Aaron Branagan tells a tale of wildly contrasting bus journeys. Kilcoo have been in each of the last two AIB All-Ireland club finals, both of which went to extra time.
They lost to Corofin in 2020 as the Galway powerhouse completed a historic three-in-a-row and, afterwards, Branagan and his teammates trudged out of the dressing room and into the concourse under the Hogan Stand after the game, dreading the longest journey home.
“I remember sitting on the bus after the match was over and it was the worst feeling I ever had in my stomach,” he recalls. “And I remember looking at the Corofin boys - I hope they don’t mind me saying, there was a few of them having a cigarette and I was thinking, ‘Jeepers I didn’t even put butter on bread for the last two weeks never mind not taking a cigarette’, but we got there.
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“Daryl (his brother) says we will get back, we just have to keep putting our heads down and then when you get that it’s the best feeling in the world.”
That came last February, as they squeezed Kilmacud Crokes out with a dramatic winning goal late on. This time, the coach trip up north couldn’t last long enough.
“A lot of people had said that we scraped it, or we stole it on them. It was probably our worst performance all year and we still got over the line. We just kept digging.
