Aaron Branagan of Kilcoo pictured today ahead of the 2022 AIB Ulster GAA Football Senior Club Championship Final, which takes place this Sunday, December 11th at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh at 1pm. The AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Championships features some of #TheToughest players from communities all across Ireland. It is these very communities that the players represent that make the AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Championships unique. Now in its 32nd year supporting the Club Championships, AIB is extremely proud to once again celebrate the communities that play such a role in sustaining our national games.
By John Harrington
It’s often said that winning on All-Ireland title is difficult, but winning a second is tougher again.
Sometimes a team’s ambition is sated by finally reaching the top of the mountain, the physical demands of going again after a long season can just be too much, and for many the pressure of having a target on your back every time you play can be mentally exhausting.
So far at least, 2022 All-Ireland club football champions Kilcoo don’t appear to be diminished by any of the above conditions.
They’re back in an Ulster Club Final on Sunday, and on the way to it have arguably played better football than they did in their All-Ireland winning season.
And rather than feel burdened by the task of defending an All-Ireland title, according to defender Aaron Branagan they feel less pressure than they did this time last year.
“Down was hard to come out of this year but I think with having won the All-Ireland, there's a lot more pressure off us and football's a lot more enjoyable,” says Branagan.
"People don't really see this side of the GAA but not that it's not enjoyable but when you're in that winning environment there's a lot of pressure on you and sometimes the enjoyment can go because there's so much pressure on.
“I know after we won Down there was a pressure to win Ulster. And once you win Ulster, you get beaten in an All-Ireland final, there was that pressure to get back there. And now we've got to that Holy Grail, there's less pressure now because it's all bonus territory. Everything we do now is a bonus.
“Of the last 12 years I've been playing football, I would say the last two matches have been the most enjoyable I've ever partaken in.”
Kilcoo players, from left, Niall Branagan, Aaron Branagan, Aidan Branagan, Eugene Branagan and Daryl Branagan celebrate with the Andy Merrigan cup after the 2022 AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Final match between Kilcoo, Down, and Kilmacud Crokes, Dublin, at Croke Park in Dublin.
In an interview in 2019, Branagan famously said the reason people in Kilcoo are so obsessed with football because there’s little else to do in their parish apart from go to mass and rear sheep.
He wasn’t being facetious either, which is probably why their appetite for success has been in no way sated by winning the All-Ireland title.
“It's the epicentre of the village and some people say 'you need to live a little'”, he says. “Funny, we went to New York this year on our players' holiday and my brothers came and it was like if you've ever seen Mick Dundee when he came to New York, that was sort of like what our boys were like out there. They're slightly untouched to the real world!
"But the quietness of Kilcoo, that's what makes Kilcoo what it is and I genuinely meant that when I said that (in 2019) and I stand by that quote. I wasn't saying that as a smart thing, that is literally what Kilcoo is.
"People often ask what would the island of Ireland be like if everyone played rugby, or if everyone played soccer, and would we be special?
"You think of like the All Blacks in New Zealand, but we just happen to come from a village where this is the only thing we have and no one does soccer, no one does hurling, no one does rugby - so we're all singing of the same hymn sheet.
"With that, we have gotten success, and from such a small parish we're punching away above our weight, and it solely does come down to the fact that we have nothing else.
It’s a testament to the size of the challenge that Kilcoo will face in Sunday’s Ulster Final against Derry Champions Glen that the bookies can’t separate them.
Shealin Johnston, right, and Niall Branagan of Kilcoo celebrate at the final whistle after the AIB Ulster GAA Football Club Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Glen and Kilcoo at Athletic Grounds in Armagh.
Last year Kilcoo required extra-time to finally get the better Glen in a ferociously fought Ulster semi-final, and Branagan expects the Derry side will have learned a lot from that experience and be the better for it.
"I'm sure once you get into that Ulster campaign, sometimes it takes for you to be in it for a while to understand the game changes, you know,” he says.
“The intensity's different, the refereeing changes from what you had previously in your club and your county set-up,"
"So everything does change and I'm sure (Glen) have learned loads from last year's performance and yeah you could say, I'm sure, they've taken stuff from us as in terms of learn what we learned.”
One thing is for sure, if Glen are to topple Kilcoo on Sunday they’ll have to play to their very best because the reigning kings of the game are in no rush to vacate their throne.
“When you get to the top of the mountain everyone is coming after you then,” says Branagan.
“It's more pressure for the fans around here than use because they commit so much to it and you don't want to let those people down as well.
"But you can only do what you can do. Every night we can honestly put our hands up and say we've trained really, really hard and have tried our best. And whatever happens, happens.
“We'll back ourselves that we're doing the hard work and should get the reward after each game.
"As Mickey Moran always said, if you train hard you'll get the wins. And we know we're still doing that so we hope it still keeps going the way it's going."
