By John Harrington

The UCC footballers will hope to give team coach Billy Morgan an anniversary to remember by defeating NUIG in Sunday’s Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup semi-final.

This is the tenth year in a row that Cork legend Morgan has coached UCC Sigerson Cup teams and in that time has guided the team to two Sigerson Cup victories (2011 & 2014) to go with the two he won himself as a player.

For UCC players like Cian Kiely, the chance to work with such a storied figure in the annals of both UCC and Cork football has been an experience to savour.

“I first got to know him as a fresher in UCC,” Kiely told GAA.ie. “I wouldn't have known him beforehand at all, never met him. He was someone you would have heard so much about but never met.

“Billy is fantastic, he has great time for every player, every individual. He's a very personable person. Just a fantastic guy.

“Every player gets to know him so well and respects him so well.

He's a figure that you know you can go to and trust, you know you can get advice from.

“When you have that person looking after you, you want to do well for them as well so it works both ways.

“Obviously he's known for being a fantastic footballer, manager, coach, everything. But I think it goes beyond that to something a lot of people don't see which makes him the person he is.”

Kiely is already an established senior inter-county footballer with Cork, the latest in a long line of players who have blossomed under Morgan’s watch at UCC.

Kerry teams have benefited from hot-housing their most talented players in UCC almost as much as Cork have, and there’s a nice sprinkling of Kingdom start-dust again on the current team in the shape of players like Sean O’Shea, Padraig Cliford, Conor Geaney, and Padraig Lucey.

“Yeah, there's always a big showing of Kerry lads,” said Kiely. “I think Kerry lads really, really value UCC and Sigerson Cup, just from talking to the lads on the team.

“In Kerry, there's a huge emphasis put on it, which is fantastic and I think there's a big push to get lads into UCC or CIT and playing Sigerson.

“I see more Kerry forwards coming to UCC than I do backs anyway, so I don't know what that says about them now. Now there's fantastic Kerry backs have come through, but this year there's not as many Kerry backs as there are forwards.

“There always seems to be a lot of Kerry forwards coming to UCC. I don't know what they think of UCC, they might think it's a forward's game down here. I tell them it's a back's game anyway!”

The usual Cork and Kerry contingent in UCC’s ranks have been supplemented this year from some outstanding footballers from further afield such as Tipperary’s Jack Kennedy, Meath’s James McEntee, and Clare’s Eimhin Courtney.

“There's definitely a wider range of players from different counties than I've seen in my time, now I'm only here three years, but last year and the year before it was predominantly Cork and Kerry with a couple of other lads,” said Kiely.

“This year we've got lads from Meath, Limerick, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Galway, Mayo. It's a huge showing we have this year.

“So this year there's less Cork and Kerry than there usually is, with more outside lads. Usually it's about 50/50 with Cork and Kerry.

“Overall it’s a strong team and everyone is working hard so hopefully it’s there for us.”

Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup semi-finals

Saturday

UCD v St. Mary's, Mallow, 3.00.

Sunday

UCC v NUIG, Mallow, 2.00