Karl Lacey: 'Kilcoo are grounded and ready for the Ulster Club final'

Kilcoo manager Karl Lacey is confident his side remains grounded ahead of Sunday’s Ulster Club Football Final against Errigal Ciaran, despite their emphatic semi-final victory over Scotstown. 

Kilcoo stunned Scotstown — a team that defeated them in last year’s Ulster quarter-final — with a dominant 5-10 to 0-14 win. In contrast, Errigal Ciaran relied on a sensational display from Ruairi Canavan to narrowly overcome Clann Éireann 0-14 to 1-10 in their semi-final. 

For Lacey, maintaining focus is paramount. “It’s probably irrelevant to us as a group. As a player you hide yourself away from all that,” he said.  

“Players don’t need management to put their feet back on the ground. They do that themselves. After the final whistle, we regrouped. We got our huddle, we had our stretch. We had our wee talk. By the time the boys got home, that game was blanked and they were looking forward to the next one and ready to go again.” 

Despite Kilcoo’s semi-final brilliance, they were without free-taker Paul Devlin, who is racing to recover from a calf injury.  

“He’s doing everything he can to be back and we’ll give him every opportunity to be fit and ready for the final,” said Lacey. 

For Lacey, the experience and journey over the past two seasons at Kilcoo is something that he’s enjoyed every step of the way. 

"As a GAA supporter and looking from the outside and looking at Kilcoo you often wondered what the magic ingredient was, it didn’t take me long to figure that out when I went there – just the hunger for success, the drive, the honesty in the group, the humility in the group is something special.” said the four-time All-Star winning player. 

"Even though they won 12 county titles over the last 13 years or whatever it is, it is really impressive, they just take that and then move on to the next thing.” 

Looking ahead to the challenge posed by the Canavan brothers, Lacey is measured.  

“Our heads are down again, and we know our preparation has to be really, really high going into this final against Errigal Ciaran who are a well-coached, well-drilled, high experience with some really good individual players.” 

With both teams well-prepared, Sunday’s clash promises a thrilling battle.