Captain Morgan ready to rumble

HE’S firmly established himself now as the pre-eminent netminder out Trabeg way, but Briain Morgan’s introduction to life between the sticks for Nemo Rangers was more an accident than an act of grand design.

“It was a bit of a fluke really, about 12 or 13 years ago,” he recalls. “I had always played outfield in Gaelic but in goal in soccer. One year we had a bit of a crisis with the intermediates, I think the goalkeeper had to go away with work and we didn’t have a minor or U21 coming through. I was a sub at the time and it was actually Ephie Fitzgerald who went in goal but I said, ‘Listen, I’ll play in goal’.Obviously they saw something they liked and I’ve been in there since then. Funnily enough, around the same time as that, I began to play out the field in soccer.”

The bloodlines suggested he wasalways destined for that position. The Morgan name is synonymous with protecting goalmouths in Nemo Rangers and when your father is Billy, there is a wealth of expertise to absorb.