ULSTER kingpins Kilcoo will have a target on their backs once their provincial campaign gets under way next month, and Ceilum Doherty hopes a contender mentality rather than the swagger of champions can continue to serve them well.
The Magpies lifted the Seamus MacFerran Cup for the first time in 2019 but, despite finishing top of the tree in Down again, they didn’t get to defend their crown after the Covid-19 pandemic put paid to all Ulster club activity.
Victory over Burren last Sunday saw them claim the Frank O’Hare Cup for the ninth time in 10 years, securing Kilcoo’s passage back into the provincial shake-up and a December 4 quarter-final date with whoever comes out of tomorrow’s Cavan final replay between Gowna and Ramor United.
For Doherty, though, that long-awaited victory a few years back will count for little once the 2021 action gets under way.
“We’re just another team in the mix and that’s all we can focus on,” he said.
“You have to get yourself there in the first place, then everybody has an opportunity to win it. Look at the preliminary round even, Glen v St Eunan’s - that’s going to be an absolute ding-dong.
“Last year we were in the middle of a pandemic, so we were actually appreciative that football was there at all. There’s more to life than football, but it’s good to be back in Ulster again.
“That’s what we were aiming for and we’re just going to keep pushing on.”
Injury ruled Doherty out of the 2019/20 campaign, but he was instrumental in this year’s Down success – not least during an inspired performance against Clonduff earlier in the championship.
And the Down ace was quick to pay tribute to the members of the Kilcoo panel who didn’t see much game-time along the way.
He said: “If you ever saw our in-house games, they’re played at a hundred miles an hour, so you’re ready for days like this. If you want to be a good team you need boys pushing you on and thankfully that’s always been the case for us.
“We’re a very rural club, our numbers are quite small, so without those boys pushing us on we wouldn’t be here.
“Burren are a monumental side, they’ve been coming with that young crop that won Ulster, they’ve got a good mix. Fair dues to them boys, they’ll be back.
“But when you’re in a good patch you just have to make the most of it because it doesn’t last forever. That makes you appreciate it even more.
“I have friends who say to me ‘I’d love to have played in one final’, so that shows you how lucky we all are.”
Another man who enjoyed the moment was playmaker Paul Devlin, picking up his 10th county medal in club colours in a year that saw him struggling for fitness after picking up a knee injury during the summer.
“You think it is so far away, but it just shows you that if you put your mind to something you can get to where you want to be,” said the Magpies stalwart.
“It is very satisfying especially against our old rivals Burren, who gave everything and with our former manager [Jim McCorry] there and people saying we weren’t playing well... it just shows the character and desire to win is there in abundance.”
