Paul Devlin talks about the Mickey Moran effect as Kilcoo prepare for Saturday’s All-Ireland final against Kilmacud Crokes

"He’s just very calm, and he installs belief in players."

Kilcoo are finishing up their preparations for their second All-Ireland final in just two years. The Down champions lost to Corofin in extra time, in the 2019 final, and with COVID voiding the 2020 All-Ireland club campaign, this will technically make it back to back finals. A big reason for their consistent success, is the fact that Mickey Moran is at the helm, guiding them through the Down championship, and now to two Ulster titles. The Derry man didn't end up in the Mournes by accident though, he was identified and sought out by the players, as they believed that he was the man who could take them to the next level. Kilcoo's sharp shooter, Paul Devlin, was speaking ahead of the All-Ireland Club final against Kilmacud Crokes this Saturday, when he explained what the former Slaughtneil manager has brought to the team.

"A few players did approach him, because of what he had done with Slaughtneil, he was so successful with them, and they beat us in an Ulster final in 2016, so we thought, why not? "In 2016 there was only a kick of a ball between us and Slaughtneil so when our manager stepped down, we kind of went for it, and he’s provided us with so many good days now. 

"He brought us an Ulster title, and now he’s brought us to two, and we can only be thankful for him, and hopefully on Saturday we can put in a performance that he can be proud of.

"He’s just very calm, and he installs belief in players, makes you believe that you have the capabilities of being where you want to be.

"It doesn’t come easy though, you have to work hard, there’s no point in saying anything different, you do have to work hard to be at the level of where we are now. "There’s no easy sessions, it’s tough going and there wasn't anybody that complained about anything, everyone just got their head down, and worked hard." Moran is obviously no stranger to success, but has had his downs as well, losing a couple of All-Ireland Club finals in the past. "He only takes the positives out of each game, identifies some areas we would want to improve on, and we have capitalised on certain areas, like we learned a lot from Corofin. "So he has installed that wee bit of belief in ourselves, and that we can believe in ourselves as a team to put in a performance, and compete with anybody.

"One of the big things we learned, and it showed in our previous game against St Finbarr’s, and against Glen, was how to deal with extra time.

"Against Corofin I don't think we even scored in extra time, so it just shows that it has been a long process, and in the last game against St Finbarr’s I thought our best period of football was in extra time." Kilcoo will play Kilmacud Crokes this Saturday at 5pm in Croke Park, and the game can be seen live on TG4.