Twelve months ago, as David Moran weighed up his Kerry future, his club’s run into the depths of winter made it that bit easier to commit to another season.
The county final, which Kerins O’Rahillys lost to Austin Stacks after losing their totemic midfielder to injury early on, wasn’t played until early December and so Moran hadn’t put himself into cold storage, with the reheating process often too much to stomach for thirty-somethings mulling over their inter-county future.
But while he rolled from one season into another then, albeit while nursing an injury, it’s far from a fait accompli this time, particularly with his wife, Sinead, due their second child next month.
So the 34-year-old still has a decision to make, but not before O’Rahillys’ campaign is at an end, with Saturday’s AIB Munster club final against Newcastlewest his immediate priority right now.
"Last year I was very iffy about going back,” he says. “But the fact that I was playing right up until December was a huge plus because it wasn't as if I had finished in October and had two months off trying to keep myself ticking over.
“At my age it's very difficult to take a huge period out and then go back in to try and go through pre-season or inter-county training and trying to get the body to hold up.
“Apart from getting to the level of guys who are maybe seven, eight or 10 years younger, trying to stay injury-free is probably even a bigger challenge.
“The fact that I was playing right up to December, I got injured and I was going to have to do the rehab to get back anyway, that played a big part.
“I'm still playing at the moment and still staying fit and stuff. That's probably an advantage, or maybe it's just keeping that decision open as opposed to if I was finished two months ago it might be a very easy decision."
His long-time teammate for club and county, Tommy Walsh, retired after last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Tyrone and, with Kerry having claimed Sam Maguire in the meantime, the fear of missing out on another All-Ireland medal in 2023 is something that Moran also has to factor in.
"At the moment Kerry are in a very good position and you have to expect that if you retire they're going to be in the shake-up.
“Whether they win it or whether they'll be in semi-final or a final, you'll still hopefully be going to Croke Park as a supporter or a player at some stage.
“Obviously when you win it, it's difficult for someone who has retired one year out. I think it will be a case that I'll have to write down all the pros and cons - and that would definitely be a con.
“If Kerry win an All-Ireland next year, how would I feel? I'm just concentrating now on the weekend. I haven't really put that amount of thought into next year, to be honest."
The Strand Road club are unlikely provincial finalists given that they didn’t even contend for their own county championship but, given the relatively convoluted system in Kerry, they got to represent the county in Munster by virtue of winning the local club championship, with county champions East Kerry not permitted to play in the province due to their divisional status.
“We have quite a good team in the sense that we were competing in the county final last year,” Moran insists.
“But I played on a club minor team where four of us went on to win All-Irelands and we still haven’t won a county championship. We have won a few club championships.
“You think it is going to happen every year. In 2009, we were in the Munster club final and we lost that.
“We were in the county final in ‘08 and we lost the replay. No more than at times with Kerry, you think this is going to be every year. But we haven’t been since.
“I’m around long enough to know that you can’t expect too much. You focus on the short-term and getting a few games under your belt.
“Especially with club, if your club builds up a bit of momentum, you can go on a decent journey.”
The club’s previous Munster final appearance 13 years ago came as Moran was flirting with a career in Australian Rules, with St Kilda offering him a three-week trial at the same time as they signed Walsh.
“I was told on Thursday that I wasn’t getting a contract and my father was manager of the club team. They offered me to go on a holiday around Australia or stay on training or whatever, and I said I got to get out of here as fast as you can put me on a plane.
“Yeah, I think I got three seven-hour flights and got in maybe on the Friday late. So, yeah, I kicked about six wides and we lost by a point [to Kilmurry Ibrickane], so it wasn’t my finest hour.”
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