IT can be hard to escape championship fervour in Kilcoo.
The latter part of the football and farming shtick doesn’t apply as readily to Ceilum Doherty as his coterie of cousins on the Branagan side, for example, so there has to be something else; another place to break away from the noise, and intensity, even just for a while.
Following Arsenal’s fortunes fits the bill. Unlike Kilcoo, the Gunners have not had too much success to shout about over the past decade but, when he can, Doherty makes the trip across to the Emirates in the belief the good days aren’t too far off returning.
With the Frank O’Hare Cup in the bag once more, the 11th time in 12th years, Doherty made good use of the three-week gap between the Down decider and the Magpies’ Ulster opener against Cavan champions Crosserlough on Saturday.
However, either side of watching Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool, the wheels have started to come off – defeat to Bournemouth before, and last weekend’s 1-0 loss to Newcastle, leaving Mikel Arteta’s men well off the pace already.
“I get over the odd time,” he smiles, “it’s hard between club and county.
“There’s a lot of reliance on Saka still - he didn’t play against Bournemouth and they missed him. I still think we’re missing a striker too; Havertz is good but misses too many big chances in big games…”
Firepower, though, was not an issue as Kilcoo romped to their latest Down title.
Even without the mercurial talents of Ryan Johnston, still sidelined with an ankle injury, Karl Lacey’s side saw off Loughinisland, Clonduff, Mayobridge and Glenn with a bit to spare before easing away from Burren in a one-sided final.
Jerome Johnston is back from the injury issues that have dogged the few years since Kilcoo’s 2022 All-Ireland triumph, while younger brother Shealan, veteran Paul Devlin and the twin talents of Anthony Morgan and Chrissy Rooney show the extent of their cutting edge.
Throw Sean Og McCusker into the mix, and Kilcoo remain a force to be reckoned with as they move towards another campaign determined to reclaim the crown won back-to-back in 2019 and ‘21 (there was no Ulster championship in 2020 because of Covd) before Glen’s emergence as a provincial powerhouse.
The Maghera men are gone now, surprisingly beaten by Newbridge in their county final, leaving a host of contenders wondering if maybe, just maybe, this could be their year. Of them all, though, Kilcoo pack the most recent pedigree.
“We’ve been lucky to have those moments of winning big trophies before. You have to enjoy them, you only have that small time in your career where those things happen so you want to make the best of them.
“But what’s gone in the past won’t win us anything; this is a new season, a new year, fresh faces…”
Others, though, could be excused for looking a little further along the line.
With Kilcoo big favourites to get past Crosserlough, and Scotstown fancied to beat an Erne Gaels side still rejoicing in a first Fermanagh title in 43 years, most observers are expecting a last four repeat of last year’s gripping Ulster quarter-final in Newry.
Twelve months ago, Kilcoo let it slip in the most un-Kilcoolike fashion – leading by four heading into the final minutes, only to surrender that lead before a breathtaking Rory Beggan free broke their hearts in added time.
That defeat, and the nature of it in particular, will have stung for a while through the winter. What the Magpies wouldn’t do for anything crack at the Monaghan kingpins, though Doherty wasn’t entertaining any such talk at last week’s Ulster Club Championship launch in Armagh.
“Listen, you take learnings from it. You look at it, and then you park it because at the end of the day, what’s done is done.
“We have Crosserlough coming to Newry on Saturday, it’s going to be a massive test, so we’re not thinking about Scotstown or anybody else.”
The 27-year-old has already tasted a fair bit of success so far this year, having achieved promotion to Division Two with Down before the Mournemen lifted the Tailteann Cup in July to ensure a crack at Sam Maguire football in 2025.
Doherty, though, had to watch from the wings after suffering a broken wrist in extra-time of their semi-final win over Sligo.
“Och yeah, it was disappointing.
“I sort of fell off the side of the pitch in extra-time and it just went… my arm started going dead on me, I had it strapped, but when the adrenaline leaves you I remember saying to Conor ‘I need to go to hospital here, I think I’ve broke something’.
“We were still hoping it would be grand but it was a double radius fracture, one of those things. You don’t really get much opportunity to play at Croke Park, so you want to be out there, but I was glad the boys won.
“It was a monkey off our backs.”
The injury had healed by the time Kilcoo began the defence of their Down championship, at which stage Conor Laverty was back to being a team-mate, rather than the manager.
That dynamic is unusual alright. For the first half of the year, what Laverty says goes. But back in the club environment, he is still pushing for a place in the team, playing his first minutes of the championship as a late sub in the final against Burren.
With former Footballer of the Year Lacey calling the shots, ex-Derry manager Paddy Crozier and Donegal’s Barry Dunnion alongside him, as well as the wisdom of men like Laverty and Aidan Branagan to call upon, it is a heady mix.
“It’s a lot of good men, and you be really appreciative that you have them. But at the same time, when the 15 lads and the lads coming on take the field, then it’s on us to do it. It’s great to have those men but we take responsibility when we’re on the field.
“With Conor, you sort of know that whenever you’re representing Kilcoo, he’s just another panel member. Listen, he works as hard as everyone else in training, but that’s the way it’s left – it’s a different dynamic when you go and represent your county.”
An evolving role with Down has extended to Kilcoo as well, with Doherty the dynamic wing-forward now replaced by the dogged man-marker, ready to raid from deep at any opportunity.
In the last two county finals, he has held Liam Kerr to a combined total of two points, while plenty more have found him hard to shake once the white line is crossed.
That change, that challenge, is something he has embraced.
“It was probably just a case of people seeing what you can do in games… we have a lot of hard people to mark in training, the likes of Jerome, Ryan, Shealan, and so you sort of base yourself on that.
“Then if you’re attacking, you have a very hard defence to try and break down, so it gives you a really good measure of where you are, and it means you’re fully prepared for whatever job you’re handed when the game comes around.
“Wherever you’re put, you be given a job and you go hell for leather. I’m happy to play anywhere, genuinely.”
