Antrim hurling legend Terence ‘Sambo’ McNaughton once remarked that your club mates, “are the lads that will shoulder you to your grave."
The bonds and friendships that bind all great club teams can’t be understated and Conor Laverty insists it is at the very core of Kilcoo’s success.
Of course, it helps that one-third of the Kilcoo team hail from the same family with the five Branagan brothers, Aaron, Aidan, Darryl, Eugene and Niall all key members of Mickey Moran’s side.
Yet, Laverty says even those not related by blood still feel like brothers within the squad.
“I think that is the key with the club Championship and that is the difference between club and county,” said Laverty.
“You are playing with boys you went to primary school with, you’ve been friends with them since you were four years of age.
“Even boys who you are not related to – they are like a brother to you and you are best friends with them.
“I think that’s the one thing about the club Championship, that tightness of teams and that togetherness is unbreakable.”
It is perhaps that togetherness that helps keeps Laverty and his teammates grounded. Speaking ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final, Laverty has no desire to look ahead to a potential return to the biggest stage in the club calendar.
One game at a time has always been the mantra. An unprecedented run of success in Down hasn’t changed that, even when the Magpies secured their maiden provincial crown in 2019.
They missed out on adding the All-Ireland title to the trophy cabinet after falling to a great Corofin side – but only after extra-time in Croke Park in January 2020.
Kilcoo then held off the challenge of first-time county finalists Carryduff to win an eighth Down SFC title in nine years, but the Covid-19 pandemic meant they wouldn’t get the chance to defend their Ulster title.
The Down kingpins made amends this season with a devastating 16-point defeat of Derrygonnelly in the Ulster Club final at the Athletic Grounds earlier this month.
Their reward for that stunning victory is a clash with Cork and Munster champions St Finbarr’s on Saturday afternoon at O’Moore Park in Portlaoise (throw-in 3pm).
Despite all their success in recent times, Laverty still remembers the days when a league title felt like an All-Ireland win in the small Co Down village.
"When I started out, we won our first league in 2003 and there were grown men crying on the pitch," said Laverty.
"There are lads on the team now whose dads were playing that day.
"A lot of work went into getting Kilcoo into Division One because we'd been in the lower divisions for years. Serious work went in and we came into Division One around 1999 or 2000.
“To make the breakthrough and realise you could compete with the top teams in Newcastle that day, it was something like a dream. The pitch was covered with people and it was maybe a building block to where we are today.
“All we ever wanted to do was win one Championship – that was the dream. As you progress, you reset your ambitions and your goals.
"We were knocking on the door in Ulster and we just couldn't make that breakthrough.
“I think that heartbreak and the resilience to keep going back to the well stood to us as a team. It would have been easy to just give up hope."
Even before Kilcoo swept aside Derrygonnelly, they’d been installed as outright favourites to lift the Andy Merrigan Cup.
St Finbarr’s have a Down man in their own camp with Conor McCrickard from Liatroim staring in their county and provincial Championship wins.
Laverty believes the scoreline in the Ulster final wasn’t a true reflection on Derrygonnelly’s overall performance and still feels their run through the Down and Ulster Championship will stand to them this weekend.
“We've been lucky over this past number of years to be successful in Ulster,”’ added the Down U20 manager.
“Every game in Ulster is an absolute battle. Regardless of score lines you know after the game that you've been in a battle. There's no bad teams in Ulster, we were just delighted to come out with a victory.”
As well as working as a GAA officer with Trinity College in Dublin, Laverty is a sheep farmer in Kilcoo and is father to five boys, aged 10 and under.
Farming is about the only thing that offers Laverty a bit of rest bite from Gaelic football as his sons are already “football-mad” according to their father.
"When you ask the family what they want to do and all the boys want to go to the field for a kickabout. That’s just the way it is at home.”
With his younger sons already forming friendships with the Branagan boys at nursery school, the next generation's unbreakable bond could already be in its infancy at Kilcoo.
