MATT MURPHY finishes his interview.

A quiet, soft spoken interview it has been, but at times also fairly intense. Occasionally there is an ignition of sorts, a cigarette butt carelessly tossed on to the forecourt. Whoosh. These reactions are delivered in the same low monotone and even the humour is totally deadpan. You have to listen carefully.

It comes as a surprise to hear such forceful opinions expressed with such restraint, but forceful the opinions occasionally are and rooted firmly in an apparently unshakable self belief.

As manager of the Galway hurlers, Murphy has frequent recourse to this quality. A very successful spell in charge of the county minors two All Irelands and one final led him to the senior job in the autumn of 1994. The ride since then has been turbulent. A reconsidered resignation a year ago was followed by further difficulties at the beginning of the year after rank Burke, one of his selectors, resigned.

Through it all, Murphy has emerged embattled but unbowed and it's impossible to avoid the impression of an accomplished political in fighter an image he vaguely endorses. "You don't get involved for any period and not be aware of the political situation but you can't let that deflect you.

At the start of the season he appointed, with Burke, his predecessor Jarlath Cloonan as a selector. Re engaging Cloonan can't have been easy as he had fallen foul of the Hurling Board only a year previously in a messy cutting short of his two year tenure.

When Burke quit, word spread that Murphy wouldn't be able to find another selector acceptable to the authorities. Wishful thinking. Michael Fogarty, a respected former selector to the under 21s, accepted and things have gone smoothly to date with the first National League title in seven years being won in May.

Murphy exhibits little desire to discuss the byzantine affairs of the Hurling Board. The weekend holds the prospect of another All Ireland semi-final, the one match that does most to define Galway's year every year and that is necessarily the focus.

The National League triumph aside, he is pleased with the year's progress. "We've made enormous strides and have a very settled team. Last year there were a lot of question marks. We've had a good run in the league and are unbeaten since January in all competitive games.

In praise of his trainer Paul Halloran, appointed from a rugby background at the start of the year, Murphy is sceptical about the punishing training regimes operated by Clare last year and Limerick this year.

"I can't recall a training session where fellas reached the bottom. They've always trained within themselves and we don't have the attitude of no pain, no gain. We've a different view. Paul has a good relationship with the players. He's from a totally non hurling background but has slotted in perfectly. We're improving skill and gaining fitness but the players didn't realise it at first because they were enjoying it.

"I've a very simple belief that the ball's always going to move faster than the man. You can't carry a ball 40 yards faster than you can strike it. And if the ball's delayed, everyone is picked up."

If Murphy is happy with the year so far, it has to be said that the starting point for his reflections, last year's defeat by Clare in the All Ireland semi final, was an unhappy event. Furthermore it was the second year that unhappiness had suffused Galway semi final performance. Claret however, was Murphy's responsibility.

"The fact was that Clare had made such huge commitments to physical training and their back line was so physically strong that no team was able to come to terms with it. This year, everyone has upped the ante.

"In the match itself, I felt that the two goals we conceded weren't well defended and were a double blow. We had done a lot of hurling early in the game and conceded a goal. Then we came back and scored a few more points then another goal. The offshoot of the first goal was that it settled Clare. If we'd held them out a few minutes longer, they would have buckled.

"It's very hard to go back and analyse it but I felt that the team was much better than it played, chat they didn't do themselves justice. A lot of them were sick for months afterwards and said that it would never happen again that they would leave a game behind them."

This year's league was a sound piece of rehabilitation. With little championship preparation for tomorrow's match with a newly resurgent Wexford, Galway as usual needed the league and whereas the win over Tipperary in the final was less than dazzling, it had enough positive denials to make the campaign a success, leaving aside the capture of a national title.

New forwards appeared and the attacking unit clicked late in the day to deliver. Not alone was it the first senior prize taken by this particular team but it was the first gained without the input of Cyril Farrell for over 20 years.

Murphy, in his own inimitably up front way, put the league win into grandiose context. "The team that beats us in the All Ireland will be a good team. At the moment, it's not out there," he said afterwards. Have the last couple of months, you venture, changed his mind? Not a bit of it.

"A few teams capable of beating us are no longer in the championship.

A few or the few?

"A couple of teams, basically."

And the teams left?

"They would hold no fears for us. Right now, we're approaching the Wexford game as our next game. We believe that playing to our potential, we will beat Wexford. We have had some very competitive 15 a sides in Galway. I would say that the fellas are in good physical shape, coming together three times a week for the last three or four months. Especially after winning the League, the belief is in the team that they're the best team out there."

JUST to rewind that bit about Galway having little preparation compared with their Munster and Leinster counterparts is a perennial reality.

The recently orchestrated Connacht title race with Roscommon hardly compares with say, Limerick's auto-da-fr. And New York's allegedly revelling emigres didn't last half an hour as serious competition. But mention all this to Murphy and, whoosh.

"Now, I want you to put this down. Contrary to what our friend in the The Independent said I don't know who he was because he didn't put his name on it we are not whingeing about not having games. We have never used it as an excuse. In each and every interview it has been brought up and my answer to you and all of them is that we are in an All Ireland semi final and at least 10 counties would give their eye teeth to be in the same position as us.

"Next Sunday is a once off. No matter how well you played in the last three games, it's the next one that matters.

The relevant passage in the Irish The Independent report of the 4-22 to 0-8 defeat of New York went Having dealt with America's finest in such nonchalant fashion, Galway will undoubtedly commerce their annual moan about not having a seriously competitive game under their belts before the All Ireland semi final.

"The fixture list is there," continues Murphy. "We don't plan the fixtures. It's a fait accompli, you're banded your list of games. We didn't know what New York were like. I saw Derry and Wicklow play in the B final and wasn't sure what to expect but they looked fairly okay to me. All of a sudden, Derry went to New York and were beaten comprehensively."

The championship reforms passed by Congress mean that for at least two years Galway will face serious opposition from either the beaten Munster or Leinster finalists at a new quarter final stage. Murphy's not that enthusiastic.

"Why give two provinces an extra bite at the cherry. Are Connacht and Ulster worth less than Munster and Leinster? There are years when teams arrive in the Munster and Leinster finals almost by default. Surely they could let the eight teams (provincial finalists) back in. If they wanted to fiddle with the championship, why not go the whole hog and introduce the open draw. And then I wouldn't have to be answering stupid questions about the teams we play."

He only stopped playing junior himself last year. It brought to a conclusion a career starting in his native Turloughmore for whose six in a row team in the 1960s, Murphy's brother Seamus played. Malt lives in Gort and played for the local club which won the county title in 1981 and 83. Later he became involved as a selector and later as a manager "none too successfully," he says.

It was, however, as an under age coach that his name was made. Having taken the under 14s to a first Forristal Cup, he progressed to the minors and All Ireland success.

"One of the things that seems to be out there is that you have to have played at a very high level to be a successful manager. But never having made the breakthrough as a player, you had to analyse more your own shortcomings and the strengths of others. Top players do things instinctively. Others have to analyse them but I'm not sure if they always analyse themselves."

There's plenty of analysis to come this weekend and he knows it but beneath all the clinical thinking lies a simpler truth about Matt Murphy. In his own words. "The hurling bug bit me early and it's hard to get out of the system."