David Moran with his son Eli after the Munster GAA Football Senior Championship Final match between Kerry and Limerick at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.
By John Harrington
At the age of 34 and in his 15th season of championship football, veteran midfielder David Moran is as important now to this Kerry team as ever.
That was apparent from the very first match they played in this year’s Championship – the Munster SFC semi-final against Cork – which was transformed when Moran was introduced after 50 minutes.
Even though the Kerins O’Rahillys man hadn’t played a minute in the League due to a bad groin injury, he quickly proved his class remains undiminished.
His aerial ability and clever distribution allowed Kerry to suddenly take charge of the middle third which gave them the platform to totally dominate the remainder of the match and eventually run out comfortable 12-point winners.
He had to make do with a place on the bench again for the Munster Final win over Limerick, but an injury to Jack Barry meant he was in from the start of the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final against Mayo.
Kerry manager Jack O’Connor admitted afterwards he didn’t think Moran would be able to play the full match, but he was happy to be proven wrong.
Not only did the veteran stay going for all 74 minutes of the contest, he was arguably Kerry’s best player as he kicked two points from play and outshone Mayo duo Matthew Ruane and Aidan O’Shea.
O’Connor might be getting more out of Moran that he might have expected, but Barry John Keane isn’t the least bit surprised to see his club-mate put himself at the forefront of Kerry’s drive to win a first All-Ireland title in eight years.
“I'd say whatever plans Jack had for him he'd have his own plans, because he backs himself," says Keane of Moran. "He'd leave no stone unturned and he's been performing well in the last two games to be fair to him at the age of 34.
“Look, he grew up around football. His father Ogie has eight All-Ireland medals, he'd be driven himself. I suppose he wants to put his own name on his own shirt, he doesn't want to be living off his father's name. He dealt with adversity for those two years where he did the cruciates. He was around the club and you could see he was hurt.
“When you're out of the loop and you're injured you're by yourself and you're on rehab, on rehab, on rehab, and then something else goes.
“I don't think he's putting himself in bonus territory this year. I think he still backs himself because when the body is right he still knows he can compete with the best and he's shown it so far.”
Former Kerry football star, Barry John Keane pictured ahead of the 2022 GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final which takes place this Sunday in Croke Park. Keane was in attendance alongside former Galway player Gary Sice, as the pair teamed up with AIB to look ahead to one of #TheToughest matches of the year between Galway and Kerry. For updates on the match, exclusive content and behind the scenes action from the Football Championship, follow AIB GAA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Moran’s longevity says a lot about his mentality because unfortunately for him, as Keane alluded to, his body hasn’t always been right.
Two ruptured cruciates in the space of 12 months in 2011 and 2012 were huge blows, and his comeback from the second one was further delayed by a retina issue.
The groin injury that ruled him out of this year’s League was a bad one too – he tore his adductor off the bone in the 2021 Kerry SFC Final.
He’s had some tough moments on the pitch too in recent years. In the 2019 drawn All-Ireland Final against Dublin he was stripped of possession for the move that led to Dublin’s equaliser when he had a glorious chance to create what would have been a match-winning score for Kerry.
Then, in the replay, he couldn’t catch Eoin Murchan to prevent him scoring what proved to be a decisive goal for Dublin, a moment he admitted was a “sickener personally” for him.
In the disastrous 2020 Munster semi-final defeat to Cork had had some rash moments in possession in the latter minutes that proved ultimately proved to be costly as the Rebels scored a last-gasp winning goal.
He’s had to show a lot of mental as well as physical fortitude to keep coming back for more in a Kerry jersey, but those who know him best aren’t surprised.
David Moran of Kerry in action against Colm O’Callaghan of Cork during the 2022 Munster GAA Football Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Cork and Kerry at Páirc Ui Rinn in Cork.
Moran was raised on stories of his father Ogie’s glory days and from a young age he had a burning desire to also dedicate himself to the cause of Kerry football.
“When I think of David as a young lad I always remember the 2001 Munster Final,” says Kerins O’Rahillys clubman, Ger Moran, who coached David Moran at underage level and was Juvenile Club Chairman from 1999 to 2004.
“Declan Quill from our own club was playing, he was a prominent player at the time. It was a Saturday morning and I was training the kids. Ogie (Moran) came up to me and asked me was I going to the Munster Final
“Ogie couldn't go because his other son Brian was playing a rugby match and David was anxious to go.
“I wasn't sure, I had kids myself and I'd have to arrange something.
“I said, 'Look, I'll find out'. David was standing there, he was just 11, and he says, 'when will you know can you go?'
“I says, 'I don't know, I'll have to find out!’ So I rang home and my wife was okay to take the kids. So the two of us headed to Cork that day.
“Even from the conversation we had you could tell he was so keen. He had the team in his head and he was telling me what changes they should make, that they should be starting Quill because he could dictate the attacking play, all this kind of stuff.
“We were beaten that day by a point and coming home he was analysing the game and saying the sideline have a lot to answer for. At 11 he was coming out with stuff like that!
“Another time Kerry were playing an All-Ireland Final, I think it was 2002. The Kerry juniors were playing in the All-Ireland Final in Thurles the Saturday before the senior final so Ogie and Dave and Brian headed up and took in the junior game in Thurles on the way.
“Mike Quirke had just come on the scene and was a sub with the Kerry juniors. They were in the stand and David goes down to the wire and roars into the Kerry dug-out, 'Bring on Micheal Quirke! Bring on Micheal Quirke!'
“For the second-half the Kerry management and subs went over to the other side of the field but David followed them all the way around and started roaring 'Bring on Mike Quirke! Bring on Mike Quirke!' again.
“That was the kind of guy he was and still is.”
David Moran of Kerry in action against Jordan Flynn of Mayo during the 2022 GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final match between Kerry and Mayo at Croke Park, Dublin.
Moran might not have the same explosive pace over the first couple of yards that he once did, but he’s such a clever footballer in terms of how he reads the game that it’s rarely an issue for him.
He has a happy knack for being in the right place most of the time, and his combination of high-fielding ability and clever distribution make him a hugely creative force in the middle third.
“He dictates most of our games at club level,” says Barry John Keane. “If we win midfield we win the game, if we don't we probably don't. The more ball he gets for us the better. He's a massive fielder and the way the game is gone there's not many of them, besides himself, maybe Fenton, and, to be fair, the two Galway boys, especially Paul Conroy, who can catch it and move it on quick.
“Whereas you'd see other fellas and they'd catch it and just throw it off to someone. And with the mark now, it's big if you can win a mark and then quickly move the ball through the lines.
“You see with Kerry's play that they're trying to move the ball quickly through the lines. So when they win the kick-out they're moving it to Paudie Clifford and Sean O'Shea and then into Geaney and David Clifford as quick as you can. Kerry are trying to bring back the kick-pass which Jack has always implemented, to be fair to him.”
That’s one of the mains reasons why Moran is such a key cog in this Kerry machine under O’Connor – his ability to launch attacks with accurate, angled long passes that give Kerry forwards the jump on their markers.
“Yeah, he has that outside of the boot pass,” says Keane. He can give that the ball to some fella down the line and leave it outside you and leave it beat you so it's not easy for the back to go for it.
“He has a very good connection with most of the Kerry forwards over the years. I've seen him ask forwards what sort of ball they want to be played in, which way they want it to bounce, and which is their stronger run.
“That's massive on the big days that you have that relationship with someone. He practices a lot. Most fellas would just be kicking around before training.
“But he'd call one or two of the forwards and say we're having 10 balls here and I'm lamping them into you the way you want them. That's why his skill-set is so high.”
David Moran has had to overcome a lot of challenges to be able to continue playing at the highest level for 15 years.
If he gets his reward in Sunday’s All-Ireland Final against Galway, it’ll have been well earned.
