With Donegal mounting an ominous defence of their All-Ireland title, JOE caught up with Donegal captain and All-Star forward Michael Murphy for a chat on the season so far and what lies ahead.
Just as you had to remind yourself that Paddy McBrearty is still only 19 after his stunning performance and noticeable physical maturity in the Ulster Championship victory over Tyrone last weekend, it still beggars belief to an extent that Michael Murphy alongside him is still only 23 years old.
In his inter-county career to date, Murphy has a medal haul that a 32-year old in a lot of counties would be happy with. Along with captaining Donegal to only the second All-Ireland title in their history and scoring a goal that ranks up there with the best ever seen on All-Ireland Final day (see below), he’s *pauses for breath* collected a couple of Ulster titles, been honoured with an All-Star and Young Footballer of the Year awards, won Sigerson titles with DCU and, on the minus side, hit the crossbar with a penalty that would have won Donegal an All-Ireland under-21 title in 2010.
It’s safe to say that he’s packed an awful lot into a senior inter-county that began six years ago but, humble to a fault, you won’t hear the man known as ‘The Man-Child’ or ‘The Murph Monster’, at least according to his Wikipedia page, bragging about his achievements anytime soon.
At some point down the line Murphy will no doubt reflect on it all, but much like his manager he’s not in the mood for reflection right now, not when there’s another All-Ireland or, more pressingly, another Ulster title to be won.
They went about defending that title in very impressive fashion with victory over Tyrone at the first hurdle in Ulster, but despite the fact that it made everyone else sit up and take notice, Murphy wasn’t getting carried away by the six-point success in Ballybofey.
“I suppose there was a lot of hype about the game, about the venue and the fact that we were playing at home and about us getting relegated but we just tried to keep things tight, concentrate on our own performance and perform as best as we can as individuals and as a collective. It was brilliant for our fans to play at home and for us to have them cheering us on,” Murphy told JOE recently.
“But we’re taking each game as it comes. There was a lot made of our performance but Dublin are out today (we caught up with Michael on Saturday last) and they’ll be aiming to put on a performance, as will Kildare and Derry and Down, all you can do is try and perform on the day.
“Jim (McGuinness) and Rory (Gallagher) have created an environment where there isn’t a game that we don’t need to improve upon certain things and that’s what we do. By no means was it a complete performance against Tyrone, there was a hell of a lot of areas we need to improve on to compete against Derry or Down and they’ll have to be addressed in the coming weeks.”
The prospect of Donegal improving is an ominous one for the rest of the would-be All-Ireland contenders but even during a brief chat you can tell that Murphy has subscribed completely to McGuinness’ philosophy that there is no such thing as resting on one’s laurels and being happy with what you’ve got. Things can always be better.
It is why Murphy is reluctant to elaborate upon the aftermath of last season’s All-Ireland title triumph, a victory that prompted fervour in the county that is on a par with any victory in either code in modern times.
Murphy acknowledges that winning the title was “phenomenal” but it won’t be until a long time down the road until he starts dusting down the medals and recounting all the good memories from what was an amazing year for Donegal last year.
“As players we try not to reflect upon it too much,” Murphy says.
“You think about it, acknowledge it and then you swiftly move on because reflecting upon it too much and thinking about how far you’ve come is a dangerous thing when you’re still playing. In 10 or 15 years time we can reflect on it and reflect on the good and the bad but now is not the time to reflect, it’s too dangerous; you acknowledge it and move on.”
With Kerry the only team since 1990 who have managed to retain Sam Maguire, winning back to back All-Irelands is going to be a tough ask this year, especially considering that in the eyes of most pundits, there are five or maybe even six teams who have a genuine hope of success this year.
Murphy is keen to repeat McGuinness’ maxim that Donegal are taking it one game at a time for now, but he has been impressed by what he’s seen elsewhere in the Championship so far.
“There are loads of contenders for the All-Ireland but before we even go there it’s a bit early to be thinking about All-Ireland contenders; we’re just looking at our next game in Ulster because the day you get too far ahead of yourselves is the day you’ll get caught out and trip up so it’s important to be as grounded as possible,” Murphy says.
“Mayo put up a phenomenal performance against Galway, they were very impressive and they’re developing all the time. They weren’t far away last year and another day they would have been champions so I’m sure they’ll be motivated to right those wrongs this year. Obviously Dublin have a new management team who the players will be mad to impress, they impressed in the National League and they have a nice mix of youth and experience and play a nice brand of attacking football.
“Kerry under Eamonn Fitzmaurice, a lot of the players would have played with him and will be mad to go well in his first year in charge and I expect to see Tyrone again down the line. Cork also are a team I thought were very impressive when we played against them in the league down in Cork and there are many more who might class themselves as contenders too.
“It just shows if you can get a run, whether it’s through the back door of the provincial championships, gain momentum and reach the All-Ireland series, if you’re lucky enough from there you can be successful.”
Murphy has more of an insight than most into the preparations of two of Donegal’s main rivals considering that he has lived with Dublin’s Paul Flynn for four years, with Aidan Walsh of Cork moving in more recently.
It’s quite brilliant that despite all the rivalry in the GAA that three players who would probably be classed in the top ten in the country, have all been All-Stars and have been part of the last three All-Ireland winning sides can all love together under the same roof and seeing the others taste success has only served to increase Murphy’s hunger for more of the same, as, no doubt, it did after he lifted Sam last year.
“I’ve been living with Paul for four years and seeing him win the All-Ireland in 2011 was something you’d be jealous of and something you want to try and emulate and thankfully last year I managed to do that,” Murphy tells us.
“Aidan, of course, won it in 2010 as well. Both of them are hungry, they’re training away and mad to go at it again this year, but this is what you come to expect from GAA teams and GAA players so we’ll set our friendships aside for the summer and we’ll catch up again in the winter again.”
Along with Walsh, Murphy was spotted in Carton House during the Lions training camp before their departure to Australia recently and if the picture below is anything to go by, neither of them would look completely out of place alongside some of the most physically developed athletes in the four home nations.
Pic via Twitter/Aidan Walsh
Murphy enjoyed the experience and to be able to sample how those in other sports go about their preparation and he’ll be keeping a close eye on how Warren Gatland’s men get on over the next month or so.
“It was just a brief visit really, we just went on one of our off days, Aidan had a day off from exams and I was off college for the day so we nipped out to Carton House and caught a couple of training sessions. It was nice to get an insight into how they go about their preparation and in fairness there were some big fellas there and they’ll be gunning to shoot the Aussies down in the test series.
“It’s definitely something I’ll keep track of, especially to see how the Irish contingent gets on.
“Going Down Under is never easy I think this year above all years is the one they’ll have their eye on because of all the teams they’ll face – South Africa, New Zealand and Australia – this is probably the easier one and one they’ll be looking to come out on top of.”
Of greater concern to Murphy on the same weekend as the Lions’ first test against the Wallabies will be the red (and black) jerseys represented by Down in the Ulster semi-final and on message, Donegal are looking at nothing beyond that yet. It is why when we quiz Murphy as to whether anyone has planned a follow-up to the hugely popular ‘Jimmy’s Winning Matches’ for September, he still doesn’t allow himself to get carried away.
“Not yet. I’m sure there’s somebody in Donegal planning on some sort of a song but it’s very early for that yet we’re only just out of May so it’s too early to be penning songs, but hopefully in the future there might be a few more verses added to it.”
Still 23 but talks and plays with the maturity of a man far older than that. Certainly an old head on young shoulders.
Michael spoke to us in his role as an ambassador for eircom and experiencemore.
