Pat Spillane Jr is watching enviously as his Sligo team-mates prepare for another crack at Galway in the Connacht semi-final.
The Yeats County had a somewhat unusual path to the decider last year, beating London and New York before suffering a 14-point beating at the hands of the Tribesmen.
Tony McEntee's side avoided what many saw as a potential banana skin with a comfortable win over Leitrim last weekend and are hopeful of closing the gap on Galway when they meet again on Saturday week.
But the Kerry native will be on the sidelines as he continues to recover from a league-curtailing groin injury, something that he feels is a bigger challenge in the condensed split-season calendar.
"Unfortunately, I'm looking at another couple of weeks out now," he told RTÉ Sport at the launch of the AIB GAA Football Championship.
"It has been a frustrating couple of weeks. I was delighted to see the lads get the result the last day, it was a strong performance.
"It was sort of a load-induced injury so it was a hard one to manage given the amount of games coming at us.
"It is what it is. Every county is dealing with it, a lot of players are dealing with it. I'm fortunate that it's not a serious injury and I'll be back to see game time this year.
"I'm buzzing to get back. I'm nearing the end of the rehab process now, thank God, hopefully I'll be alright for the group stages."
What can Sligo do differently against Galway this time around?
"We played quite well for 20 minutes and a couple of errors really turned the game on its head. They were self-inflicted and led to a couple of goals.
"The game fell away from us [then[] but we'll take confidence that we can play against these teams when we're at our best.
"We'll need to be a lot sharper than we were last year but hopefully we put in a performance."
Spillane qualified to play for Sligo in 2022 through his mother Rosarii and his arrival has coincided with a purple patch for the county, who won Division 4 of the Allianz Football League last year, as well as competing in the Sam Maguire series, and finished an impressive fourth in Division 3 this term.
"I suppose I've been fortunate with my timing joining Sligo," he said.
"I've come at a time when a lot of good things are happening, a lot of things are falling into place in terms of the development of the county and the players coming through.
"There is a lot of positivity, particularly around the underage with what is going on. Colleges teams making All-Ireland finals, a lot of the young lads are stepping up to senior level. There has been brilliant development over the last few years, so you'd be optimistic about the future.
"A lot of the lads are the same age as me, so the timing has been good. I've benefited from that and I've had an enjoyable three years.
"Results aside, everything else aside, they are a lovely group. It is a really enjoyable team to play for, we play a nice brand of football, with a great set-up."
