Kilcoo unchanged but reveling in 'bonus territory'

"There's nothing else to do in Kilcoo. You go to Mass and have a few sheep. That's really it. Football is absolutely everything."

That quote to RTÉ Sport's Evanne Ní Chuilinn back in 2019 will probably always follow Aaron Branagan around.

It was an apt way of really hitting home just how central football is to life in a small but tight-knit locality like Kilcoo. Three years ago, as he said it, the Down club had just made the provincial breakthrough by winning their first Ulster Championship.

And fast forward to present day, the remarkable Kilcoo story has developed into one in which they are defending Ulster and All-Ireland champions, having dramatically claimed the national crown earlier this year.

On Sunday in the 2022 AIB Ulster Club final, they tackle the challenge of Watty Graham's, Glen who pushed them oh so close during last year's provincial campaign.

Given that Glen are a coming team who have made the breakthrough in Derry over the last couple of years, and are now aiming to carry that momentum into higher stages, Branagan sees a bit of Kilcoo's past trajectory in Sunday's opponents.

"I'm sure once you get into that Ulster campaign, sometimes it takes for you to be in it for a while to understand the game changes, you know. The intensity's different, the refereeing changes from what you had previously in your club and your county set-up," he said.

"So everything does change and I'm sure (Glen) have learned loads from last year's performance and yeah you could say, I'm sure, they've taken stuff from us as in terms of learn what we learned."

It's easy for the Kilcoo contingent to keep their feet on the ground despite the successes. On the pitch, they still have a target on their backs as the preeminent force in the club