All-Ireland Senior Club Championship semi-final

Kilcoo v St Finbarr’s

Saturday, 3pm, O’Moore Park

By Michael McMullan

POLITE and ecstatic are two words that perfectly sum up Ceilum Doherty in the aftermath of Kilcoo’s post-game Ulster final celebrations earlier this month.

The energy he radiates mirrors his performance. Doherty did the heavy lifting by getting inside Derrygonnelly to help carve out Daryl Branagan’s goal. Then, after being involved in the move some 20 seconds earlier, back in their own half, he finished their second goal, taking his season tally to 2-10.

Doherty’s eyes are buzzing in the same manner as the words drop off his tongue.

In a football fanatical parish like Kilcoo, this is dreamland.

But this was a first for Doherty. Ankle surgery forced him out when the Magpies conquered Ulster in 2019. This time he hopes he’s ‘earned’ his Ulster medal. Herein lies part of Doherty’s motivation.

“When you were a child, all you ever thought about was playing in Croke Park and I didn’t get the opportunity in 2020,” states Doherty who describes those games in the back garden, in his youth, dreaming of playing at headquarters.

“Cork teams are always good and if you beat a Kerry team (Austin Stacks) you are no bad team either,” Doherty points out of a ‘mammoth test’ against Saturday’s opponents.

“We are in a two-horse race to get to Croke Park. Finbarr’s are going to be ready for us, they are going to do our homework and likewise.”

You don’t have to be in Doherty’s company too long to pick up on his undoubted love of football. He fits the Kilcoo psyche like a glove.

When asked what it feels like to score an Ulster final goal, video footage flows back to the 2016 decider defeat to Sleacht Néill and Conor Laverty putting him through.

“I went for the goal and I skied it and that still plays in my head,” he admits.

This time he made no mistake, tucking low to the net after Jerome Johnston flicked the ball into his path when Paul Devlin’s long, angled delivery created the opening.

Doherty speaks of the ‘clockwork’ nature of Kilcoo attack, with everyone on the ‘same wavelength’. In their perfectly mastered counterattacking blueprint, space in attack is their friend.

“I have never played with a smarter player,” he says of Conor Laverty, one of his heroes growing up. “He makes life so much easier for you and you know when you are going through he always finds you. Even when you think he doesn’t see you, he sees you and I don’t know how.”

After making his championship debut against Burren in 2015, there was the delight at getting a chance to play with his ‘idols’ from the 2009 breakthrough team that later added three-in-a-row.

“They are the lads you look up to, they were my idols growing up and they gave me the aspiration,” Ceilum said.

At primary school, he was in a class with Eugene Branagan. Going to school the contents of the school bag were slight. The ball under the other arm was more important. In those minutes between break and lunchtime, Branagan and Doherty pondered over the selection of two teams. When the bell rang, they would squeeze every drop out off their playground action.

“Our teachers won’t like us saying that, but that’s all we wanted to do – football, football, football,” Doherty remembers.

Laverty, a driving force behind all things Kilcoo, would take coaching in the school and small sided games was in full swing.

“We were doing three man weaves when it was unheard of, with palmed goals. Conor had that bred into us from a young age,” Ceilum explains.

“Jerome (Johnston) senior, he was another guy that really helped us and he was an inspiration. He is my uncle and he was always there for me.”

But, with a slight build, nailing down a regular senior was going to take time. The bodyweight exercises at u-16 level were replaced by a specific conditioning programme at senior level to put on ‘a wee bit’ of muscle.

Mickey Moran brought Ollie Cummings on board as strength and conditioning coach, the man that kept the well-used Sleacht Néill bodies in tune during Moran’s tenure.

The Kilcoo players would come up to his gym outside Maghera at specific times during the year for reassessment, another example of a thirst for anything to inch closer to dreamland.

“We have Aaron Branagan (a conditioning coach) in our squad as well,” Doherty adds. “I am like a sponge, anything he says in the gym I take it in. It takes everyone at training to push you on, to make sure everyone is better.”

Running drills and shooting practice are all the same, nothing less than the best is accepted across their extended panel. Many only get to pull on a senior jersey in the Corn an Duin, a competition to keep clubs ticking over during the inter-county season. Many are the experienced heads from Kilcoo’s earlier winning teams.

“Whenever a drink ban is called or training is called for eight o’clock in the morning, they are the first boys there pushing it on,” Doherty stresses.

It keeps everyone honest and Doherty knows that playing for Kilcoo is about so much more than the starting 15.

“At the end of the day, it is all about keeping the jersey in a better position,” Doherty said.

He points to the young Kilcoo fans ducking through the celebrations, looking for their heroes.

“They are the guys who are going to take our position when we are gone. That’s bred in Kilcoo, for the short term is all about making the most of it.”

On Saturday, Ceilum Doherty plays in his first ever All-Ireland semi-final. The dream of playing at Croke Park is within touching distance.