INTERVIEW: Boss Moran to lend insights to young Mayo cubs in All-Ireland final

​THERE are a million variables that can happen on All- Ireland final day, and a million things which make it different from just any other Sunday.

From the presidential handshake to the roar so loud it hurts your brain to the big glistening trophy sitting above the tunnel in the Hogan Stand, the centrepiece of the GAA calendar is truly an experience like no other.

However, if you’re looking for someone to guide you and prepare you, you’d struggle to find someone more well-equipped than Andy Moran.

Every minutiae will be accounted for long before that team bus pulls into the GAA’s Mecca. The man is obsessive in the extreme, and if this Mayo team is unsuccessful, it certainly won’t be for being blindsided.

This is a man who has been there on the third Sunday in September more times than he cares to remember, after all.

“There's a few shots I always remember,” Moran reminisced when asked about what he wished he did different from his playing days. “In 2004-2006, Kerry were way better than us. That was it. Simple as that. That was that easy.

“But from 2011 on, when we went on that kind of run, we did an awful lot right. It was just like we came up against teams that were just… the Donegals, the Dublins, the Kerrys. They were just at the peak of their powers.

“You can do it all right. But if Diarmuid Connolly, Cormac Costello, and these boys (are) coming off the bench, it makes a big difference.

“But I don't think there's one thing in particular that I would look back on, and say ‘I wish we changed that. I wish James did this. I wish Stephen did that.’ It's not the way my mind works.”

RESET AND GO AGAIN

It is still early days in the lifespan of this new team under the tutelage of one of the county’s finest footballing sons.

However, the nadir of his time at the helm to date is undoubtedly the Roscommon humbling.

The mood music was low in the camp. However, the five-week run-in to the Monaghan All-Ireland opener was invaluable, per Moran.

“Before, you'd nearly take a week off after you played a game. And then you'd start ramping up again. We never got that opportunity. We played the league, played seven games, won five. Went to London.

“Then all of a sudden you get a five-week block. What it allowed us to do was settle ourselves. We got all the under-20s who lost then on that Wednesday.

“We wanted that Under-20 team to go and really try to progress into the All-Ireland Series, but they lost, and it really helped our team because we got Eoin McGreal, Darragh Beirne and Kobe McDonald back fully.

“They came into our group, so that allowed them to come together. And then the leadership group I'm talking about. That group of Jack Coyne, Jack Carney, Hession, McBride, Jordan, and Rhino (Ryan O’Donoghue).

“They just kind of took the group together and said, ‘Okay, it's time for us to really take the leadership of this group’. Nothing to do with tactics, nothing to do with anything like that. What do we want to do out of this? Where's our hard work going?”

TURNING POINT

The commitment of that aforementioned leadership group was intrinsic in getting the team and the county motoring and back on their feet.

One instance of extreme commitment from the totemic Ryan O’Donoghue was touched upon by his bainisteoir.

“I often reference that. We went up to Ashbourne to play Meath in a challenge. Ashbourne is four and a half hours away from Belmullet.

“So on a Thursday night, Ryan O’Donoghue had to go to work the next morning. And S&C is going mental on me that we're playing this game.

“He didn't give out. Said ‘No, let’s rock’. Played him for 50 minutes. He went down the road, went to work the next morning. There was no problem. Probably got home at three o'clock.

“It was a great challenge match and one of the reasons why we're where we are today.”

TRALEE LEARNINGS

From there, it was onto Kerry talk.

The sample size of games against Jack O’Connor’s game is minimal, having only gone toe-to-toe with them once in a National League beating in Tralee.

However, every loss is a lesson, and that was certainly the mindset of Moran and his troops when examining the tale of the tape from that day.

“Our shot efficiency was way below where it was. I don't like using stats as a thing because I do think it's more than that. I think we actually got more shots than Kerry that day.

“But our shot efficiency was way below in terms of the pressure they were putting on the ball. It was huge. We obviously gave Kobe his first start that day. We started a few different fellas.”

“The biggest learning from it for us is we were 9-3 up in that game. After 20 minutes.

I think we went in 12-9 down or something. And then we came out after halftime and I remember the wind just took off. I was like, ‘we're in a bit of bother here.’”

That day also further widened Moran’s eyes, if they could be widened any further, to the predatory nature of Sunday’s opponents when they smell blood.

“If you're not on your game against Kerry, they'll rip you apart. If you sit in a low block and you do that sort of stuff, you might be able to curtail them but they'll eventually beat you.

“But if you want to play them and you want to go after them and try to pressure them and you're not on your game, they'll hammer you. So you just need to be ready for it.”