Jordan Morris happy to be back on the Kingscourt bus
Pictured is AIB ambassador Jordan Morris (Kingscourt Stars) at the launch of the AIB GAA, LGFA, and Camogie All-Ireland Club Championships. This year, AIB is underscoring its unique support for four codes of Gaelic Games, celebrating the joy and support that defines the club experience.
This season also marks AIB's 35th year supporting the AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Championships, its 13th year of backing the AIB Camogie All-Ireland Club Championships, and its second year sponsoring the All-Ireland Ladies Football Club Championships.
By John Harrington
Playing a pivotal role in Kingscourt’s recent Cavan SFC final victory over Gowna was the realisation of a childhood dream for Jordan Morris.
As a nine-year-old he was on the team bus driven by his Grandfather and former club Chairperson, Jim McGovern, when Kingscourt won the Championship in 2010 and rode shotgun once more when they repeated the feat in 2015.
Back then he was determined he’d bring glory back to the parish himself someday, so the feeling of having finally done it is a sweet one.
All the more so because it avenged a 17-point defeat to Gowna in the 2023 Cavan Final.
“I remember it well, to be fair,” says Morris of travelling on the victorious team bus in 2010 and 2015.
“Seeing the scenes after, the boys up on the bus and parading around the town, it's stuff you dream about. You’re thinking can you emulate them and stand in their place?
“So, yeah, it was a sweet achievement now. Padraig Faulkner was saying in the build-up to it that it would be the best week of your life if you win it and it definitely was. Just seeing the crowds in Kingscourt, the community coming out in force, it was just unbelievable.
“We probably had to write a few wrongs off the 2023 final to get that monkey off our back. It's something we were probably thinking in the back of our mind a bit too much last year. We didn't even make a quarterfinal, so this year we knew how our work cut out for us and it definitely drove us on in the end.”
Morris kicked nine points in Kingscourt’s 2-16 to 0-13 win over Gowna, and produced the sort of effervescent attacking play that has by now become standard for both club and county.
He’s the perfect profile of the sort of forward who has been really liberated by the new FRC rules.
His speed, ability to take his man on, and clinical finishing make him nigh on unmarkable if he’s given a decent supply of ball now that he’s no longer suffocated by blanket defences.
“You're going into games and you know you're going to get scores out of it,” says Morris.
“It's what people want to see, it's what the GAA is based on, scoring forwards, people taking on their man and scoring, and it's going back to that way with high-fielding of ball and other things too so it's great to be a part of it now.
“The enjoyment has just gone back into it completely. As a forward in previous years you're playing these blanket defences, you're touching the ball three or four times and you're like, 'what's the point of this?'
“But it's just completely flipped on its head now.”
Jordan Morris of Kingscourt Stars celebrates after his side's victory in the Cavan County Senior Club Football Championship final match between Gowna and Kingscourt Stars at Kingspan Breffni in Cavan. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile.
Life brought Morris to Nobber in Meath for a number of years which is why he plays at intercounty level with the Royal County even though he transferred back to Kingscourt in Cavan for club football in 2022.
He played a key role in Meath’s unexpected run to this year’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final, and credits the appointment of Robbie Brennan as the catalyst for the county’s sudden upturn in fortunes.
“From the word 'Go' Robbie has just instilled throughout the year this confidence and belief in me personally and as a team,” says Morris.
“He just allows us to go out and express ourselves. Every player individually is a different player and he just wants everyone to show what they can do individually and I think that showed this year.
“There were moments of class from different boys, it was unbelievable and that's pure from Robbie saying, 'you just go out and show your magic'.”
As well as those man-management skills, Brennan brought a degree of tactical analysis to the Meath set-up that Morris hadn’t previously experienced.
“The way we analysed teams this year was so in-depth, you know, with the way we went into kick-outs and our attacking set-ups. That probably paid dividends for us because it's something we didn't really use in years gone by, that sort of deep player analysis, team analysis, and that really fed into us beating the likes of Kerry, Dublin, Galway, these type of teams.
“It was really player-led analysis and obviously with the help of the backroom team as well, giving their piece, that really pushed us over the line, I think.
“Just seeing it first-hand this year, it makes such a difference. Even playing Gowna now in the county final, the analysis we put into that, the work on kick-outs and different things that we did, really set a platform of what we could do and we knew we could get across the line after looking at that type of analysis.”
Jordan Morris of Meath celebrates after scoring a goal, in the 62nd minute, during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Meath and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
Having brought Meath football back to the relative big-time this year, Morris agrees it’s vital they build on the progress made rather than fall back into the pack again.
“It's a county that's been waiting to support this team and this year we gave them a little something to cheer about. It's important now we try and not make this a flash in the pan.
“We've a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of maybe different attacking setups and defensive setups we can improve on, but I'm sure Robbie will have a few answers for us in the next few weeks or months.
“We're probably going to have a bit of an expectation on us going into next year, but it's a challenge I think we're really looking forward to.”
For now Morris isn’t thinking too much about what the 2026 inter-county season might bring, because there’s the not so small matter of an Ulster SFC Club championship with Kingscourt to consider first.
A Cavan team has never won the provincial title, but hope springs eternal.
“I was just looking at a few of the results recently and it looks like it's the year of the underdog in the club championship,” says Morris.
“In terms of Ulster now, we're just in bonus territory, we'll be looking at each game at a time if we can get that far.
“The Fermanagh champions are first up on the list. Can we get over the line? Who knows? In two weeks' time, we'll see how that ends up.
“Just from seeing these Ulster games on television, it's absolute ding-dong-battles with these teams, it feels like you're watching an Inter-County match, and to be a part of it now, as I said earlier on, we're in bonus territory, it's great to be involved, and you just want to push on as much as you can, and you never know where it could take you.”
