From the moment Glen finally got over the line and won their first ever Derry senior title in 2021, it was the consensus view well beyond the county that this would not be their summit.
With Derry suddenly making waves at inter-county level after years of abject failure, outsiders glimpsed sight of a club line-up containing Conor Glass, Emmett Bradley and Ethan Doherty.
Such has been the long-running hype around their current crop of players that last month's Ulster final victory over Kilcoo felt bizarrely overdue - despite it being only their second tilt at the competition.
However, defender Michael Warnock, who turns 30 this week, is around long enough to recall the prevailing narrative prior to Glen's first taste of senior success.
"The narrative was, if you were born in Maghera and played for Glen, then you weren't going to be capable of winning championships," Warnock told RTÉ Sport this week.
"People questioned your character and your manhood as well, and that's something that's been around for years, much longer than I've been living.
"It's something that has given us a chip on the shoulder when we have been playing at senior level as well, and a narrative that we certainly wanted to change, because it's not something that you want your club to be known for, or you individually.
"People saying that Glen didn't have character or leaders, that's something that has been sprouted about for years, and we felt that the only way we could prove different was by winning a championship and ultimately being able to back that up.
"So, it's been nice to be able to do that."
Interestingly, while Glen (aka, Watty Grahams, aka Maghera) were long touted as likely Ulster champions, Warnock says the pressure they felt in the provincial campaign wasn't comparable to the pressure they felt when attempting to get over the hump and win their first Derry title.
"When we won Derry, we felt the shackles were off. You don't feel the same pressure or nerves when playing in Ulster. As players, we weren't sure what to put it down to. I think it's down to the fact that we've got out of Derry and there was such an expectation that we had to win a championship for Glen. That probably eliminated some of the nerves.
"But look, winning Ulster is massive. Two years ago, we were trying to talk to win a Derry championship for the first time and now we're after winning Ulster for the first time. So it's probably happened quite quickly for us."
They arrive in Croke Park for a first All-Ireland semi-final with their reputation further enhanced having dethroned the All-Ireland champions in the Ulster final.
The six-point win over Kilcoo in the Athletic Grounds was a spikey and thoroughly ill-tempered affair - after which All-Star midfielder Conor Glass was minded to make some fairly barbed comments. For Glen, surviving the tempestuous encounter should strengthen their belief ahead of the meeting with the Galway champions, Maigh Cuilinn.
"Kilcoo went to extra-time in the All-Ireland semi-final last year, went to extra-time in the final against Kilmacud and got the winner right at the very end," recalls Warnock. "That shows you how tight it is.
"If we believe we're going to win the All-Ireland now just because we beat Kilcoo, that's just not going to happen.
"We've got to bring a performance on Sunday and if we do that, I have full confidence in our group. I'm sure Maigh Cuilinn would say the same."
In deposing the All-Ireland champions and winning a first Ulster crown, Glen were continuing the remarkable tradition of Derry clubs at provincial level.
Glen's victory meant that Derry edged ahead of Armagh at the top of the Ulster club championship roll of honour - the difference being the latter's tally is largely attributable to one team: Crossmaglen. Though Clann na Gael, we should note, did win a few in the early 70s, along with Mullaghbawn in 1995.
In Derry, by contrast, no fewer than eight clubs have won the Ulster title, far outstripping everyone else. Frequently, the primacy of the club game would be cited as a reason for Derry's poor performance in the championship, particularly in the 2010s, though Warnock, as it happens, is unconvinced.
"In Derry, the club is very, very important," says Warnock. "And people have a lot of love for their club. That takes years and years and years to build. It's not something where you can just decide 'we're going to love the club this year and go for it.'
"It's something that's passed down the generations from your father and grandfather. It's where your priorities are. Are you going to go on holidays? Or are going to stay and play a league game with your club?
"I certainly know in my own club that if you go on holidays, it's frowned upon. You just don't miss a game. That's the expectation we have, as players.
"There's quite a number of rivalries. Bellaghy and Ballinderry dominated the '90s and 2000s. Slaughtneil came along in 2014. Look, every club has their purple patch. We know in Glen that it's not going to last 20 or 30 years. It's very rare that you get a club like Crossmaglen that wins so many championships. We know our purple patch will come and go and someone else will step in."
As if they weren't star-studded enough on the pitch, Glen are under the stewardship of one of the feted inter-county managers of the past decade, Malachy O'Rourke, the Fermanagh guru who presided over Monaghan's steady over-performance from 2013 until 2019.
Asked to account for his success, Warnock pays tribute to the Glen's boss's zen-like qualities.
"A calmness and a lot of experience. One thing people don't speak about is just how nice a person he is. People think he can't be calmer in the dressing room than he is on the line. And he's actually calmer again! I think that feeds into us as players.
"As a group of players, we just love playing for him and Ryan [Porter] and playing for Glen."
