WHO is the pick of the Branagan litter? Aidan Branagan was asked that question at Kilcoo’s superb new community centre last week and there are plenty to consider.
Is it adhesive man-marker Niall, goal-scoring half-back Darryl, half-forward playmaker Eugene, skilful, versatile Aaron or Aidan, equally at home at full-back or midfield, himself?
Turns out it’s none of the above. According to Aidan, the best Branagan of the lot is the relatively unknown eldest brother Mark.
“Mark is actually the best of us all,” says Aidan, without hesitation.
“He has quit now but he was the best player by a mile. He was the forward, you see, the rest of us are defenders.
“He is proud of all of us but at the same time he probably wishes he was playing with us. There are six boys and one girl (Janine) who actually plays for Clonduff because there was no ladies’ football here when she started.”
Mark must have been an exceptional talent because his younger brothers have been absolutely central to Kilcoo’s rise from Ulster contenders to Ulster champions last year and to All-Ireland contenders on Sunday.
Corofin, slick and experienced, are their opposition at Croke Park. The Galway and Connacht champions are a team packed with inter-county stars including Gary Sice, Ian Burke and Liam Silke. On Sunday they bid to become the first team ever to win club football’s most prestigious trophy three times in-a-row but after making Dublin and Leinster champions Ballyboden St Enda’s look very, very ordinary in the semi-final, Kilcoo should not go into the final in awe of their opposition.
“We don’t have any fear of anyone,” said Branagan.
“But at the same time, Corofin are a brilliant team, full of brilliant players and I’m sure they’re going to be very tough to break down.
“They are probably the best club team ever, that’s how good they are. If they’re going for three in-a-row in this era they are a serious outfit. I’m sure they’ll be good.”
Having been involved in two, three, four, five and six in-a-row teams in the Down championship, Branagan is well-versed on how Corofin will be approaching Sunday’s decider. He doesn’t think their bid to make history will have any impact on Kevin O’Brien’s side.
“It doesn’t really affect you,” said ‘Choc’.
“They’ll be just concentrating on the game at hand and let everything else look after itself, that’s the way you would have to approach it.
“I haven’t seen a lot of them but they are just 15 men.”
While Mickey Moran, Conleith Gilligan and Paul Devlin look after issues on the field, Kilcoo have had a fresh input into matters of a more spiritual nature recently. Father Gary Toman, a native of nearby Loughinisland, has become the side’s unofficial chaplain.
GAA fan Fr Toman said Mass the night before the Ulster final and returned on the eve of the All-Ireland semi-final against Ballyboden St Enda’s.
“He said Mass the night before the Ulster final and it was good because he was all into football and it was good craic,” Aidan explained.
“The chapel was packed because the team said we were going and then, when we said that, the whole parish went.
“The last night before the match he contacted the club and said could he come down and say another Mass so it was packed to the gills again. We were out in the graveyard after it. The graveyard was just buzzing with people – everybody was football mad.
“It’s massive. God forbid we don’t get over the line; this is massive for the club and community. Everywhere is buzzing but we live outside the parish so we don’t see as much of the buzz, we don’t really see anyone bar when you come to training. I’m sure for the ones in the village, it’s mad.”
Fr Toman will be in the pulpit this weekend as the Kilcoo players gather their thoughts for the biggest game in the club’s history. It is Aidan’s second All-Ireland final. He and joint-captain Conor Laverty both joined the fray as substitutes when James McCartan-managed Down took on Cork in the Sam Maguire decider back in 2010.
“It was great at the time but your club is everything,” says Aidan looking back on that one-point defeat.
“Playing with the people that you’ve grown up with all your life, it’s something special.
“I can’t say I saw this coming but we always thought we were good enough. This is what we always talked about and what we always aspired to be. This is the pinnacle of where we wanted to be and it’s why we did all the training.
“We always said if we won Ulster anything could happen.”
And while there is no love lost on the pitch at times in the fiercely-contested world of Down club football, Kilcoo’s rivals have got behind their march to the All-Ireland final. The last Down team to reach this stage was Burren way back in 1988 and Aidan says Kilcoo had to battle tooth and nail to win back the county title this year.
“People in Down don’t realise how good the football is,” he said.
“We had serious tough matches getting out of Down this year. The two teams that beat us in the league were Downpatrick and Castlewellan and they both got relegated, that’s goes to show the standard.
“We only beat Rostrevor by a point and on the night I thought they were better than us. I suppose Mickey (Moran) was trying to build it up gradually so that we were peaking for the Ulster championship. In other years we were peaking too early in Down and I suppose that’s the difference he has made – he has brought that experience.”
