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Pictured at the signing of a three year sponsorship deal between Kerry GAA and Alliance Medical for access to the company’s diagnostic MRIs and scans at the Bon Secours Hospital Tralee this week were Kerry midfielder David Moran, Doireann Ni Sheaghdha, Unit Manager, Alliance Medical, Tralee, Peter Twiss, Secretary, Kerry County Board and Barry O’Grady, Business Development Specialist Alliance Medical and Malcolm Banks, CEO, Alliance Medical. Photo: Don MacMonagle
DAVID Moran is not taking anything for granted coming into Kerry’s clash with Galway in Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final in Croke Park
Speaking at the launch of Kerry GAA’s new sponsorship deal with Alliance Medical, the Kerry midfielder said that it’s been a good season so far but ultimately they’ll be judged on whether or not they make it to September.
“I suppose after the disappointment of last year we wanted to get back to winning ways and thankfully we were able to do that in the league. Then I suppose from there on in to the Munster Championship,” he said.
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“You know as good as it is, we’re under no illusions that it was great to win the league and the Munster Championship but our season will be ultimately defined by what happens late in September. Whether we are there or not is going to be the telling of that.
“We’ve been around long enough and we’ve lost quarter-finals and semi-finals to know that you can’t just tick it off.”
Moran also said that it’s incumbent on all the players in the squad to honour the legacy left by retired stars like the Gooch, Declan O’Sullivan, Paul Galvin and the Ó Sés.
The double All-Ireland winning midfielder said the hunger of younger players coming onto the panel has helped compensate for the loss of legends over recent years.
The Kerins O’Rahilly man, however, said that it was a privilege to play with The Gooch and other stars recently retired.
“You’ll always miss him. I feel very privileged to have been involved for 7 or 8 years and got to see Gooch in action, three or four days a week. It was fantastic. I suppose everyone, particularly the forwards, learned a lot from him. He’s a huge loss to us but he seems to be doing ok now on TV,” Moran said.
“It wasn’t just him. For us it was Declan O’ Sullivan, it was Paul Galvin, it was the Ó Sés. For us they were players of a generation and we were lucky they all came in around the same time and they definitely were benchmark setters for want of a better word.
“I suppose the onus is on guys now to get up to that level and to improve things again.”
The towering midfielder was high in his praise for the younger members of the panel.
“They’re definitely a lot younger anyway the last couple of years. There’s fellas coming in and their birthdays are scaring me. There is a lot of the under-21s and the minors and I suppose the successful minor team have come in and they’ve brought a great freshness to it.
“I suppose that’s the key to rejuvenating a team; you need fresh blood coming in. It’s great that guys are putting up their hand and they’re getting game time. It’s been fantastic,” he said.
Alliance Medical will provide quick access to the company’s MRIs, X-rays and other scans in Tralee and other centres around the country where Kerry players are based.
