Allstar Derry midfielder Conor Glass has hit out at the GAA's handling of the All-Ireland club final debacle, insisting that an 'asterisk' has been forever left beside Kilmacud Crokes' title win.
Glass said that he initially wanted a replay of the game when it emerged that Dubliners Crokes had defended a late attack by Glen with a 16th player on the pitch.
The former AFL player still believes that as Crokes 'broke the rule', and because the 'rules are there for a reason', Glen were consequently 'entitled to a replay' but he said he accepted within days that this was unlikely to happen.
The debacle dragged on into February and was only resolved when Glen withdrew their appeal against the result.
In an attempt to move on from the row, Glass returned to the Derry team just six days after the club final, starting in the Allianz Football League against Limerick, and now admits he should have taken a longer break.
He stopped short of identifying a link between the hamstring injury which has been bothering him in recent weeks and that failure to take a longer break though did state that it was the first muscle injury he ever suffered.
Crokes have ultimately gone down as the All-Ireland club winners though Glass feels that the title has been 'tarnished' either way.
"Well, it's tarnished now," he said, arguing that it would have been the same if Glen had won it after a replay.
"There's an asterisk over it either way. If we had won it, we would have accepted it but it would have been tarnished as well, like. There would have been an asterisk either way. There's an asterisk over it now and there would have been an asterisk over it had we won."
Speaking at the launch of the FRS Recruitment GAA World Games, which will take place in Derry in July, Glass said he will be fit to face Monaghan in Saturday's Ulster SFC semi-final. He initially suffered a hamstring injury against Dublin in the Division Two league final and suffered a recurrence in the provincial quarter-final defeat of Fermanagh.
"It's all good, it was more precautionary than anything," he said of his early exit against Fermanagh.
"It's been a long year, two years, for me so any chance I can take to get a break I'll try to take it. Thankfully it's all good, I've had a full week's training under my belt now."
Across those two games against Dublin and Fermanagh, Derry surprisingly conceded six goals. Monaghan will be keen to pile on further misery though Glass doesn't believe it is a particular area of vulnerability.
"Not really, to be honest," he said.
"To an outsider looking in, probably it seems that way, because we are conceding goals. But it's an area we think we can get right. We are a good defensive team. Our defensive record in the past couple of years is one of the top three in the country, so we pride ourselves on our defensive work and we know we can stop goals going in, albeit the last month hasn't really shown that."
Similarly, Glass rejected the idea that this is a golden era for the county, arguing that the progress is sustainable.
"I wouldn't say it is a golden era, we have seriously good Derry teams coming through, a serious U20 team, a good minor team and hopefully in five or six years a lot of those players will have come through as well," he said. "It's definitely not a golden era."
