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8th April 2021
04:56pm BST

"Micko would come in and he'd say, 'look it lads, don't feel too bad because ye are the second best team in Ireland.' "
'Twas often I felt like firing a boot at him," said Morgan, dead-pan as ever.
The rivalry runs onto this day and at 76 years of age, the Nemo Rangers king is still hoping his county can steel a march on their neighbours.
"We did turn the tables towards the end. It's a pity we didn't keep it going. Maybe there'll be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel after beating them this year, I don't know..."
In the same interview, Morgan recalled how, just like Dessie Farrell and Seamus McEnaney, he was banned by his own county board in the year 1990 after an altercation during a club game. Morgan and Cork went onto win the All-Ireland that year but the harsh terms of his suspension and the heavy hand it was dealt with is something that still gnaws away.
"I turned to him and I said 'would you ever f off," Morgan recalls of the clash with a UCC player.
"He said to me, 'shut up you ya b...' With that, he was behind me, I drew an elbow on him and hit him in the chest. He put his hands to his face, as if he'd been poleaxed. The UCC dug-out, one particular individual, made a run at me, he had an umbrella and he was threatening me, saying he was going to do all kinds of things to me.
"When the match was over, we had won well. Our man came after me down the tunnel, again with his umberella, threatening and so on. Two Nemo supporters arrived on the scene at the time, one of them decked him and there was pushing and shoving. I didn't strike him."
With the Cork county board enforcing the ban to its limits, Morgan was reduced to taking a spectator role at training leading up to an All-Ireland semi-final against Roscommon.
"I used go down to Pairc Ui Chaoimh. I would go behind the goal, I couldn't go into the dressing room or anything like that so I'd just watch it from behind the goal..."
https://twitter.com/TheGAAHour/status/1380158881691791371
Morgan says the best thing Farrell and McEnaney can do is delegate responsibility and keep as involved as possible.
"Dublin is a different county from Cork. I was banned again, when I was Cork manager, and I remember the Dublin secretary meeting me and pulling me aside when we went into the pitch. He said 'wherever you want to go now, we'll let you get there without anybody knowing.' I'm sure the Dublin county board won't put too many restrictions on Dessie Farrell. All Dessie can do, much the same as myself, is stay in touch with whoever trains the team and so on..."Explore more on these topics: