COLM McFADDEN neatly summed up the joys of escaping the shackles of Ulster football and playing at Croke Park.
Last Saturday, the experienced Donegal attacker was back to his absolute best, scoring four points and setting up all of his side's three goals in their 10-point qualifier win over Galway.
The space he was afforded was in stark contrast to the claustrophobic nature of last month's Ulster final against Monaghan.
Tír Chonaill boss Rory Gallagher decided to play McFadden along the '40' and the more withdrawn attacking role worked a treat for the side.
“It was a different role for me," said McFadden. "It’s different inside, especially in Ulster football, you’ve a man hanging out of you and you’ve two men in front of you and three and four in front of that again."
McFadden wasn't given room to breathe against Monaghan and was called ashore midway through the second half. But he answered the critics with a top class display against Galway.
Indeed, McFadden's kick-passing was of the highest order throughout last Saturday's Round Four Qualifier. Asked if Saturday's tie was one of the most enjoyable on a personal level, the St Michael's clubman said: “It was hard enough to breathe out there at times!
"But every game is enjoyable when you win. They’re all tough in the middle of it, but the enjoyment comes from the result, not from the freedom that you get out there.”
Playing at Croke Park, he added: “Everything is perfect out there. The conditions are perfect. The footballs are perfect. You can’t have any complaints."
While Donegal’s second half display against Galway was being lauded in the pressbox, McFadden said that their performance would need to “go up a few notches” if they have ambitions of beating their 2013 All-Ireland conquerors Mayo.
“Our second half performance was good in patches but there are a lot of things we need to improve on. I think we need to go up a good few notches on the Galway performance to put it up to Mayo next week.
“Hopefully that’s in our locker and we’re able to do that. It’s going to take a big performance from the 15 boys and the six on the bench.
“Mayo are a top, top side and are definitely unfortunate not to have won an All-Ireland over the last four or five years. They’ve probably been the most consistent team in the country during that time. So they’re going to be a formidable opposition.”
McFadden rejected the notion that the Donegal players will be motivated by their humiliating Championship defeat to Mayo at the quarter-final stages two years ago.
“I don’t really buy into that kind of thing,” he said, “because they beat you the last day. Every day you go out you’re trying to get to an All-Ireland final. Every team’s goal is to get to an All-Ireland final and win it.”
Saturday will be Donegal’s sixth Championship outing of the year, having beaten Tyrone, Armagh, Derry, and now Galway. Although last month’s Ulster final defeat to Monaghan was a bitter experience, McFadden insisted that they didn’t play poorly in Clones.
“We knew the performance in the Ulster final wasn’t too bad but there were certain things we had to improve on. And we addressed them. We only lost the final by a point.
“Monaghan are a top side, so I suppose we weren’t too critical [of ourselves]. It was just a matter getting the body and heads right again [for Galway].”
Christy Toye and Martin McElhinney were surprisingly dropped for the Galway game – but McFadden believed Eamon Doherty and Hugh McFadden deserved their call-ups to the starting XV last weekend.
“I don’t think any of us are surprised about the boys who started. They’ve been pushing hard in training all year and they deserved their opportunity and they did well against Galway. The other side of that is we’ve great boys to come off the bench. In last year’s run to the All-Ireland final it was our bench that was the most important part of our team. Hopefully it’s something we can utilise now against Mayo.”
