Andy Moran reveals his tricks for beating pre-match nerves

 

ANDY Moran is bubbly, extrovert and friendly. Although he's been one of the country's best GAA footballers for more than a decade - he was decorated with an All-Star award in 2011 - there isn't even a whisper of conceit in him.

So it was with an air of anticipation that I went along to hear him speak at Mayo County Library earlier this month as part of the Wild Atlantic Words Literary Festival.

Affable Andy did not disappoint.

What I found most interesting, and I suspect most of the large audience did also, was Andy's description of his pre-match routine at Croke Park on big days and how he has learned to deal successfully with pre-match nerves.

He admitted: 'I still get nervous but I've learned how to deal with it. Sports pyschology to me is the key way to go. My wife (Jennifer) should be a sports pscyhologist because of all she has to listen to from me...she helps me with that (psychology), as do other friends as well.

'So we wake up on a Sunday morning (Croke Park game day) for breakfast, have a little meeting. Some of the guys who like to go to Mass go to Mass. Others go for a rest. Usually when we go into Croke Park the boys have the headphones in.

'I like going out (early) on the pitch, having a look around, finding where I am, finding my space, and seeing where I'm at.

'That just calms me down. I just do my thing. We do 20 minutes of warmup and then it's out onto the greatest stage of all.

'When we go out Donie (Buckley) usually calls us for the warm-up. You'll always be wrecked after the warm-up. You'll actually feel you don't want to be there.

“Your legs are tired, you're feeling heavy, you're tired, you're feeling sick, but as soon as the game starts you're flying. When you get your first touch you're away.'

As far as Andy is concerned, success in dealing with match day nerves has a lot to do with preparation, not just for days but months beforehand, getting the proper sleep in, putting the proper fuel (food) in the body, doing the training, watching the videos, having the work done on your opponent.

The Ballaghaderreen man, who has slotted in at Mayo full-forward for most of the 2016 championship, admits to thinking hard about a big game for weeks beforehand.

'That's just the way I am,' he explained. 'I just overthink.”

Andy describes Lee Keegan and Keith Higgins as totally different to him in the nerves department.

'Lee can literally turn up for the game, maybe think about it an hour before, and he's 'Man of the Match'. Keith Higgins is the same as Lee. There's a few of us who think way too much about it.

'Would I suffer from nerves? 100 per cent. Nerves were common in the early part of my career.

'I used to think of stuff that didn't really matter, like what other people thought of me.

'Sports psychology has been good to me. It gives me a coping strategy.'

Always a man to accentuate 
the positive, Andy doesn't agree with those who continually bang on about 'a famine' in Mayo football.

'I wouldn't call it a famine,' he said emphatically. 'To be honest I think we're eating off the top table. We (just) haven't gotten to the king's throne yet.'

Of the defeat to Dublin in the replay of the All-Ireland, Andy is philosophical. 'It was hard, no doubt about it, but sometimes we look at a loss and think it's the end of the world. Yes, we lost a game but it's only a game. We'll go to fight again in 2017.'

Neither is Andy in sync with the 'doom and gloom' types who suggest, after a number of All-Ireland defeats, that Mayo will never win an All-Ireland.

Of the near future he is optimistic.

'We have found new players, new talent, the likes of Brendan Harrison, Paddy Durcan, Diarmuid O'Connor, Stephen Coen. The future is bright.'

As a football mad lad growing up in Ballaghaderreen, Andy was mentored by the likes of the late Brian Tansey, John Gaffney and John O'Mahony.

These 'Big Three' he mentions as hugely formative influences in his life.

Andy recalled that after Mass on a Sunday in the early 1990s there would be 60 to 70 kids in the football field. Brian used to look after them all by himself.

'It didn't matter if you were thin, heavy, small, big, what race you were, where you came from, all he wanted you to do was play better, have a bit of a fun. He was a winner.”

John Gaffney (the noted handballer) used to have Andy Moran and his mates in the football field at 7 a.m. before classes in the national school began.

Completing the triumvirate as regards mentoring, Andy paid fulsome praise to John O'Mahony who taught him in secondary school. He says unequivocally: 'There was no way if I didn't get John O'Mahony in school I would have played inter county football for Mayo. Absolutely no way.”

Just as he was nurtured and mentored as a young footballer, Andy Moran now keeps an eye out and likes to foster and encourage emerging talent.

'What's exciting to me is the next generation of players,” he says. 'Wondering where the next Diarmuid O'Connor is going to come from. Watching Diarmuid play from now into his thirties. Watching in coming years the likes of Paddy Durcan and Brendan Harrison develop as footballers.”

Mentorship at an early age for any aspiring footballer, Andy stressed. 'If surrounded by the right people, any kid has a chance,” he declares emphatically.