THE smile on Niall Kane’s face was as wide as Kilcoo’s Lough Island Reavy as he trotted from his goal at the end of Sunday’s Ulster Club final.

Standing in the eye of an array of long deliveries pumped into the Kilcoo square, their rock solid netminder was the epitome of their wall of defiance that choked the life of the Derrygonnelly’s bid for a first title.

“We were expecting high balls…they are big lads,” said Kane. “We watched them against Clann Éireann and they got a bit of fortune off it, so it is something we have worked on. Me and big Ryan (McEvoy) have a good understanding. We are happy to get over the line and happy to get another clean sheet.”

Kane was looking on when the Magpies won their last Ulster title, losing his place during the Down championship to Martin McCourt who kept the number one jersey all the way to Croke Park.

It came after an injury-ravaged career in the shadow of older brother Stevie who was the club’s goalkeeper for over a decade. At the turn of the millennium their older brother James was between the posts

“It doesn’t matter if I am in or not, as long as Kilcoo wins,” Kane admitted. “Whoever is in will do as good a job as hopefully I am doing.

“There is myself, Marty and Stevie…any club would be delighted to have any one of us, that’s the way it goes. I am not here for individual awards, I am here for Kilcoo and if Kilcoo are winning then I am happy.”

Kane missed the opening round of the Down Championship when his wife Eilís gave birth to their daughter, but has been an ever-present since their quarter-final win over Carryduff, with Sunday his fourth clean sheet.

“Our training sessions are a dogging match,” said Kane of the pride their defence have in shutting teams down.

“The defenders are trying to turn over the forwards every time and if we finish training with a clean sheet, we are happy enough and we are letting them know about it.”

The other side of his game is his kick-outs and after getting caught out twice after half-time in their win over Ramor, his kicking has been on the highest order on their way to the title, something he prides himself on.

“I hit one away to Aaron (Morgan) and that is the only one we lost, I was looking for the Hollywood pass instead of giving it simple.” he said of Sunday’s final. Glancing at the scoreboard and when asked about the comfortable winning margin (3-10 to 0-3), Kane admits to a good overall performance, but highlighted 1-5 missed during the third quarter and said the nine wides overall was “terrible.”

“It is not good enough at this level and it is something we will work on in the coming weeks,” he said.

When asked to sum up manager Mickey Moran with the first word that comes into his head, Kane didn’t need time to think.

“Legend,” he said of Moran, who dropped him during the 2019 season. “That would be the closest word to describe that man. We owe him everything, we are indebted to Mickey Moran, and it is as simple as that.”