Ireland’s David Moran relishing first International Rules experience

The Ireland team had an extended and at times impressive work-out for Saturday's international rules test in Patersons Stadium, Perth last night. Kerry centrefielder David Moran, an All Star for the first time last month, is in his first international panel but before he can reflect on that, the news from home has put him in a more obvious spotlight.

Declan O’Sullivan’s retirement after more than a decade in the Kerry jersey prompts an obvious request for a response.

“I suppose in one way it’s very disappointing. From a personal point of view I always got on very well with him. He was certainly the best leader I ever played with and he was Kerry football for as long as I’ve been involved in it.

Just inhuman

“The injuries were killing him but if you see the way he was playing in the

Munster

final you’re saying, ‘This man is just inhuman and he might go on forever’. He was coming to the end of his career and we were hoping he’d stay on but he owes Kerry nothing. He’s been an unbelievable player and the best of luck in retirement.

"The thing that sticks out in my mind is more recently, in extra-time in the Mayo game in Limerick [All-Ireland semi-final]. I think it was Aidan [O'Shea] who came in and hit him a good slap and he didn't even move him.

"He just slipped it to Jonathan Lyne and it was over the bar.

“It was an unbelievable turning point in that game. All through his career, because he was so good, he was targeted a lot. He was well able to take it. When he was on song, he was unstoppable.”

Moran's connections with the rules game saw him come to Australia when his friend Tommy Walsh was trialling but he says his interest and ambition for the international game was nurtured from an early stage when county man Tadhg Kennelly became the first GAA import to Australia to win a premiership.

Same county

“It is because I’m from the same county as Tadhg and I remember John O’Keeffe was my principal in school and when he was manager of the Irish team I was in school and Tadhg was home from Australia and the buzz around it was unreal.

“I remember one year Dr Con (Murphy) was the doctor. He got my brother in and we were in the dressing room, getting gear off Darragh Ó Sé, Tomás Ó Sé and maybe it was just that that captivated me as well. It definitely was something I always wanted to do.”

Asked about the doping controversy surrounding the Essendon club in the AFL and the presence of two of their players in the Australia squad, he parries the question.

“No, it hasn’t come up at all. I suppose we haven’t been reading the papers out here so that’s kind of a matter for the AFL, it’s nothing to do with us.

“We’re just concentrating on ourselves and that’s up to the AFL, it’s nothing to do with us.”