Subtle differences bring big rewards for Kilbride

When sitting down with Anthony Moyles to talk football it's best to get comfortable because you could listen to the man all day.

His passion, deter mination, alternative views, hunger, enthusiasm is unbridled and he speaks so camly and with great conviction it is easy to see why he was former a Meath captain - leader.

When Moyles speaks it all makes sense, so when it came from swapping his coaching whistle and tactics board for the Bainesteoir bib with Kilbride it was obvious the transition would be a smooth one.

Moyles didn't want to reinvent the wheel when he succeeded Leo Turley as manager. He did so with a little help from his brother and his wife, but also from former Mayo star and five-time Connacht SFC winner Conor Mortimer.

"Going from coach to manager has been a bit different, alright. One of the main decisions behind it was the fact that I'd say the lads were sick of listening to me, that can happen quite easily," said Moyles.

"I knew Eamon (Moyles) would come with me as would Paul Watters, but we just needed to get another voice and I had been interacting with Conor Mortimer a little bit.

"We had a good few meetings, because you want to get the right mix in that situation. I didn't want someone coming in who was going to go driving off in a different direction to myself, or someone that the lads won't get on with.

"It's a happy group we have, of course you have your flare-ups and everything else, but there's a good camaraderie within the group, and there's a good level of trust within the group, so you don't want to mess with that.

"It was very, very important for me, that I could actually stand back a little bit more and just observe.

"It's a full-time job. So even to have the ability that I could take a night or two off with business or work or whatever I was doing, and know that I have someone there who can fill that gap was vital.

"I still miss it (coaching). Conor went off for a holiday there for a little bit, and I did three or four sessions, getting the scrapbook back out.

"I was looking forward to it, but to be fair, we interact a lot. We chat before every training session and discuss what we feel needs to be worked on.

"I don't try to tell him what to do, not at all, we just say this is what we're trying to aim for with an opponent in mind, and we just try to get them in that kind of direction.

"My brother Eamonn takes an awful lot of the admin stuff away from me. Clare Mahon, or Clare Harford, does a lot of the logistics stuff around the team and the club.

"Then Paul Watters looks after any major communication with the players. It lets you think about opponents coming up. What way do they play? What do they like to do? What way will they come at us? And that's the stuff I like trying to work out."

So what has changed this year that have brought Kilbride from also-rans to serious genuine contenders?

"It's not only one thing. It's multi-layered. Obviously they're a year older, so from a physical point of view, they've got stronger. We're better conditioned than we were.

"They've probably added an extra bit of stuff with their football brain. We've challenged them in a lot of different ways with regard to their resilience.

"Injuries clearing up helps. Conor McWeeney coming back helps, because you get a plus player coming back. Conditioning-wise, injuries haven't been a massive factor for us.

"They're a very diligent group. They were playing a Junior B Final in 2020.

Now, a Junior B final mentality is massively different than going into an Intermediate final mentality. It's chalk and cheese. The standard is different, you could even see it at the weekend.

"Everything about that, in your preparation, in your commitment to it, in your dedication to it, both personally and collectively, and then even how you react within a game. Teams that generally advance up the grades learn as they go.

"They don't shy away from the fact that there's challenges and there's learnings to be done and also that there's extra levels of commitment.

"You have to change things, you have to challenge them. And I think the biggest thing was challenging that mindset.

"Unfortunately, Kilbride went from Kingpins to the doldrums for a long time. Being comfortable became just something that they knew, Leo (Turley) brought a challenge to them.

"There was obviously a talented group and these things sometimes co-exist. The mental side of it is a factor. They are able to realise actually here's an opportunity as a group of people, as a group of young men, and we really should grasp it."

While Moyles demands the best from his players, he doesn't expect them to give any less committment than he is prepared to offer himself.

"I don't do this lightly in the sense of I've two young kids, 10-year-old and an eight-year-old girl. They're busy with their own stuff.

"You're like a taxi at the weekend and you're going from football to this to basketball. My wife plays basketball, she's busy. Literally, we just see each other in the morning times and that's it.

"You end up taking this commitment on. I would only take it on if I believed I can make a difference and that I was going to enjoy the group I was with.

"I have to say I enjoy this group. I think they're all sound men. They're good lads. They want to learn, which is a big thing.

"You go into a dressing room sometimes and nearly from day one you might be battling with fellas, trying to bring lads across the line. Of course, that can happen at times.

"Lads can get frustrated, but as a group, they are all looking towards north, which is a good way to be. They all want to learn and they all want to develop."

There is a huge history in Kilbride. Between 1964 and 1971, they contested seven of the eight SFC finals, winning five of them.

The names of the stars of those Kilbride teams just roll off the tongue -Quinns, Brutons, Reddan, O'Sullivans to name just a few - heroes and legends.

Does the weight of that history burden Kilbride as they seek to return to senior football for the first time since those halycon days?

"It is massive history, but they all have some vein of that history running through them," said Moyles, himself a Keegan Cup winner with Blackhall Gaels in 2003.

"Be it neighbour or family or friend, the tapestry of Kilbride is still very much that group of people, but no, it doesn't weigh on them. I certainly don't get that sense from them.

"I haven't looked to tap into it. I think they have a sense of it themselves.

"I think they have the sense of what went before, and they have an ambition to try to replicate it, which is a great thing to have. So rather than fear it, I think they're excited to potentially try to go there again and do something exciting within the club. It certainly would be exciting."

While Kilbride weren't exactly rank outsiders before the start of this campaign, most knowledgable opinions suggested Moynalvey or Castletown were the big ones to watch, but Moyles was happy to go under the radar and while his attack were lathal against St Michael's in the semi-final Moyles insists success is founded on a solid defence - something his wife helped hone.

"We certainly concentrated a lot over the last year and a half on our defensive set-up, because it all comes from there," admitted Moyles.

"If you're leaking them at one end, it doesn't matter what you're going to score at the far end.

"We've got some real good leaders in there. My wife, who's a basketball coach, has helped us out a lot and done a lot of work on just trying to make sure that we're playing the right way from a defensive set-up. I think it's given the lads confidence, and they bought into it.

"She's an American lady, she's coming over, she's using terms that they never heard of.

"There was a few sniggers and a few laughs, but they all bought into it, they did a full winter of it. I used to just let her at it, that shows a maturity and a desire between the players to want to do something different.

"They questioned some of it, but they questioned it in the right way, in a respectful way, and hopefully, they're starting to see the fruits of it now, because I would feel that, as a defence, it's been fairly solid and, again, that's the start of moving forward.

"Moynalvey were touted from the start of the year as being very, very strong. We played Castletown the year they won the Junior and it was a ding-dong battle, and I think we were three or four up with a couple of minutes to go, and they got a goal and a point to level the game.

I think we were the only team to actually take a point off them that year.

"Their performance against Moynalvey in the semi-final wasn't a surprise to me, because I thought the big open spaces would suit them, and that they would have legs, which they have.

"It was a fantastic display by them. They have some great young lads, as I say again, mixed in with some good experience, a nice blend.

"We are a strong team, we'll go till the end, all we can do is just keep improving, try to improve again.

"We struggled in some games this year.

The Pats game, I think, was a big game for us as far as resilience goes. A big game to get over the line for, and hopefully has set us up for what will be a big game on Saturday," concluded Moyles.