FIVE senior county titles in five years, six from the last eight, one of the top clubs in Ulster with hugely successful underage teams coming behind to keep the conveyor belt of talent rolling.
Kilcoo have rarely had it so good. Forward Conor Laverty joked during the week that his five-year-old son was growing up thinking the Magpies only ever won trophies, such has been their domination.
Look at their panel and you see family ties everywhere. From the McEvoy contingent to the Branagans who backbone the defence, the Johnstons, the Kanes, the Devlins, the Lavertys, the McCleans and the uncle and nephew pairing of Sean and Darragh O’Hanlon.
This is more than just a club, and Kilcoo chairman Terry O’Hanlon – father of full-back Darragh – is enjoying every minute of the journey, because he knows better than most how far the Magpies have come.
A classy centre-back, O’Hanlon wore the black jersey with distinction for 20 years before hanging up the boots in 2006. A playing career that began at the foot of Division Three ended with Kilcoo on the cusp of something magical.
In 2009 they won the Down championship to end a 72-year bring the Frank O’Hare Cup back to the village in the heart of the Mourne Mountains.
It didn’t happen by accident either, and men like O’Hanlon, Jerome Johnston, Barney McEvoy and Gerry Laverty laid the foundations for the success Kilcoo enjoys today.
“My grandfather and a lot of men won senior championships in the 1920s and ’30s but then the club was decimated by emigration,” explains O’Hanlon.
“There’s a lot of that particular era who are buried across the US, and it took our club nearly 70 years to get back to the top table.
“The club came together as a whole around the late 1980s-early 1990s and developed a coaching policy for all the kids in the club and in the parish.
“I came up through that era, and a group of men worked very hard to get a solid underage policy put in place, and it has thrived ever since. We have a great, hard-working committee who are at the heart of everything.
“The most important thing in our club is our kids, not the senior team, and the way that they’re treated and nurtured through the different age groups.
“Football’s a religion in Kilcoo, it really is, and now we’re here we’re not going away.”
Having conquered the county scene, the challenge now is to transfer that dominance to the provincial stage.
So far, they have tried and failed, and tomorrow Kilcoo take on Derry champions Slaughtneil in the Ulster final – their first since losing to Crossmaglen in the 2012 decider.
“I never imagined in my wildest dreams that we would ever go to an Ulster club final and be the dominant force in Down club football,” continued O’Hanlon.
“I would never have thought that was possible, but it shows you that with the right people in place and the right structures, you can do anything.
“Now we want to be remembered for winning an Ulster title. Burren and Bryansford, two great clubs in Down, are remembered for winning Ulster titles and that’s what we want.
“That’s not to take away anything from the Frank O’Hare Cup or the Down championship, but we want to be remembered for winning the Seamus McFerran Cup.”
Magpies boss Paul McIver suggested earlier in the week that the Magpies had been overlooked in the lead-up to Sunday’s clash at the Athletic Grounds, with the focus instead falling on Slaughtneil’s bid to complete a treble of Ulster titles by adding to the hurling and camogie crowns already won.
O’Hanlon admits this aspect of the pre-match narrative has struck a nerve, as he feels Kilcoo are “every bit as entitled to it as Slaughtneil”.
He added: “There seems to be this thing about Slaughtneil going for the three titles, everybody seems to love that idea, but you must remember that our club is 110 years old and everything we have come through to get to where we are today, we have fought for.
“We are immensely proud of our players and our club. We have worked every bit as hard, if not harder, than Slaughtneil to get here. Everybody seems to have forgotten about our club and what we’ve come through.
“Every player that passes through our club would die for that jersey. They will die for that jersey on Sunday n the Athletic Grounds, they will not leave one stone unturned.
“Let’s put away the romance – we’re every bit as entitled to it as Slaughtneil.”
