THE five Branagan brothers – Eugene, Darryl, Niall, Aidan and Aaron – all played their parts as Kilcoo completed an historic five in-a-row in Down on Sunday.
The quintet of hard-working defenders helped restrict Clonduff to just nine points while Daryll scored the Eoghan Rua club’s second goal in a one-sided Pairc Esler final.
Afterwards club captain Conor Laverty described the Branagan brothers as “truly brilliant athletes”.
“They’re fantastic lads to have about the squad and they’ve a great attitude,” he added.
Kilcoo ended a 72-year wait (their ninth came in 1937) for their 10th Down title in 2009. The club is now the most decorated club in the county with 15 and Laverty says the secret to the club’s success is an age-old one – competition for places.
“A lot of it is down to the younger boys coming through and pushing for places,” he said.
“The older boys don’t want to give up their places so there’s massive competition within our squad. This year every member of our panel played a lot of league football and the majority of them played in the championship so it’s all about having a big squad and boys fighting for places.”
Laverty also paid tribute to the Kilcoo supporters who, as usual, turned up in large numbers to cheer their team to victory on Sunday.
“Over the past number of years football is everything in our parish,” he said.
“Should you be a school boy or girl or an old man or woman, Friday night is football night. Everyone goes to the matches – the club is the heartbeat of our village and it means everything to us.
“It’s a great occasion and I hope the supporters enjoy this as much as the players if not more.”
Next up for Kilcoo is a challenge for a first-ever Ulster title and their campaign begins against the Monaghan champions – either Clontibret or Scotstown – on October 16.
“We honestly haven’t spoke about Ulster,” said Laverty.
“We’ve just concentrated on taking a game at a time and producing a performance that we would be proud of and that we would be capable of. Over the next few days we’ll enjoy our celebrations and after that we’ll sit down a reassess what we’ll do in the coming weeks.”
