AIB Ulster Club SFC Final

Slaughtneil (Derry) v Kilcoo (Down), Athletic Grounds, 2.30pm

Both of these teams bring an impressive body of work into Sunday’s AIB Ulster Club SFC Final.

Kilcoo have won five Down Championships in a row, while Slaughtneil have annexed three Derry titles on the trot, were Ulster champions in 2014, and All-Ireland Finalists the following February.

It’s a heavyweight clash, and the only thing you could say with some certainty is that it’s likely to be a very close contest.

It’ll be interesting to see what sort of impact the fact that Slaughtneil have already recently won an Ulster title will have on the contest.

Will they be more self-assured than a Kilcoo team desperate to add a provincial crown to their five county titles, or will the Down side have a little bit more hunger purely because they haven’t been to the top of this mountain yet?

They’ve played an awful lot of good football in the Ulster Championship over the course of the last five years, but this year their style has been complemented by more steel.

Their semi-final win over Armagh champions Maghery was a comfortable one, but they had to show a lot of doggedness to defeat Monaghan champions Scotstown in the first-round and then Donegal champions Glenswilly in the quarter-final.

Those same battling qualities will be required against Slaughtneil on Sunday, because the Derry champions are a hard-boiled outfit who play with a fantastic controlled aggression.

Players like Patsy Bradley and Chrissy McKaigue give them a real presence in the middle third of the field, and if you’re not willing to go toe to toe with them there then you’re in trouble.

The fact that Slaughtneil have already won two Ulster titles this year – senior hurling and senior camogie – is a testament to the winning mentality in the club, so they’ll be confident they can grind this out if they’re in the game deep into the second-half.

Kilcoo will be well briefed on the particular challenge that Slaughtneil pose though because their manager, Paul McIver, is a Derry native and has plenty of experience of playing and coaching against them in the past.

“I would know Slaughtneil inside-out, having played against them and been in round the Derry camp this last number of years,” he told The Irish News. “I know the work that they’ve put in.

"Sheep-farming and football are the things that take precedence in Kilcoo and I know around Slaughtneil they’re into their hard work and their football - that’s what takes precedence there. They’re two clubs that are very similar in everything that they do, so it’ll be interesting.

“I’ve played against quite a few of them - but not the younger breed. I was assistant to Martin McKinless in 2008 when we beat them in the championship and went the whole way to the Ulster final. Being from Ballinderry, we’ll have a lot of people who will give us a good insight into what’s happening.”

Kilcoo will believe that if they can match Slaughneil for graft, then the class of forwards like Conor Laverty, Ryan Johnston, Callum Doherty, and Paul Devlin.

The Derry side are very rarely outworked though, and are driven by the desire to create that unique piece of history by being three-time Ulster champions in the same year.

---