Kevin Moran is a colossal.
The Waterford half forward must be one of the fittest hurlers in the country, because his engine never seems to give up on him.
The Déise dynamo pops up in every single position on the pitch, from helping out his defence to scoring points when his team needs him the most.
The Waterford captain leads by example with his work rate, with his selfless and relentless hassling of opposition players and with his bravery.
Moran backs up this fighting spirit with speed, with skill, with awareness and with a calm head in the cauldron that is Championship hurling.
He scored four of the finest points of Waterford’s enthralling triumph over Cork, as he slalomed his way through the Cork backline like with his trademark ghostly style.
Moran is relishing his midfield role, as he revealed to Colm Parkinson on The GAA Hour Hurling Show on Monday.
“The midfield now in hurling is where the most space is on the field. I suppose myself and Jamie chipped in with a few scores which was important.
“I suppose some days it just runs for you. I wouldn’t say I was great on that (the breaking ball against Cork in the Munster Championship). Some days the ball can bypass you. We’re happy the way things aregoing, there’s no point in saying otherwise,” added the Déise man.
We are all well aware of the bravery that Moran possesses, but it couldn’t have been better epitomised than in the ninth minute, when despite taking a galling belt to the sore parts, he was down, he looked out, but he soldiered on and was scored a point just five minutes later in the game.
How many of us would get up from a belt in the wrong place?
An aspect of Moran’s game that isn’t always as heralded as it should be, however, is this freestyle type skill.
He is a free spirit and is hurling with a careless abandon that is more often attributed to teammates such as Austin Gleeson, but Moran is a constant in this Waterford side, and he rarely if ever fades out of the game.
Moran gave us a demonstration of this expression when, in the 23rd minute, a Stephen O’Keeffe puck out was sent short along the sideline to Noel Connors.
The Passage club man sent an uncharacteristically poor ball scuttling up along line towards Moran and Bill Cooper, who were 50:50 in their chances of winning the ball.
The ball was travelling at pace, it was hopping, it was a forwards nightmare.
Moran gets out ahead of his man, controls the ball dead, but sees the onrushing Cooper, and knew he would get bottled up if he was to take it into his hand.
He deftly flicks it along the ground through Cooper’s legs.
Not finished there, Moran provides a glorious chip type flick onto the stick of Darragh Fives.
Fives in turn delivered a stunning cross field ball for Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh to catch, and lay off to Pauric Mahony, who’s shot was superbly stopped by Anthony Nash.
It was all about Moran, though, and you can be guaranteed if the likes of Gleeson or Tipperary’s Seamus Callanan pulled off that type of skill, we’d still be talking about it.
You can listen to the Moran interview from 23″00′, and much more from The GAA Hour Hurling Show here.
