in that exercise to dull the pain.

"Look, I suppose it'll be there forever," said McDaid. "It'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.

"Once you're happy and you know where you went wrong and you know where you need to improve, I think that's enough.

"The year before, we were knocked out by Mayo in a preliminary quarter final. That's a tough one to deal with too, at home in a game like that.

"I suppose every year you don't win it, there's a big game you've lost that's tough to get over and you deal with it at the time.