Paul Fennessy

JACK MOYLAN COULD hardly have envisaged a better start to the season.

The Dubliner’s goal in Cardiff City’s 5-4 win over Burnley last Saturday took his tally to 10 in the Championship – only one player in the division, Middlesbrough’s Will Lankshear, has been more prolific.

At international level, too, Moylan, 25, has been a revelation, as four goals in six appearances since his debut last May attest.

His rise is all the more remarkable when you consider that as recently as five years ago, Moylan experienced the biggest setback of his career – getting released by Bohemians.

And even beyond that moment, his route to stardom has been anything but straightforward.

Moylan was “eight or nine” when Malahide United’s then-director of football Kevin Craven first encountered him.

A natural street footballer with a proclivity for dipping the shoulder, which made up for a slight lack of pace when beating players, Moylan was also a natural finisher who excelled when taking the ball on the half-turn.

And even at that age, the future Ireland star hated losing.

He may have been small in stature, but that was not necessarily a negative.

“Small players, they learn how to fight and to be competitive,” Craven tells The 42. 

“And when they reach their physical maturity, they’re sometimes in a much better position than bigger kids because it’s in their nature.”

It didn’t hurt that Moylan was part of a talented side. Oisín McEntee and Conor Grant, who now play at Hearts and Notts County, were teammates.

Future Dublin GAA stars Seán Guiden and Josh Bannon were also in the side, as was current Louth footballer Daire Nally.

And Moylan’s father, Senan, played for the Dubs team that won the Leinster Minor Football Championship in 1988 alongside Dessie Farrell and Brian Stynes.

Moylan has publicly praised the League of Ireland pathway, suggesting he wouldn’t have made it in the game if he moved to England at 16 like so many young Irish footballers before him.

“He wasn’t ready,” says Craven. “He wouldn’t have been ready. They probably wouldn’t have picked them because a lot of the players they picked would have been the more physically dominant players, and that would have been a mistake as well.”

Instead, a teenage Moylan went to Bohemians, becoming the first player to sign for the club’s new academy.

Keith Long, who regularly watched him for Malahide along with Bohs’ then-head of recruitment Dave Henderson, remembers “a talented boy” who “linked the game really well from midfield to the attack”.

Long adds: “He didn’t let the physical side of the game [overwhelm him]. He was very tenacious, along with being clever and finding good spaces, good game intelligence.”

Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO

Long explains that Moylan was going through a growth spurt around this period.

“He was at times like Bambi on ice, for want of a better description, because he was trying to catch up.

“And you look at his dad – Senan was a six-foot-plus, big, powerful man, and Jack, at that age, was developing.” 

Moylan still excelled in the academy set-up, helping the team win U19 National League titles in 2018 and 2019, as well as the Enda McGuill Cup, while competing in the Uefa Youth League.

It wasn’t enough for Moylan, however. He wanted to be playing regularly for the club’s first team.

The fact that he did so only six times indicates it didn’t quite happen for him at Dalymount Park. Does the club now regret not giving him more of a chance?

“I wouldn’t say regret,” Long replies. “You don’t get anything right in terms of youth development. We got a lot of things right at Bohemians at that time, with a lot of good young players coming through.

“Jack was hugely successful at Bohemians, so I don’t see that as a negative. I see it as a real positive. He was successful at underage level in the academy system. He was a young pro at Bohemians who made his debut, but his transition from academy to first team was stifled.”

It was a talented Bohemians side. Liam Burt, Ross Tierney, Keith Ward, Ali Coote, Dawson Devoy and Promise Omochere were among the other players vying for attacking spots.

He could have stayed and become a bit-part player when the team went on a memorable run in the Uefa Conference League in 2021, but instead chose to go on loan to Wexford.

Their manager, Ian Ryan, took over in May, after the club lost their first seven games.

Moylan, a player Ryan had known from managing the Leinster Schools team previously, joined the club in July.

He was on the verge of turning 20, and Moylan thrived in the number 10 role, finishing the season with eight goals from 17 appearances in all competitions.

“His fitness wasn’t where it should be, but his quality was unbelievable,” says Ryan.

“He wouldn’t last the full game. So he’d start the game, win the game, then go off.

“We probably built the team around how he could play, and we had other good players there as well, to be fair.

“His feint when he’s shooting [was impressive]. He’d not only feint, but he’d roll it along his studs. I remember he did it his first night in training; a couple of coaches just looked at each other. But he’d do that constantly. He’d do it so well that you’d almost worry he’d dislocate his knee.”

Wexford may still have finished bottom of the table that year, but Moylan’s arrival coincided with a significant improvement in form, picking up six wins and reaching the FAI Cup quarter-finals.

Ian Ryan managed Moylan at Wexford. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

Ryan, however, says Moylan was far from the finished product at that stage, citing his decision-making – when to keep the ball, when to take people on and when to shoot – as an area that needed refining.

“But I would have felt there were always levels for him to go. Would I expect him to be on this run in the Championship? Probably would have been far-fetched. But at the same time, it doesn’t surprise me at all because of the attitude and the hunger that he has.”

After his impactful half-season at Wexford, Ryan was surprised when Bohs opted to release Moylan.

“He would have been under 23 at the time, and they didn’t offer him a retainer,” the coach recalls.

“I rang him that day, and he was very upset, very down, because that’s where he wanted to go back to. And with his performances and the attention he got, he thought he’d end up back there. So that did rock him a little bit.”

Long says: “He was disappointed with my decision not to give him an additional contract, not to be part of the first-team squad the following year after his loan at Wexford.

“So it was decided that, from a club perspective, we’d waive the compensation because he’d been so successful and been brilliant around the club and really bought into everything that we did at the club; couldn’t have done any more to get into the first team.

“It was a decision based on Jack to allow him to move without any of the domestic training compensation.”

Unsurprisingly, plenty of suitors emerged. Cork City were interested, and Ryan even thought he might retain the youngster until Damien Duff called with an offer of full-time football.

“I waved the white flag at that point,” he says. “It’s a tough sell to persuade him to turn that down.”

Shels were working with a limited budget at the time, so a young, little-known player like Moylan was a natural fit. Duff and Joey O’Brien met him to discuss their interest.

“He stands out at that time because he came into the hotel and met us on his own, and was confident enough to sit there and put his idea of what he wanted to do in his career across to Damien and me,” O’Brien says.

“As we left, I remember the two of us just thinking: ‘We need to get him.’ For multiple reasons: how he came across, how he conducted himself and what we felt he could do for the football club.”

Joey O’Brien and Damien Duff met Moylan in a hotel before signing him at Shelbourne. Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO

Luke Byrne is now Shelbourne’s technical director but was a player at the time who had come up against Moylan in the First Division.

Duff called Byrne to get his verdict on the youngster.

“I said he was the best young player in the league, maybe the best player in the league. We should get him,” Byrne says.

Once Byrne got to know Moylan, he was even more impressed.

“He has the most impressive mentality I’ve ever seen in football,” he says.

“[The coaches] knew how high potential he was, and I’d say Duffer was probably harder on Jack than any player in the few years he was there.

“They had a great relationship, and Jack lapped it up – he knew why Duffer was doing it. He knew it because Duffer saw something in him, and Jack used to get annoyed and sulk, but then he quickly learned it’s only because the best players have to be held to a different standard.”

By his own admission, Moylan had a slow start at Shels. He showed flashes of brilliance, but gradually became more consistent, finishing the 2023 campaign with 15 goals from 36 Premier Division games.

“Your body is adjusting to full-time every day, going to the gym all the time and stuff like that,” O’Brien says. “And that was a massive emphasis that we put on them. Obviously, wanted them to get fitter and stronger, and he bought into it.

“He had a hamstring injury in that first part of the season. He missed a little while, and used it to benefit himself in the gym. Because when he came back off, he came back a better athlete ultimately.

“He came back quicker, came back stronger. So I think as well that was a bit of a learning curve too to see that the other side of the game and the athletic side of the game. You need to be athletically and physically top, as well as technically

“The top players play 50-60 games a season. Ultimately, that’s what you need to start looking at and being able to have that. The other side of the game: the stuff in the gym, the recovery, the nutrition and all that sort of stuff.

“Watching the body has a big impact. Everything you put in, everything you drink, and it’s an athletic mindset; it’s an athletic body that you’re feeding. So make sure that the stuff you’re putting in is the best.”

Byrne continues: “Duffer would have really drilled home with Jack the importance of his professionalism in the gym, his diet transforming his body. He used to slag him a lot about what he would eat and stuff.

“On the training pitch, a big thing for Duffer was Jack respecting every moment and every action, and that’s what he would regularly tell all of us: ‘This is what top players do. You don’t take a moment off. You don’t take a day off on the training pitch.’”

Luke Byrne is a former Shelbourne player who is now the club's technical director. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

Byrne still keeps in regular touch with Moylan and cites his mentality as special.

“He’s actually the most confident player I’ve ever played football with, and one of the most confident people I know.

“Jack, without being arrogant, sometimes straddles the line, which I think all the greats have to. He’s so confident in his own ability, and he fears nothing or nobody.

“He would have gone out on the pitch in his debut for Ireland, thinking that this is my level. I’m meant to be here, and I think Jack will end up in the Premier League, and I think he will approach the Premier League the way he’s approaching football now – go out and expect to be one of the best players.

“I think he’s got an elite mentality. If you go up the levels, you meet players with elite attributes; that’s why they’re at that level.

“He’s a lot younger than me, and we would have built a very close relationship when he came to Shels, and we’re from a similar area.

“But I would say I look up to Jack in many ways, because I don’t think you can be around someone with that mentality and not admire them. I think it’s his greatest strength beyond any of the football attributes.

“He’s just absolutely convinced he’s going to be successful, and he’ll do anything, and he’ll run over anybody in his way to get there.”

Byrne also cites Moylan’s pure love of the game as significant.

“I think he’s an absolute football nerd. He watches every game. He knows every player, the stats and facts.

“When that’s in someone, when you’re watching that much football, and you think about it a lot, just by virtue of watching that much football, I think you can pick things up and implement them into your own game.”

“It comes down to belief a little bit, with Jack, because he’s done it,” Long adds. “He feels he belongs. He’s been called up to the international setup, which is a massive thing for any player.

“He’s a type of infectious character that you need around the place. And Jack can be a bit grumpy at times; don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that in a bad way. He’s got this streak in him that he wants to be a player, and that’s a good thing. That’s a real strength of his. He’s got that edge to his game that you need to be a top player.”

“He has a bit of nasty in him,” Ryan concludes. “He has a bit of fight. He has a bit of balls, and if you rub him up the wrong way, he’s like: ‘I’ll show you,’ rather than sulking.

“I think that’s what sets him apart, to be honest with you. Basically, you don’t want to make him angry. He’s more like the [Wayne] Rooney, the angrier, the better, where he plays on the edge. He’ll prove you wrong. 

“He’s not a moaner or anything like that. He’s got a real bit between his teeth.

“His ability, his ball strike and his goals can win a game at the drop of a hat.”