If you didn’t look at the sheer size of him or the confidence and experience he exudes, you would not think David Moran was anywhere near 28.
A glance at his appearances for Kerry in comparison with his talent don’t really add up.
But the imposing midfielder started on this journey nine whole years ago now. He made his inter-county debut for the Kingdom as a teenager back in 2008 and yet before they embarked on that All-Ireland winning campaign of 2014, Moran had played just two senior championship games in six seasons.
Now, he’s the best midfielder in the country.
If you forget for a second that he’s a man mountain. Ignore his raw power, his beautiful fetching abilities, his defensive work, his playmaking skills and everything else, you’ll see his true, irreplaceable value to the green and gold.
There was a moment towards the end of the league final at Croke Park that summed up perfectly what David Moran brings this Kerry side.
Kerry had to recycle from another blind alley and Moran comes onto the ball.
Two points up, 75 seconds of normal time remaining, a lesser team and a lesser man would’ve hung onto possession and tried to protect their lot.
That’s not how you beat Dublin and it sure as hell is not how David Moran plays football.
He runs straight at them.
Completely surrounded but still no fear.
Even with men slapping him all around, he keeps calm and continues to go for the posts.
He never even seems affected by the bodies around him.
Under severe pressure, he kicks the most inspirational score of the day.
Moran brings ignorance to Kerry. He brings fearlessness. He brings an attacking threat that serves as a reminder to the rest of them every time he gets a sniff of a football that ‘we are Kerry and we do not sit back in awe of anyone’.
He takes the fight to the enemy with a lot of heart and frightening explosion but he does it with pure brilliance too.
And this from a man who missed out on some important years. Moran missed three full seasons to be exact between the ages of 22 and 25.
- Ruptured cruciate ligament
- Ruptured cruciate ligament
- Torn retina
They’re not exactly injuries you can patch up and get on with. What Moran has done to come back from the depths of despair with those injuries to become one of the most frightful forces in Ireland is serious.
“I’ve been doing a lot more injury prevention,” he said on The GAA Hour podcast.
“I needed to because I had been through two and a half or three years there where I couldn’t play at all.
“I’m just hoping I got them all out of the way in the one go.”
You try telling him it was tough, his reply is simple.
“Look, I got through it.”
He’s a man who doesn’t allow circumstances to dictate his destiny and, in the face of the greatest adversity, Moran fought his way back.
“It was just hard work. There was no science to it.
“I got a programme to do and I did it.
“That’s the good thing about the cruciates now, you come back from it. You see Colm O’Neill, you see other players doing it. If you do the work, you come back.”
If you do the work, you come back. That’s putting it mildly.
Listen to his brilliant interview on The GAA Hour from 12:10 onwards.
