Junior football doesn't get the headlines that the senior or intermediate grades do during the year, but there are always one or two sides at the level that you can see are ready to take that step up.
Kilmeena have been one of them for the past few years and their captain Sean Ryder has been a man whose wholehearted drive and ambition has been the heart-beat of that push.
Last Sunday evening, just over 24-hours after his side had booked their place in the All Ireland Junior Final, Ryder was in a buzzing clubhouse in St Brendan's Park, ready to talk football and more as he prepared for the biggest day of his footballing career so far.
As the man who will be hoping to climb the steps in the Hogan Stand and accept the trophy come Sunday afternoon, we (the Press ) asked him what kind of a captain does he see himself as.
"I suppose I would be vocal, no point in lying about that. I'll call it as I see it, but I would never have a go at the lads, it would always be encouragement, always with the younger lads in particular.
"You can't go and really piss someone off who is your teammate. It is not about what they have done, there is no negative, it is something you can improve on. I'd be vocal in a positive way. I've been captain most of my life through underage up, we have a leadership group of four or five of us that could be captain; lucky enough for me John (Reilly ) picked me the first year he came in.
"It's not just one person on the pitch, there are so many out there that do it and lead also. There are different types of leaders everywhere and different leaders everywhere, you just have to know which type of one you are."
As for having his speech ready to go if he is (hopefully( called on to do it - that's mostly in the bag already. But not because of cockiness, but it was something he was told to do and have out of the way well before this season even began.
"When Reilly first came in he told me to write the speech at the start of the season, so you never have to think about it again. Just write the basis of it, not to have to think about it again. I did that the first year, now that was about three years ago. I've just been tweaking it since."
The ambition was to win the county title at the start of the year, but so detailed were their preparations, that when they got their schedule from the management for the year, the Connacht and All Ireland championship dates were pencilled in too, Sean told us.
"Reilly is so detailed and planning ahead; he sent out the year's schedule and it had the dates for the Connacht and All Ireland, so you would be thinking about it. Because when you win the county - it's naturally what comes next, he put it in there so we don't plan anything around it. It's been a rollercoaster, but you enjoy it. It has been up and down, game to game."
The All Ireland Junior or Intermediate Club finals are a strange beast, a final you want to win. But a final you only ever want to be in once in your lifetime - because once you get out of a grade you don't want to be dropping back into it, Ryder explains.
"That is the thing, it is just a once-off, unless you come back down, but you don't want that - so it is a once-off thing. The only other time we were here was 20 years ago, so it is a once-off thing in your career. It is amazing to think about it, it hasn't really hit me but it will in a month or two or maybe three, or next season when you look back."
Learning all the time
Kilmeena have been nothing but impressive since they got going in the championship, but there was lots of learnings along the way earlier on in the year in the league that they have drawn on and grown from.
"We started the year awful well, coming back after the lockdown. We had four weeks there where you nearly felt, all right lads, we're playing a bit too well - don't want to peak too soon.
"We were in the league and playing well, putting in good performances against the likes of Balla who are playing senior, we might have lost five on the bounce then. The last one was to Achill in the Cusack Cup final, we were going well in training, but there was an extra ten per cent there that wasn't coming out on to the field - we looked at ourselves, we knew training was going well and we needed to change something to get the extra 10 per cent out of us.
"You can look at our results since then in the league. I don't think we lost a game and then, into championship, we were peaking at the right time and since then it's all been going upwards."
They made their way right through the group stages at their ease in the county championship, but in the final they were given a serious examination by Cill Chomain. Kilmeena didn't play their best that day, but the result was the right one, the one that they needed.
"The performance, we weren't happy with at all. The end result is all that mattered that day for us. But since that day on you've seen the football that we can play and want to play. A bit of nerves that day, might have effected us, but it has been brilliant. Training has been some of the best training we've ever had, just the craic and the tempo, upping it and dropping it, because there has been such gaps between the games. It's tough but enjoyable.
"We have been expressive since then, but yah, since the county final, I don't really get nervous before games, but before the odd one I'd be packing my bag and do get nervous; like before the county final - there was a bit of butterflies there, a bit more than usual, and you probably saw it a bit in our performance; but since then I haven't had a thing of nerves. Just like, look we are here now, it is one game after the next and enjoy the football, because you might never do it again for the club."
All comes back home
Ryder works in Galway as a design and assurance engineer in the medical technology field, and for him, 9 to 5 never stopped being normal during the past two years of the pandemic; it was only when he came home at the weekends for training and games that he noticed things being very different for others.
But on the topic of home, he told us a story of how the wild imagination of a child in the back garden has become reality in recent weeks. "Seanie Barrett, the PRO, my mam used to childmind him so we'd be having games out the back of the house, imagining fake trophies, flags up - Ireland flags, Kilmeena flags would be up and we'd have massive days there and at birthday parties and things like that. He came up to me after the Connacht final and said 'do you remember them days'; I said, 'Of course I do, how could you forget days like that' and now look where we are. Look at where we are now, we were messing about as young lads in the back garden dreaming and now we're here."
Keeping it calm and ready to go
When the minutes are ticking down and the dressing room door is about to be opened on Sunday and they get ready to charge out onto the field, Ryder will be doing his last few rounds with the lads and making sure they are ready to roll, but not wound up for the occasion.
"I'm not a man for roaring and shouting and having lads coming out belting stuff. I'd be worried that they'll belt their man in the first minute. There has to be a happy medium between the two, I'll do what I normally do, a few quick words before the game and I'll know straight away if the lads heads are not right, if they are not right - I'll let them know."
No better man to have to lead the Kilmeena charge towards greatness.
