Kevin Muldoon rises to the occasion to show why he is Abbey's King of the Hill

“It could’ve gone either way but thankfully we came out on top,” he said on the steps of the Gerry Arthur Stand following his All-Ireland final win. Kevin Muldoon was fooling nobody. 

The midfield maestro was the very last player to enter the St Tiernach’s Park ground at 1.10pm on Saturday, but alongside captain Seanán Carr, he was the first to walk to the presentation area, not only to place his hands on the Paddy Drummond Cup but also to claim his Man of the Match trophy. 

The idea of a team landing at a stadium for any final, 50 minutes before throw-in would worry any fan or family member, let alone put knots in the stomach of the players. But the Abbey’s easygoing and relaxed attitude off the field is what makes them likable.  

In fact, their tardiness was so noticeable it took for one of the match stewards to shout; ‘Jesus, these boys know the match is in Clones don’t they?’. 

But whatever about off the field antics, their attitude on the field is a different animal. 

Even during the dying minutes of the match when all was said and done, Muldoon thought the knife was not yet sheathed. The foot was never released from the accelerator until Martin McNally blew the final whistle, at which point all the particulars of the game ceased to be important. 

Muldoon’s performance alone followed a simple formula; he would take the ball static in midfield, invite the opposition bodies to surround him like a ghetto gang smelling easy money, only to squeeze through small gaps in the Ashbourne defence, leaving space for him to run towards and exploit, like a lion chasing his prey.

More often than not, the theory would result in an inspiring score.

The footballing style alone from Muldoon looked so elegant and graceful, it seemed to belong to the opera. 

“This is unbelievable, to come out on top today . . . it’s the most memorable day any of us have probably ever had in sport and probably will ever have, it’s just a brilliant day,” said the Abbey Vocational School star following his side’s 1-15 to 0-9 point win over Meath’s Ashbourne. 

“I suppose my game today was all about making it as simple as I could, I just tried to break the lines and then hand the ball off to the scorers and we did that well today.” 

The overall feeling before the match was that the anxiety of the occasion might diminish either side, as finals so often do. That the crackling electricity would jolt the players’ heartbeats. 

The feeling of ‘if’ ‘when’ and ‘how’ the Abbey was going to crack stemmed from the idea of them trying to bridge an All-Ireland schools’ gap of 44 years. Many have tried in Donegal, and many have failed 

They say there’s no substitute for a lucky break, but with two Ulster titles and now an All-Ireland medal for most of these players in the space of three months, one might think luck has very little to do with it. 

Muldoon’s other tour de force this year was placed on teams utterly overwhelmed by Abbey’s power from the off, but on Saturday, Ashbourne hung in every step of the way and the Donegal Town school needed every piece of Muldoon’s magic to win. 

“I was grand coming up on the bus, but I think once you hit the stadium you start to feel different, whether it’s nerves or whatever, so it was important to just settle myself early on by getting my hands on the ball as early as I could in the match and that broke the nerves,” said Muldoon.  

“From then we just played our normal game and thankfully it worked for us. 

“We knew Ashbourne was going to come back at us in the second half. We spoke at half-time about just trying to weather the storm when they hit their purple patch. We did our homework on them, and we knew they were going to come out and throw everything at us, it could’ve gone either way but thankfully we came out on top.” 

His two points in the first half on the 20th minute and just on the cusp of half-time highlighted his ease to twist defenders at his will without even laying a finger on them.  

But despite his confidence on the field, he never felt like the game was his until the goal in the dying minutes of the game, long after the rest of the ground knew that his side were champions. 

“I think when Conor McCahill hit the goal in the last few minutes, I think we all knew then that we weren’t going to lose. I think it was made all the better that it was along the ground, soccer style, I liked that one now,” joked the Sligo Rovers player. 

Despite his commitment and true love for soccer, there will always be that feeling and niggle of hope in the Donegal Town community and in his home club that Muldoon will be fetching ball in the world of senior GAA one day. 

But mavericks tend to take their own road, and like his road to success in his short sporting life, Muldoon will always opt for the one less trodden.