Andy Moran: 'I think we underestimated the size of the Mayo brand'
Mayo manager Andy Moran at the Gaelic Writers Association Awards, in association with the Dalata Hotel Group at the Clayton Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Fifteen weeks on from what in future may be known as “The Outpouring” and it still hasn’t sunk in for Andy Moran.
Maybe it never will but 11 weeks out from their opening National League game at home to Donegal, things will have to settle. Eventually.
The people and places Moran has seen since July 26 are too many to mention. He’s in Barbados at the moment. In two weeks’ time, he will be in London for the third time year as Mayo face Kerry in a fundraising challenge game.
There have also been trips to Chicago and New York to celebrate the end of the wait. “We went to New York and there was 900 people in a room for us, insane,” says Moran. “This is second and third generation American people who are celebrating this with us, I just think that's amazing. We always knew that the Mayo brand was a big brand. I think we probably underestimated it a tiny bit.”
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There have been smiles, there have been tears. Moran has so much data to confirm what he and his players achieved this past season was seismic but he reckons the magnitude not yet been realised by the group.
“I'm 43 years of age and it's life-changing for me. It's a fright, you're literally catching yourself every day. I'm 43, married with kids and I have a business. I can't imagine what it's like for an 18, 19-year-old. It's crazy. Even for 20, 22, 23-year-olds, it's so intense. Every place you go there's a guy and if you're holding that Sam Maguire and you're bringing it somewhere, you're like the Pied Piper.
“For them young kids, I have thought about them. My wife Jennifer asked me how they're handling it. I said, ‘To be honest, I don't really know.’ They're carrying themselves immensely well, I'm so proud of them the way they're giving everyone time. It's beyond what I could have ever imagined, never mind an 18, 19, 20-year-old.”
Cillian O’Connor knew beforehand that last July’s final was the end for his inter-county career but Moran completely understands why one or two have yet to make their minds up.
“I don't think the boys have got a chance to breathe. I genuinely don't think anyone could have sat down and reflected enough from the final to make that decision yet. Come back from the team holiday, give the boys a couple of weeks off and then they can make their calls after that.”
Looking back, Moran can pinpoint some of the factors that contributed to the success. “The boys moving from Dublin, I know we made a big deal about that, but it was such a monumental move from Enda (Hession) to move down from Dublin and for it to snowball. Now we have all the boys back and I think it gives them a huge opportunity for the rest of their career to go and achieve more great stuff.”
Another shrewd decision was persuading his old full-forward colleague O’Connor to rejoin the panel. “One of the best calls I've ever met in my life was the few calls I made to Cillian to get him back this year. He made such a difference to the young lads behind the scenes. It's a silent leadership that no one sees.”
Moran refers to the same phrase paying tribute to the late county chairman Seamus Tuohy who passed away in September following a long illness. “What he did for me after the Roscommon game (Connacht SFC semi-final defeat in April), he literally just had a quiet word, silent leadership again. That's the way he led. It was quiet and he didn't want to be part of it. Just a really good fella.
“I can't talk highly enough of Seamus. Humility, pride of Mayo, just wanted to work, get stuck in and was willing to. I went to the county board with some crazy ideas, there’s no point lying about it. Some of them were crazy. The ones that he thought were good, he’d advise and lead. We miss him. We've missed him every day since.”
Mayo face into 2027 without Kobe McDonald who follows in the AFL footsteps of Oisín Mullin and Moran’s fellow Ballaghaderreen man Pearce Hanley, who he describes as the best to emerge from the club.
Seeing Donegal’s Finnbarr Roarty head to Australia gives him no pleasure. “We (Moran and Colm Boyle) were always looking at Finnbarr and saying, ‘How were they not picking him?’ But obviously there was conversations going on, and he has all the credentials to go and do well in the game.
“I'm an opposition manager to Donegal, but what a loss to the game. To me, he's one of the most fantastic players I've ever seen playing Gaelic football. And it's such a shame to see him leaving our sport, but that's the world we live in at the minute, and the same with Oisín. It's just a shame not to be seeing these guys playing the game.”
That exportation of such talent make McDonald’s availability this past season all the more special. The likes of Darragh Beirne, Eoin McGreal and McDonald were never bridesmaids, as Mayo were depicted on the ill-judged roadside billboard outside Tralee before the final.
“That famous sign before the All-Ireland and the bit of craic with it, but we were the bridesmaids,” admits Moran. “I'm of the firm belief (you) face what's in front of you, We were the team that went to all these All-Irelands and we were the team that lost. I was involved in an awful lot of those teams. I'm not ashamed of it.
“At some stage you have to win the race and just winning it and then to see what it means to the people. We went all over the world. To see the raw emotion of that, I always have a picture and it makes me emotional, people just leaving and looking back and saying goodbye to Mayo. To see what it means to those people is just unbelievable.”
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