THE Kilcoo players thought that Mickey Moran would stay on as manager and got “a real gunk” when he announced he was leaving, according to Eugene Branagan.
Having achieved the coveted All-Ireland in his fifth final as a manager across club and inter-county, Moran stepped down weeks after Kilcoo’s dramatic last-gasp extra-time win over Kilmacud Crokes in February.
“He had a meeting. It was about a month after we'd won the All-Ireland and there was a lot of talk. I think he'd already told some of the older boys he was going, maybe just the two captains,” said Branagan.
“He had the meeting but the talk was between the players ‘ach he'll stay.'
“But when he said he was stepping down it was a real gunk. It was just in the hall but it was nice, he spoke well. We had a bit of tea and scones.
“Mickey liked that every Friday night before a game. Once he was leaving we gave him a guard of honour.”
Branagan, who was yesterday named as the AIB/GAA Club Footballer of the Year from that campaign, also revealed that Moran had been in “bad form” after a training session had gone poorly during the Ulster Club series, and his reaction to that sparked new life into the players.
“It was funny because about two and a half months before the All-Ireland we had a bad training session one night. It was probably the only bad training session we had all year.
“I remember the next session he came in and had a meeting with us. He would never speak about winning an All-Ireland, but he was in bad form.
“He just said he wanted to be the manager of an All-Ireland winning team. But he near broke down.
“[Conor] Laverty spoke to us after and was saying he was like a man on his death bed who wanted just one last wish. From that training session, we hadn't one bad training session. There wasn't a bad minute that went by.
“We always said that we wanted whatever day he was going up the lane, that he would have an All-Ireland medal in his back pocket.
“That night leaving for the meeting we gave him a guard of honour out and you were delighted.
“I know he was leaving, but it was as good as the All-Ireland win, him leaving that night. Everyone was just satisfied that we'd done it for him.”
Branagan also revealed that because of health fears around Covid-19, Moran “hadn’t been there for six or seven months” of last year.
The All-Ireland final was Kilcoo’s “lowest point of the year” in terms of performance, said Branagan, and admitted it would have been “very hard to have come back” had Jerome Johnston not found the net to snatch glory in the dying seconds of the game.
Moran’s assistants Conleith Gilligan and Richie Thornton have taken over as joint-managers.
Having strived for so long to get out of Ulster, Kilcoo achieved that and came mightily close to an All-Ireland in 2019, when they lost to Corofin in extra-time.
The journey has taken the players more than a decade since their first county title in 2009 and Branagan admits that, along with a handful of retirements including his eldest brother Aidan and Niall McEvoy, the lure of life outside football was starting to itch at some players.
“Yeah, it’s hard just there the past number of years since Mickey came in, we are telling players to put their life on hold, holiday, don’t be going to America to play.
“Now that we have got over the line and won an All-Ireland it’s hard to….certain things boys want to do in life. There are some of them going away to America and some of them went away travelling there.
“Once you have won an All-Ireland it’s hard, everyone has their own desires but hopefully…. we are back training hard and there’s a lot of young boys really want to push on.
“That’s the main thing. Whatever 30 players we have there, if we put in the hard work, hopefully we will get back to where we want to be.”
The pull of America is not unique to Kilcoo but Branagan revealed that while several players are set to hop the pond, they’ll be back in time for the start of the Down championship.
“Listen, if that’s what they want. A few of them had said ‘no’ and then they had to come back with other offers. They are still going to be back in time for Championship and they are still training really hard with us at the minute.
“I still think if they put in the effort all year we don’t mind them going away. As long as they come back in good shape we are happy.”
