NIALL Morgan would happily live the whirlwind all over again. As far as calendar years go, it won’t get much better for the Tyrone goalkeeper than 2021.
The Edendork Primary schoolteacher became a father for the second time, he graduated with a Masters’ Degree, he won Ulster, an All-Ireland and an Allstar.
On top of all that, the goodwill he’s received from opponents since Tyrone’s All-Ireland win has taken him by surprise.
“It’s definitely been a whole lot different to the year we lost in 2018,” Morgan says, who recently became a NI Hospice ambassadorial.
“You’re being inviting to places and it’s great. People say to me: ‘You must get fed up.’ And I say: ‘Why would you get fed up?’
“People are very understanding too if you can’t make something, but I’ve enjoyed it and if you can give anything back to charity or the GAA I’m happy to do that as much as I can. And, to be fair, we’ve a group of players that do as much as they possibly can for others.
“So It’s been amazing, even the reception I’ve got around the club and after club games, the opposition are coming up and congratulating me. Our last club game was last week and there were people still coming up to me and saying ‘well done’. It’s been absolutely unbelievable.”
He added: “The club had a big banquet recently where we had Jim Gavin up as a guest. He was absolutely amazing. He didn’t step onto a stage or stand behind a podium, he didn’t have a page to read off, he stood on the dance floor and addressed every side of the room. He was just class.
“My principal actually asked me: ‘Do you ever pinch yourself whenever you think of what’s happened to you this year?’
“Obviously Maisie was born at the start of the year, we won Ulster, which was a big thing for us because we hadn’t won it in a few years, we took a tanking in Killarney [to Kerry] and we came back and won the All-Ireland, and then I got my Masters.
“Then I got an Allstar and an Ulster President’s award as well. It’s just been a bit of a whirlwind year. I probably haven’t come down yet because every weekend there seems to be something else.”
Morgan, who played in Friday night's friendly game against Armagh, has shown remarkable resilience in a Tyrone career that has experienced many highs and lows. Right up until he won his Celtic Cross and Allstar, the mercurial goalkeeper’s temperament was being criticised by former Donegal boss Jim McGuinness.
“You play Gaelic football because it’s a team sport,” Morgan says, “but it’s nice to get individual recognition whenever it comes as well.
“It’s nice too because a lot of people doubted me and it gives you that extra bit of belief to achieve. To get nominated was great - to win it was brilliant. Not everybody has a Celtic Cross and not everybody who has a Celtic Cross has an Allstar, so to get both of them in the one year is fantastic.”
He supports the club-county split season but with the All-Ireland final scheduled for July, Morgan feels the schools will lose out on the build-up and after-glow of the occasion given that they’ll be closed for summer holidays.
The 30-year-old is also hoping to play more “meaningful games” for Edendork in 2022, despite dropping back down to intermediate, and hopes Tyrone’s CCC doesn’t pencil in too many club games before June.
“The big thing now is how county boards go about the club fixtures because my biggest worry is they’ll continue to stick them in at the same time – around April – and you’ll still miss seven or eight games.
“That would be madness if they did that because there is no reason why they can’t be scheduled later. If you miss four games every year, that would be fine, but if you’re missing eight or nine club games it’s still going to make a mess of things.
“Our first game back, there were eight games to go and I think we had to win seven out of the eight to stay up [in senior football]. But we were basically relegated the Sunday after the All-Ireland. We ended up fielding teams that made a mockery of things – reserve players and players coming out of retirement just so we wouldn’t get fined. They’re not the games you want to be playing in, you want to be playing meaningful games and hopefully the county board allows us the opportunity to do that.”
Training-wise, Morgan didn't give himself any time off and threw himself into Irish League action with Premiership club Dungannon Swifts where he's played in the past.
“I sort of need the routine of getting out and being active, even for your own mental health,” he says.
“The effects that exercise can have on your mental health is huge. My wife [Ciara] has been doing more exercise of late too and it’s great for the both of us.”
