KEVIN CASSIDY: The Kings of Ulster

MASSIVE congratulations to Glen who claimed their first ever Ulster Club Senior Football title after turning in a phenomenal performance at the weekend.

Before I get to the winners, we must at the stage also congratulate Kilcoo on the fantastic run over the last number of years.

The benchmark that they have set is incredible and their performances should not go unnoticed.

Just a number of years ago, Kilcoo also took the first step to Ulster glory. Like many great teams they were not happy to leave it at that. They reached the promised land of becoming All-Ireland Club champions last year and that is a massive achievement for any club.

Over the last number of years – and indeed after the weekend – a lot of people have had bad things to say about Kilcoo.

For me, most of that just boils down to pure jealousy because in this life winners are hated and losers love to hate.

Any great team, if you look back in history, people always turn on them because other people, for some reason, just hate to see others being successful and that brings a hatred within them.

If we even look at the World Cup this year and the amount of times that the media has turned on big players like Ronaldo and even Messi at the start of the tournament, it’s kind of embarrassing.

Given the amount of success that those two particular players have had over the last number of years, people just cannot wait to tear them down and say that they’re finished. For me, that was the approach that most took with Kilcoo.

The problem is that haters are never willing to work for anything, they are happy just sitting on their asses and hating people or teams that are willing to work and do what it takes to succeed.

I personally think that teams like Kilcoo and special talents like Ronaldo, Messi etc should be celebrated and not torn down at every given opportunity. I’d like to wish them all the very best and congratulate them on a wonderful few seasons for their club and parish.

The baton of champions has been passed to Derry kingpins Glen and when you look back on this particular team’s history then they are more than deserving of the title.

I tipped Glen before last week’s decider because there was just something about them this season that told me that they were on a mission to become Kings of Ulster and now they have achieved their goal.

This particular generation of Glen players have been built from the bottom up, so if there is any club out there looking for a template of how to build a successful senior team then look no further than Glen.

I saw an amazing stat on Twitter during the week where it was posted that this Glen team have won Ulster titles at u-14, u-16, u-18, u-21 and now at senior level. That is just simply incredible for any group of players.

Great credit must go to all the coaches of those Glen teams up through the years and also the committee members.

In order for that to happen, you must have an extremely driven group of individuals who only have the club’s best interest at heart so other clubs please stand up and take notice.

For me, the sky is now the limit for this Glen team and I’m sure that Malachy O’Rourke (below) and Ryan Porter have already dissected Maigh Cuilinn of Galway. The next target for this amazing young group of men will be to claim the biggest price in club football but for now they will just enjoy this special moment. Maith Sibh.