David Moran still rising to Kerry midfield heights

Sometimes talk of the seasoned footballer contemplating retirement because of repeated injury can be abstruse and played up or down to suit the narrative.

David Moran talked about it this week, telling Radio Kerry Sport it was a “50-50 call, really”, and had he realised at the time the nature and extent of his latest injury setback then perhaps things may have swung even less favourably this time round.

It’s not yet six months since Moran pulled up just four minutes into the Kerry county final, his club Kerins O’Rahilly’s making their first final appearance since 2008, looking for a first title since 2002, against town rivals Austin Stacks.

Try as he did to play on Moran soon surrendered, his loss around midfield incalculable as Austin Stacks went on to win by three points.

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Turns out it wasn’t just the mild groin strain Moran initially feared: he had torn his abductor muscle loose from the bone and this was no easy fix. As it transpired Moran didn’t feature at any point for Kerry throughout their successful league, before returning for their Munster semi-final win over Cork early this month, replacing Adrian Spillane after 50 minutes at Páirc Uí Rinn.

It was perhaps the most telling introduction on the day: Kerry’s All-Ireland challenge might not necessarily pivot with having Moran back on board; still it would be strange to imagine them winning it without him.

He turns 34 next month, and while plenty others have been and gone since he made his first senior appearance in 2008, James O’Sullivan and his close friend Tommy Walsh chief among them, Moran still endures – aged only 20 when first appearing late on in the 2008 All-Ireland final defeat to Tyrone, he also came on in the 2009 final, when Kerry beat Cork.

He partly credits his return this time to the fact he was still playing so much competitive football up to that Kerry final on December 5th, so at least an early chunk of the winter wasn’t lost or left idle.

Moran has also faced plenty of adversity before. Between July 2010 and August 2013 he didn’t make a single championship appearance for Kerry. He tore the same cruciate on the same left knee not once but twice and in quick succession, the first time in April 2011.

Then, just back from the second nine-month stretch of rehab in 2013, Moran tore the retina inside his right eye – and for a while after that no one was sure when he’d be back.

Moran did make it back for the 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final against Cavan, then came off the bench for the epic semi-final shoot out against Dublin. That was it - two appearances in three summers.

It’s eight years now since Moran and Kerry won their last All-Ireland in 2014. With Jack O’Connor back on board for a third stint as manager things have moved on in other ways too, Diarmuid O’Connor and Jack Barry the first-choice midfield.

The Tralee pair missed Kerry’s opening league game in Newbridge as they were still involved with their club Na Gaeil in the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship; they lost the semi-final to Steelstown Brian Óg’s of Derry that same weekend, 2-6 to 0-7.

Still only 22, O’Connor would have been a first choice midfielder throughout 2020 and 2021 had injury not interrupted his run, most notably last summer in the Munster final win over Cork, which meant he only made the bench for the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Tyrone last August.

Joe O’Connor is another midfield option, named as Kerry captain earlier this year, the Austin Stacks player coming on for Diarmuid O’Connor three minutes before the end of normal time against Cork.

No one on the team, however, has the experience of Moran, son of eight-time All-Ireland winner Denis ‘Ogie’ Moran, or perhaps the hunger for that next All-Ireland too.

It’s three years now since Moran produced another man-of-the-match performance in the 2019 semi-final win over Tyrone, and immense again in the drawn All-Ireland final against Dublin, which Kerry should have won.

After being caught by Cork in the pandemic winter championship season of 2020, caught then by Tyrone in last year’s semi-final, if only in extra-time, Moran’s enduring experience may this summer prove more telling than ever.