Every youngster should be shown Kieran Molloy never ever giving up

Niall McIntyre

Kieran Molloy is a fair bit of stuff.

He’s the type of lad who won’t take no for an answer and then when he’s told no, he’ll just get back up on his feet and he’ll ask the question again. And he’ll keep on asking it too.

We’ve seen this from the man before.

Just nine months ago, his All-Ireland semi-final with his club Corofin was fixed for the same day as NUIG’s Sigerson Cup final and everybody told him he’d have to choose one.

Everything starts and finishes with the club so it was no surprise when he lined out at wing back for Corofin in Tullamore.

He bombed up and down O’Connor Park, playing a key role in his club’s victory but Molloy wasn’t done yet. The minute the game was over he hopped into a Garda escort from the Midlands to North Dublin.

Destination Santry. Obviously, he had this arranged. Nothing was going to stop him.

Kieran Molloy went the extra mile for his college and for his teammates. NUIG came up just short against UCD in the Sigerson decider but it wasn’t for the wont of trying and the long-haired half back came on in the second half as soon as he arrived and he stayed going until he couldn’t go no more with the game going to extra-time.

Nine months on and Corofin are back in the mix. Of course, Kieran Molloy is in the middle of it all.

They had a little hiccup in the Galway county final when Mountbellew-Moylough nearly caught them first time out but they never stood a chance in the replay.

Corofin got back on track in the replay and they were back to their breathtaking best in the Connacht semi-final on Sunday. Poor old Clann na nGael bore the brunt of it.

The Galway kingpins piled on the pressure from the first minute and it was a strange sight to see Clann na nGael out of their own half. Jason Leonard buried in a couple of goals and this game was over before the clock even struck twenty.

But like all good teams, Corofin kept their foot on the throttle. From one to fifteen they were ravenous.

Number five was going like nobody else. Number five was Kieran Molloy and he never saw a teammate stuck.

He made countless support long, purposeful support runs in that first half, every single one of them valuable in confusing defenders and providing options for his teammates.

His 27th minute cameo to set up Micheal Lundy with a tap-in goal just summed him up. Farragher ballooned a ball high, handsome and it looked like it was going wide.

Not to Molloy it didn’t. He kept chasing it in and when the wind brought it back into play from the jaws of a wide ball, he leapt like a basketball player to bring it down.

Then he cut in past the Roscommon defender and set up Lundy for a goal. Then he celebrated like he scored it because chasing and harassing is the job he’s there to do.

That’s support play, that’s class.