Inside Andy Moran’s rise from Mayo GAA star to county manager

The appointment of Andy Moran to the role of Mayo GAA manager is one that has dominated discourse in the county since last night.

Yesterday (Monday, August 11), the County Board signalled their intention to ratify one of the county’s finest ever sons to lead the line for 2026.

Countless column inches have been dedicated to the decorated inter-county career of the Ballaghaderreen clubman, from his irrepressible 2017 form to the time he rattled the net in 2011 against Cork.

READ: 'I wasn't that good then' - Former Mayo GAA star on almost quitting football

However, when it comes to Moran’s time in management, less has been written about Moran’s time on the sidelines.

Here, we’ll run you through the life and times of Andy Moran after hanging up the Green and Red jersey for the final time.

Moran first dipped his toes in the coaching game in 2020, when he joined his clubman Mike Solan in the Mayo U-20 setup.

"I'm very grateful to Mike Solan for giving me the call asking me, giving me the opportunity to go in with the U-20s and luckily we've a great bunch of lads there," he said on RTÉ 2FM’s ‘Game On’ show

That year, Mayo made it to the Connacht final, where they heartbreaking lost out to Galway in a penalty shoot-out.

In 2021, Moran was handed his first shot at senior inter-county management, succeeding Terry Hyland at the helm of Leitrim.

Leitrim were in a bit of a nadir prior to Moran’s ascension to the role, suffering a record 5-20 to 0-11 point at the hands of Mayo in the last-four of the Connacht Championship.

Moran steadied the ship and brought with him a philosophy of blooding new talent among the senior heads who had toiled the field in prior seasons.

Moran was also in charge of the U-20 side in the county, and played a big hand in providing a historic win in the county’s history, defeating his home county in the Connacht championship for the first time since 1998 last year.

Moran also enjoyed relative success with the senior side. In 2024, Moran secured promotion to Division Three in the national leagues and brought the county to their sixth Croke Park final appearance in their history.

At the end of that campaign, he stepped down from the role. John Connolly, writer with The Leitrim Observer, spoke on the impact he had on the county during his tenure:

“Moran had a few vocal critics, but there is no doubting that Leitrim advanced significantly in terms of strength & conditioning and organisational structures during his term, and there looks to be a core of young players ready to emerge onto the Senior team,” he penned in his column.

“We should wish Andy Moran well for what he has done for Leitrim football - the county was on its knees after a record defeat in Castlebar and he re-ignited the passion of both fans and players.”

The two-time All-Star linked up with Gabriel Bannigan and Monaghan as a forwards coach for 2025

Moran’s successor in Leitrim, Steven Poacher, spoke on standards from previous management teams after taking the job this year.

“For years and years, for counties like Leitrim, sub-standard behaviours have been accepted, and this is, with all due respect, to previous management teams,” Poacher stated.

“But maybe because you stood on a bank and watched a club game with a former manager and was pally, pally. That was good enough for you to slip or to get away x, y, and z”.

Monaghan bainisteoir Bannigan moved to defend his new coach and assumed that, based on what he’d seen with the Farney Army, that Poacher wasn;t referring to Moran.

I have absolutely no doubt that the standards that Andy Moran would have drove at within the Leitrim setup for the three years he was there would have been at the very highest level,” said Bannigan.

"And I have absolutely no doubt that from a player engagement perspective and from an interpersonal perspective, Andy would have really engaged the players and got the best out of the players.

"The players would have responded to his management and his coaching style.”

When looking at the Monaghan team’s scoring stats, there is plenty to take solace with from a Mayo perspective.

The Ulstermen enjoyed league success, securing a Division Two title alongside promotion to the top flight.

One thing which is worth throwing an eye over is the spread of two-pointers. In the Ulster Championship loss to Donegal, where they narrowly lost to the All-Ireland finalists, four players chipped in with two-pointers, and two of those came from the half-back line, which brings us to the next thing he’ll be hoping to implement.

Aside from the lack of two-point scores from Mayo in 2025, another thing that left a lot to be desired was the variety of names involved on the scoreboard.

A lot of the time, the pressure of keeping the scoreboard ticking fell too much onto the shoulders of Ryan O’Donoghue, making it an easier task to keep Kevin McStay’s troops quiet

The same could not be said of Monaghan, who regularly had a plethora of names popping up on the scoresheet both from the bench and other lines of the pitch.

Hopefully, Moran will be able to implant that same philosophy and style onto his native county which he has seen on foreign soil.

Will Moran be able to provide some success, break the stranglehold of Galway on the Nestor Cup?

Will he elevate performances and make Mayo true challengers for Sam Maguire again?

Will he be able to unearth some new gems as club sides battle for their own slices of glory in the heat of championship battle?

Time will tell. One thing is for certain, though. With Mayo, as always, excitement will never be too far away.