Moran sees potential in Leitrim's young guns

Leitrim may have lost their first official outing of 2024 to Galway last Friday night in the University of Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome but manager Andy Moran spoke enthusiastically of the potential within the ranks of a host of young players coming through the Green & Gold  ranks.

What was virtually a third string Galway outfit hit a late 1-1 to secure a hard fought 2-18 to 1-17 victory over a Leitrim side who missed five good goal chances but for the Leitrim manager, the emphasis is on the league and last Friday’s FBD Insurance Connacht League Semi-Final was a chance to run the rule over young emerging talent.

And it is obvious that Moran liked a lot of what he saw: “Sometimes in Leitrim and, for me too over the last two years, you panic when you lose people but you look at Roscommon and Roscommon have lost eight. Roscommon were in a quarter final of the All-Ireland series last year and they’re losing eight so smaller counties like Leitrim are going to have a turnover.

Wasteful Leitrim rue missed goal chances against understrength Tribe

LEITRIM 1-17 GALWAY 2-18

“This is where we need our young college students to give three years of their life and commit to Leitrim and if they decide to move on after that, we’ve got that three years of bulk into them. When you see young Honeyman, young Guckian, Michael McBrien from Ballinamore, Paddy Keane from Leitrim Village, when you see these guys playing, there is great potential. 

“They’ve all played with the seniors in challenge games over the last few weeks. With Jack Foley, Jamie McGrail, I think they bring something new, they’re fresh. Foley mightn’t be getting on the end of scores but by God is he covering ground for us, getting tackles in and really doing the hard work for us and it is going to be a massive asset for us coming into the latter rounds of the national league.”

The Leitrim manager also had hugely positive words on McGrail’s performance despite the Ballinaglera man being withdrawn from the action at halftime: “Jamie ran himself to a stop so we had to take him off! It is not that we wanted to take him off, Jamie was outstanding there in the first half, gets a really good score, wins a kickout, gets his tackles in.

“But he learned a lesson that ‘ok, I might be nearly there but I’m not there yet’. At halftime, he was just done, he was literally out on his feet but he will learn from that and come on hugely for it.”

Another experiment saw Evan Sweeney, usually a lethal corner-forward, situated at half-back in a continuation of the role Moran has handed to Jack Heslin, Ryan & Riordan O’Rourke in recent seasons: “Evan Sweeney on the other side, trying him in a different role but again he will learn that it was really hard paced football and he will get there as well.”

As much as he would have loved to have beaten Galway last Friday, Moran acknowledged that the bigger picture is the National League and that is where the focus is: “It is exactly that. We’re trying to play at a pace, trying to get lads back in, trying to get Mark Plunkett back in the next couple of weeks, trying to get Adam Reynolds back in and all of a sudden then, we’ve got a really good squad. 

“We got a couple of fellas in - we got Cillian McGloin back today, Donal Casey played a full 70 minutes which is absolutely huge, he hasn’t played it in over a year. Aidan Flynn just back from a groin injury, we got Jamie McGreal and for us, it is just a really positive workout. You go all the way up to Pearce Dolan, you go to Jack Foley and Ryan played 60 minutes.

“We’ll be looking for another challenge next week, the team will get a well deserved night out tonight, they’ve put in a huge effort and we’ll go back training on Monday, another challenge next Friday and that’s what we’re doing and then we’re into Waterford.”

Not so much in terms of negatives, Moran admitted Leitrim have some way to go in terms of physicality but they are closing the gap: “We’re obviously three years into a project and we’re not denying that at all but you see the conditioning of those Galway young lads, we just have to accept that we’re a tiny bit behind on that. 

Check out our fans gallery from Leitrim's FBD League clash with Galway - GALLERY

Leitrim fans thronged to the University of Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome on Friday evening as Galway prevailed 2-18 to 1-17 after a high scoring FBD Insurance Connacht League Semi-Final and Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was there to capture some images of fans enjoying the action ..... see who you can spot!

“We’ve made great strides as you’ve seen there the last 10, 15 minutes, we’re the team that is driving on, we’re the team that is looking for the score, we’re still getting our tackles count up, we’re still doing very well but the conditioning of these boys was still there.

“That’s a really fast pitch, not something that either team is used to but they’d be used to playing at a higher speed of football. We scored 1-17, we’d be very happy with that, we wouldn’t be happy with what we conceded but pre-season tournaments are to get fellas ready for action.”