Leitrim senior football team manager Andy Moran. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
By Cian O’Connell
Passionate and positive, Andy Moran is relishing Saturday’s trip to Croke Park for Leitrim’s Allianz Football League Division Four Final against Laois.
It has been a rewarding stint for Leitrim, who have secured promotion ahead of the April 7 Connacht SFC encounter with Sligo at Avant Money Páirc Séan MacDiarmada.
Before then, though, Leitrim enter GAA headquarters heartened. “To be honest, it has been amazing,” Moran says about the league campaign.
“Leitrim have played in Croke Park five times in their history, this will be the sixth time that they have played. I've heard a lot of talk over the last couple of weeks about cutting league finals, but the main attraction for a manager like me or anyone that is with a smaller county, is the opportunity to play a final in Croke Park.
“It is huge. That was our target at the start of the year, we are there now. The people of Leitrim are really getting in behind it and it is exciting for the whole county. I've played there multiple times, but I'm as excited now as I ever have been.”
There was no shortage of Division Four drama. Several counties believed that a top two finish was attainable, but Leitrim managed that feat. “Division Four - if you want to come to watch exciting football with turnovers in it, excitement, catches - every bit of skill in it, but turnovers, Division Four is great to watch,” Moran says.
“You have a team like Wexford, who have won their last four games by more than 40 points, a really exciting team, a team that could really do something, I think, in the very near future. For us to finish ahead of them is a huge achievement.
“You cannot underestimate it. For the last two years we got to eight points twice, we won four games twice, we were always saying if we could win that fifth game we'd get over the line, and we did. That is the way it ended up.”
Leitrim senior football team manager Andy Moran. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Now in his third campaign as a senior inter-county manager, Moran is still enjoying the adventure. “A huge education, this is our third season,” he says.
“So, it is a huge education in terms of what I thought it was. You have this fascination with tactics, how you're going to set up your team.”
More than a decade with Mayo was well spent in footballing terms. “You'd often look back at the way James (Horan) set up a team or Stephen (Rochford) or Pat (Holmes) or Johnno (O’Mahony).
“You'd look at things and think I'd have done this differently. When you're this side of the fence, and see all of the stuff that has to go into it, away from football itself, it is huge.
“What I always say is that to do it, you have to love it. It has to be a passion. You couldn't do it if you're half in or half out. You have to be all in.
“Luckily for me I've a very supporting wife in Jennifer, she gives me all the latitude to go to do it. I love being involved in a team, being around a group, that helps it.
“You need that love for it when you're going through the bad days like we have done over the past two years at times.”
Mickey Graham was a significant addition to Moran’s backroom team for 2024. The former Cavan boss provides valuable experience and guidance. “Mickey has been huge for us,” Moran responds.
Mickey Graham is involved in Andy Moran's backroom team with the Leitrim senior footballers. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
“Since Mickey came in, we haven't reinvented the wheel, we have done all of our trainings, our S&C, all that sort of stuff. It is nearly on field decisions. A little one, we knew that Longford were getting well beaten last weekend by Wexford.
"Mickey was there to lean on, is it the right thing to tell the boys at half-time that they were getting well beaten. Even a decision like that - he goes, absolutely, you have to.
“He was in that position before. To have that experience, Mickey might have wanted a year or two out of being the headman, but he still loves being in there.
“He doesn't have to deal with the stuff on the side - the County Board, all of that. He still loves football. Them little decisions, throughout the course of the league where he might have said and it made me think for a second, yeah, that is the right way to go about it.
“That is invaluable. I'd have that at work all of the time, so why not have that on the sideline when you have the opportunity to have it.”
Several counties have ex senior inter-county bosses operating in advisory, coaching or selectorial roles. “I would say Mickey between Mullinalaghta and a few other club teams and going straight into Cavan,” Moran says.
“He was probably eight years on the road flat. Your mind does need a break at times. I can see that your mind does need a break, he was in Ulster finals, he had relegations, promotions, he had the full realm of good stuff, bad stuff, and everything.
“I think you need at times a bit of time to reset to go back, if you can do that being the second man, it can be a lovely job.”