It is the rematch everyone wanted to see.

Not that Glen would ever want a book to be written about the events of 12 months ago. It was the biggest day in the club’s history. It also turned out to be arguably the worst.

Naturally, there was the pain of losing an All-Ireland final to Kilmacud by two points, but that pain soon turned to anger upon realising that the Dublin side had defended their goal with 16 players in the dying seconds at Croke Park.

Those associated with Glen will tell you that Kilmacud were the better team on the day, but there is no question that the 2023 All-Ireland Club final will be forever remembered for the hugely contentious conclusion that dominated GAA headlines in the weeks that followed.

Of course, in the aftermath, the possibility of Glen being afforded the chance for revenge in the form of a replay became very real, only for the Derry champions to end their pursuit, thus confirming Kilmacud as the champions for the third time.

When Glen confirmed their decision to withdraw from the process that may have ended with the final being replayed, they signed off their statement by saying “we will go again”.

They meant it. Again guided by manager Malachy O’Rourke – who was linked with the Derry job before Mickey Harte took over – the Maghera club completed a hat-trick of Derry titles and retained their Ulster crown to set up Sunday’s hotly-anticipated rematch.

‘It’s history for us’

Chasing revenge may well be uppermost in the minds of the Glen players, but they certainly haven’t been saying as much in the build-up.

“It’s history for us, to be honest,” Glen defender Michael Warnock said in the immediate aftermath of beating Scotstown in last month’s Ulster final.

“We met and made the decision that we weren’t good enough on the day and we decided to park it.

“That was our motivation for this year. We wouldn’t have gotten out of Derry focusing on Kilmacud.

“Look, that’s what we’re up against. It’ll be a great story for the media considering what happened last year, but we’ll just focus on ourselves.”

If, as Warnock said, Glen managed to banish the torment of their first All-Ireland final appearance, it has served them remarkably well.

The Derry championship is fiercely competitive, but again Glen were simply too good, counting rivals Slaughtneil among their scalps on their way to the final before powering past Magherafelt.

In Ulster, they beat Cargin and edged out Naomh Conaill before seeing off a much-fancied Scotstown side who had shocked 2022 All-Ireland champions Kilcoo in the quarter-finals.

Glen look as sharp and fit as ever. While the likes of Conor Glass and Ethan Doherty have carried their form at county level into the another gruelling club campaign, the Watty Grahams have several players operating at their peak.

Eunan Mulholland was outstanding in the Ulster final, Emmett Bradley – who opted out of the Derry panel in 2023 – has been a titanic figure in midfield alongside Glass, while Ciaran McFaul, who missed the 2022 season, has excelled.

It begs the question – are Glen even stronger than they were 12 months ago?

“I think every year we’ve stepped up,” says Derry’s 1993 All-Ireland winner Enda Gormley, who is one of several people responsible for knitting together Glen’s golden generation through years of coaching following his 20-plus year playing career for the Maghera club.

“When we won our first county title two years ago, we were unlucky enough in the Ulster semi-final and then last year we went all the way to the All-Ireland final.

“They’ve gained a lot of experience and a handful of the players have county experience and experience of high levels of county and underage football.

“Year on year, they’re getting used to each other and they’re believing more in each other. Hopefully they are a better team but possibly Kilmacud are saying that too.”

Walsh and Mannion on form for Crokes

Gormley has a point. It would be hard to argue with the contention that Kilmacud are even better.

Perhaps irked by fielding questions about their latest All-Ireland triumph having an asterisk attached to it, the Dublin juggernaut have been trending upwards as the season has progressed.

They have faced the odd scare, of course, needing penalties to see off Raheny in the Dublin semi-final. Since then, however, they won the county final by eight and their three provincial matches by 11, five and seven to become the first club to complete a Leinster hat-trick.

Perhaps ominously for Glen, Galway star Shane Walsh – who transferred to Kilmacud in 2022 – hit 2-15 in those three Leinster games, while Paul Mannion has dazzled in a deeper role having won a seventh All-Ireland title with Dublin last year.

With captain and reigning club footballer of the year Shane Cunningham and Dara Mullin also posing significant threats from forward areas, the Glen defenders are facing up to an almighty task.

It is also worth noting that Kilmacud’s latest Dublin and Leinster titles were captured without key players such as Michael Mullin, Cillian O’Shea and Conor Casey, who have all taken the year out.

So, what must Glen do to exact revenge on Kilmacud and book another big day out at Croke Park?

“Possession,” offers Gormley.

“It sounds terrible but you can’t score without the ball. Having possession and getting it into the scoring areas as quickly as possible.

“And taking our chances. That’s maybe the one thing we’ve had to improve on, in the earlier rounds in Ulster, we weren’t taking our chances.

“That was better in the Ulster final but we need to move it up a notch again and make sure we don’t give away cheap frees. They’re obviously going to score so much but it’s about limiting that.

“We’re underdogs and I can understand why we are. However, we’re only slight underdogs and we’ll have a serious chance.

“It’ll take a big performance and we know that. Anything less than a really strong performance won’t be good enough.”

The winners of Sunday’s semi-final in Newry will face either St Brigid’s (Roscommon and Connacht) or Castlehaven (Cork and Munster) in the Croke Park final on 21 January.

St Brigids and Castlehaven face each other in the first semi-final in Thurles earlier on Sunday (13:45 GMT).