When news of Michael Murphy’s retirement broke, it inevitably led to his most iconic moment going viral on social media once again.
I am, of course, talking about his goal against us early on in the 2012 All-Ireland final. It helped Donegal on their way to a seven-point lead and though we rallied well, we never got closer than three points and lost by four in the end.
At just 23 years of age, Murphy lifted the Sam Maguire Cup as Donegal captain.
Although it’s only 10 years ago, that goal is almost from a bygone era. Obviously the standout features were the catch, turn and thunderous strike, but you may also have noticed that as Karl Lacey arced in the perfect ball, there was nobody sweeping in front of Murphy, who was in a one-on-one contest for possession.
Not many teams had players sitting back to protect the full-back line back then. We learned our lesson from it and weren’t so naive when coming up against him after that.
In the 2015 quarter-final our game plan was built on having cover when Ger Cafferkey was on him inside. Barry Moran and I were double sweepers and just by occupying space in front of Murphy we drastically cut down the amount of ball that was kicked in to him.
Similarly in crunch ‘Super 8s’ game in 2019 - Lee Keegan man-marked him wherever he went but when he was full-forward, it was my job to cover in front of Keegan.
Murphy was such a magnificent player that you couldn’t be in any way blase about his potential influence on a game. You just had to build a plan around him.
But there was more to his brilliance than just his footballing ability. He was a natural leader. To think that he was appointed Donegal captain at 21 by Jim McGuinness and for a succession of managers that came after, there wouldn’t have been a thought given to passing the role to someone else.
I played in two International Rules series with him when he captained Ireland both times, one of them a trip to Australia. He was mild-mannered off the field but once the ball was thrown in, he was utterly ruthless.
The Aussies certainly singled him out for some rough treatment but he was never fazed by it and, if anything, rose to the occasion even more.
Murphy had to deal with this intense scrutiny for pretty much every game he played over the last 12 years or so. Match-ups, sweepers, double sweepers.
The general consensus was always that if you stop Murphy, then you stop Donegal. But so much of his greatness is reflected in the fact that he invariably found a way to exert his influence despite the attention he received.
As the game evolved he played more of his football around the middle third, which was always a source of considerable debate. There were probably a few factors around it though.
The defensive nature of the Ulster Championship in particular didn’t allow his qualities to shine as brightly when close to goal. Donegal had also lost players at midfield like Neil Gallagher and Rory Kavanagh and needed his ball-winning ability out there.
Their style of play became very much involved working the ball through the hands out of defence, a more conservative style, and Murphy would orchestrate attacks from deep before finally punching a hole in the opposition defence to kick a brilliant score.
He could play the game any which way it was needed.
Since his last All-Ireland final against Kerry in 2014, he couldn’t have done more to drag Donegal to the latter stages of the Championship but it just didn’t happen.
That probably cost him a few more All Stars to go with the three he won but, ultimately, he got what he wanted most in that All-Ireland 10 years ago, which would have been a considerable source of comfort as he settled on his retirement this week.
Of course, the highlights reels doing the rounds this week take in much more than that goal in 2012, and I couldn’t help thinking of how many of those moments we would have been robbed of had the inside mark been in place throughout his career. I wish that option was open to him on that afternoon rather than the shot he rifled past David Clarke, however.
All told, Murphy was just a sensational footballer who had it every way. It was a privilege to play with and against him.
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