A century not out for 'the Gunner'

GAA news

Ten years on from making his debut in a National League win over Monaghan in 2013, Killian Brady completed the ‘century’ in another impressive local derby victory on Sunday.

The Mullahoran clubman has played 32 times in the championship at senior level, has racked up 52 National League games and lined out 16 times in the Dr McKenna Cup and he described it as “a huge honour” to complete the 100 appearances.

“Starting out 10 or 11 years ago, it probably didn’t seem I would get to this. But it’s great. I’m thankful that every manager I had over the years saw something in me to give me those caps so thanks to all of them and thanks to the lads inside, there’s a good few of them who I played a good few of those years with and I suppose they’re a big part of it as much as anyone else so thanks to them,” stated ‘the Gunner’ after the Longford game.

“Playing that many games, you have to adapt over the years. There’s always a new lad coming every year that you have to try and compete with. I’ve been lucky enough over the years with injuries too, I haven’t been sidelined too much or for too long so that’s a good part of the reason that I have played for so long.

“Hopefully there’s another good season in it. It’s good to get game time today obviously, I missed a good bit of pre-season with injuries and being away for a couple of weeks on honeymoon so just glad to get back, get my feet on the ground. When you’re winning, things are always going well.

“Mentioning managers earlier on, as Terry used to always say, things are never as good or as bad as they look. But things are going well at the minute and we’ll keep it gong that way hopefully.”

The highlight would have to be winning an Ulster SFC medal in 2020, he agreed.

“That’s always the goal every year, to reach the Ulster final and win the Ulster final. To be so far down the road in my career and actually finally get across the line was fantastic. Picking out highlights, I think looking back there were probably more bad days than good days but any day you’re picking up a bit of silverware or big days out in Croke Park are always special.

“The fact that your family are there and your club are there, every day you put on the jersey is special.

“When you get on to the latter part of your career, you’re glad of those opportunities and kind of make a bit more of them. Every year seems to have merged into the next at this stage. As I said, winning silverware is great and all that but I just really cherish being able to represent your club and have your family here to watch it, it’s great, yeah.

“Coming from the family I come from, there’s a bit of pressure there as well,” he laughed, referencing the many successful county footballers from the ‘Gunner’ clan.

“I have big boots to fill I suppose. Ah no, my family are a great support to me. There’s that many of them, they I am bound to have supporters in there somewhere.

“It’s something you think about when you’re out there, you want to make them proud. That’s all that really matters and it’s something that you realise as the years go on, the only people that matter really are your team-mates in there, your family and your clubmates. There are lots of people who aren’t your biggest fan, fans of mine anyway, but you can’t keep everyone happy I suppose.”

Killian is happy with how things are progressing for Cavan, with lots of competition in the squad at present.

“You could probably see that early on in the year, the squad was building and there was definitely that obvious bit of competition. There are a few lads who are on their second year, Evan Finnegan, Ryan O’Neill, they dug their heels in last year and got the work done and it’s kind of paying dividends now this year. They have been brilliant, Brandon got a start today after a brilliant pre-season, he has that bit of sharpness about him.

“Every lad coming in is making an impact and it’s testament to Mickey and James and the rest of the lads, they are putting that squad together. It’s early stages yet, we have that bit of momentum at the minute. We are getting a little bit more consistent, the first 25 minutes were brilliant today, we were doing everything right, holding on to the ball.

“We just let Longford sneak back into it, I suppose we kept them at arm’s length in the second half but we know there will be bigger challenges down the road. If we’re looking to get where we want to get to, there are going to be steeper challenges.

“This has prepared us well for it, getting that bit of consistency that we’re looking for but I suppose the quality hasn’t been great so far, what we’re playing. We’re getting there, we’re getting there.”

Next up is Offaly away, a massive game as Cavan look to cement their place at the top of Division 3.

“That’s huge. It was always going to shape up like that in this division, anyone could beat anyone and that was always going to happen, there were always going to be results that you couldn’t anticipate. But at the end of the day, we can only look after ourselves. Offaly is the next game so we’ll take it one game at a time.”

Will we see another 100 games from the Mullahoran stalwart?

“Yeah, no problem,” he smiled, “I’m sure the legs will hold up to that no problem!”