Kieran Molloy didn’t take football seriously, believe it or not, until he was 17 years of age.
Before then, he hurled for Sylane, played some golf in his free-time and also kicked a bit of soccer. He played football as well, don’t get us wrong, and enjoyed every second of it as a Corofin underage player, but as a youngster growing up, just like hurling and golf and soccer, a hobby was all it was.
Molloy could take it or leave it.
His immediate family didn’t have much of an involvement in the game and, even now, even as a Galway senior footballer, the Corofin man is still a bit of a free spirit.
If you asked him about Galway teams of the past, for example, and legends of years gone by, then it’s fair to say that you’d be striking up a conversation with the wrong man.
“I really wouldn’t have followed Galway back when Paraic (Joyce) was playing like,” he says in this week’s GAA Hour interview.
“I’ve obviously seen the highlight reels and stuff like that but no I actually wouldn’t have followed any of them, like any of the players or anything like that back in ’98 or ’01.”
Molloy first started to take it seriously in and around 2014, when he made the county minor team and, ever since, the wheels have just kept on turning. He’s rarely found himself on the subs’ bench and all going well, could end the year with an All-Star in his hands.
“At underage, you were just playing it for fun like,” adds Molloy, who’s working in Tuam as a site engineer.
“I was always a fairly, a hyper child we’ll call it. 12, 13, 14, I was just playing it for the sake of playing it like, I was playing other sports as well like.
“It was kind of when I got to minor, I was 18 playing minor yeah, then I was playing three years under-21 and that was kind of when it started getting serious with Corofin as well and college and everything kicked in then as well like, so it kind of just, it happened all at once really.
“I kind of realised I can do a bit more and then as I got older I was just, started focusing more and trying a lot harder.”
"I was hurling, golfing, swimming. I didn't really start taking football seriously until I was around 17."
Kieran Molloy is the Corofin and Galway wing back, and he's one of the free spirits of Gaelic football. pic.twitter.com/w7YG0SENrS
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 23, 2022
He’s the player, rather than the fanatic. And in a way, you can see it in him, as he bombs up and down that right flank, the hair flowing and the engine going. He’s a free spirit and that’s what he’ll remain.
“I kind of just play it myself and take a break from it. You know it involves nearly, I don’t know, how many hours out of your week so if there was matches on, I wouldn’t really watch it too much. If I had to do video analysis, I’d do video analysis.”
“It’s basically part of my life at this stage. So it’s what I choose to do. I choose to go back two weeks after, three weeks after each time. I wouldn’t take too much down-time (after the county season ends) because that can hinder your performance for the next team or next game. For me personally, it’s part of my life, and you get your holidays when you can like.”
The 26-year-old joined us for the second episode of The GAA Hour’s new sit-down series of interviews and he talked about the season just gone, growing up in Corofin and his ambitions for the future. Listen in below.
