Christmas was a little different for Glen this year. There were joyous celebrations after their Ulster Club final win over Kilcoo on 11 December, but with an All-Ireland debut on the horizon, beers and selection boxes took a backseat over the festive period.

"But look, you're playing the game that you love and training at a time of the year when people probably say you shouldn't be training.

"But for us, there was a great buzz with that. For years we watched other teams perform at this level and thought 'will we ever get there' so we're grateful to be in this position and hope to not take it for granted."

'This position', of course, translates to Glen being recognised as one of the best teams in Ireland.

Up to 2019, Glen had never contested a Derry final. Their first that year ended in defeat by Magherafelt, but they have since established themselves as the leading force in the Oak Leaf county, picking up back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022.

Provincial success followed at the second time of asking last month, sinking the reigning All-Ireland champions Kilcoo to lift the Seamus McFerran Cup for the first time.

Now it's on to the hallowed turf of Croke Park to face Galway's Moycullen and a chance for a few of the Glen boys to avenge Derry's All-Ireland semi-final defeat by the Tribesmen last year.

To reach this stage, Glen again conquered Derry before beating Errigal Ciaran in their Ulster opener, with Warnock showing remarkable resolve by taking to the field just hours after his grandfather had passed away.

Against Errigal, they trailed by four at half-time only to outscore the Tyrone champions 2-9 to 0-4 in the second half. Cargin pushed them all the way in a tense semi-final while Kilcoo refused to accept defeat in an absorbing final until Alex Doherty's last-gasp goal sealed it for the Watty Grahams side.

As Glen now know, Ulster titles don't come easy, but Warnock hopes the manner of those victories will aid their quest to replicate the juggernauts of Ulster club football - Crossmaglen, Kilcoo, Slaughtneil - and make a lasting impression in the All-Ireland series.

"I know Aaron Branagan touched on it from a Kilcoo perspective before the Ulster final that they didn't believe in team-bonding weekends because they felt winning close games brought you together more than a weekend in the Downings for example," explained centre-back Warnock.

"And he's 100% right. There's no greater way of bringing a group together. We've got a lot more confidence and belief in ourselves that it's OK to just get through a game.

"You're not always going to perform, but you can do enough to get you through. That's why Crossmaglen, Kilcoo and Slaughtneil are real household names because they just seem to find a way all the time.

"That's hopefully something we're ingraining into ourselves. It'd be good if we could but time will tell."

Like Glen, Moycullen have enjoyed an impressive rise over the last three years. They won their first Galway title in 2020 and conquered Connacht for the first time in 2022 after a second county success.

And with players like Sean Kelly, ex-Antrim player Owen Gallagher and Dessie Conneely contributing to Galway's run to last year's All-Ireland final, Warnock is expecting a game of "serious intensity and heavy hitting".

Some of those hits are likely to come from the indefatigable Kelly, who is far from done despite a gruelling schedule in 2022 in which he won a Sigerson Cup with NUIG and captained Galway to promotion to Division One and the All-Ireland final before the club season.

"Between the FBD League (Connacht competition), Sigerson, National League and the Connacht and All-Ireland runs with Galway it was mentally fatiguing before going back in with the club," admits Kelly.

"It has been a long year but enjoyable. Where else would you want to be in the middle of January? Getting ready for an All-Ireland Club semi-final, it's where every club player wants to be."

In the last year Kelly has tussled with David Clifford and Rian O'Neill at Croke Park so the 25-year-old - whose brothers Paul and Eoghan are also on the club and county panels - will undoubtedly relish whichever man-marking assignment he is handed against Glen on Sunday.

"They're a similar enough team to us," added Kelly.

"They have that same strong running game and they're solid defensively. They like to express themselves going forward but I think we match up well with the same type of players.

"It'll come down to who suits Croke Park the best, obviously it's a bigger pitch with more space. We obviously have that confidence in ourselves, but we'll respect them as well."