The first time Michael Murphy announced himself on the national stage, he was 17. It was July 14th, 2007. It was nothing fancy: a qualifier game between Donegal and Westmeath and Tomas O’Flatharta and Brian McIver locked in Cusack Park in what sounded like a very high pressure game.
I wasn’t there but my recollection is vivid because Yvonne and myself were in Letterkenny general hospital and our first child was about to be born. That was the night we both discovered that having a baby is not like in the movies. There is an incredible mix of tension and apprehension and excitement – and a deluge of texts from respective family members wondering how things are going.
At one stage I walked down the corridor to a vending machine. It was a gorgeous summer evening outside and I can still hear Charlie Collins’ voice billowing through the corridors as he commentated on the game. It was a Saturday evening and the hospital had that deserted feel of a weekend. And it seemed as if Highland Radio was on in every room. I just remember thinking that it sounded like a real championship occasion. And by the final whistle Michael Murphy had arrived as a phenomenon.
It was 4.10am on July 15th when our new baby came into the world and I was holding Toni-Marie for about two hours after. Her eyes were wide open and she was scanning the room, which I felt was extraordinary. It was as if she was sensing life all about her. She too had arrived.
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I went for the Donegal job three times. The first two times were a flat no. And the third time, it wasn’t immediately clear that I would get the job even though I was the only candidate. But after the second time I was asked to put my name forward for the Donegal U-21 managerial position. I didn’t really want it because I didn’t trust the process fully. But regular conversations with Brian McEniff and Martin McHugh gave me enough assurances to at least apply for it. I chatted with my father-in-law, Colm senior, about the pros and cons of this thing. And he put it to me straight. He had coached Michael with the St Eunan’s school team. “For f**k’s sake, Murphy is worth two men to you.”
Anytime I am doing a talk I put up a photograph of a red setter. It encapsulates that U-21 team to me. They haven’t got an ounce of sense – who does at 20? And they were bundles of energy and enthusiasm and receptiveness and they bounced about the place.
That was the Donegal U-21 team in 2010. They wanted all of it –- tactics, training, gym, instantly. But Michael was a leader amongst them, and we quickly built a game plan around him. In the Ulster final that year I will always remember Daniel McLaughlin soloing past me as I stood on the sideline, slamming on the breaks and playing a ball on the diagonal which Michael fielded and hammered to the net. It presaged the goal in the All-Ireland senior final two years later when he was on the end of Karl Lacey’s pass.
The highlights of Michael’s contributions could make for a long and spectacular reel of clips. But for me, the most important aspect of Michael’s influence on the Donegal group is in the training environment. Every night he brings ferocious focus and consistency and an appetite for learning. He drives it all to the maximum level. Standards create culture. That is where it starts. And Michael has been the standard-bearer for Donegal for 15 years. It is evident in how he walks about and how he carries himself. It’s in how he plays the game and brings the others along with him. Without those high standards you cannot be successful.
So aside from his unique ability, it is that quality which has enabled him to guide Donegal to his ninth Ulster final as captain.
One of the most enjoyable parts of training Donegal was watching Michael Murphy. Just watching him move. To see him in that environment – particularly in full flight – was a privilege. One word springs to mind: power. He could move at such speed and he glided over the ground. He didn’t bulldoze. He was agile. But that power he possessed made him unstoppable.
And that versatility probably did play a part in my decision to play him more out the field. I wanted to see him in full flight. At U-21 he was an out-and-out full forward. But at senior I felt it was more prudent at times to have him around the middle for the kick-out, for his ball-winning prowess and to also see if we could then create a situation where he could explode on to the ball and through the opposition defence. By switching position he would suck the fullback out the field and bring more versatility to his game. And with Colm McFadden and Patrick McBrearty inside we had a phenomenal threat even when Michael vacated the large parallelogram.
He is the best player Donegal has ever produced. And for me he has been the best player in Ireland over the last decade. He will have to be so again on Sunday if his team are to succeed.
And Derry will need to have a very clear plan on how to deal with Michael. This summer fascinates me because you have an older Michael Murphy and a young David Clifford both carrying the hopes of their counties on their shoulders. It’s a significant burden but I do feel that David is ready to ship that. But the point is, these things are not achieved on a straight line. You have to go on a kind of a journey.
I remember our U-21 semi-final against Tipperary in 2010. Michael was missing just before we were ready to go on to the field. We heard a sound coming from the toilets, and when Michael reappeared he was wincing. It was nerves. The stakes were so high for us. But then he walked out the door and delivered.
We forget that brilliant practitioners in sport are not robots. There is a human being in there. And because they are so good it probably means even more to them because they clearly worked that bit harder on the way up. Like Tyrone 2011: this was a game in which he had to locate himself. Donegal had not won an Ulster title in 19 years! And it all revolved around him. He had to find out how to lead. And he did that. But it is not inevitable that that happened.
If this sounds like a valedictory, it is not. His hunger his undiminished and he remains Donegal’s most important player. Where and how Donegal position him in Clones will be critical to the outcome. Donegal are again tinkering with the rotational aspect to Michael’s game, and we will see him pop up inside and at midfield in this Ulster final.
The big question is: will the Donegal players see him? And: will they play him the ball when he is in there? Those questions will go a long way to deciding this game. The opportunities will be there because for although Derry will have 15 back in defence their game is predicated on numbers more than intensity. So pockets of space will present themselves. And Michael materialising as a goalmouth threat could be very beneficial to Donegal.
When a team presents a very aggressive defensive structure the message is: we will take the ball off you. But in a lower intensity set-up, which Derry prefer, it is about organisation and patience and about waiting for the other side to give you the ball. Tyrone repeatedly fell victim to that in their first-round game. They literally kicked the ball to Derry. And Monaghan, too, turned the ball over and over.
So this game will come down to Derry sitting deep and Donegal trying to break them down with an established attack. Will Donegal move the ball and pick off enough scores to keep the scoreboard ticking over? Or will they hand the ball over? To hedge their bets Donegal need to be cognizant of the fact that Derry will turn over a percentage of ball over the 70 minutes and will make that transition into attack at speed. This is Derry’s oxygen and their main source of scores. But it can be made redundant.
In the 2021 season, Manchester City conceded just one goal on a transition to defence. They were able to deal with and stop opposition attacks at source. And the reason for this was the team’s rest defence. Pep Guardiola position his two centre-halves and a fullback behind the ball and another player, usually Fernandino, in front of that to form a three-plus-one. So even as they are attacking and trying to break the opposition down, they are preparing for the moment when they might lose the ball. This tactic could be critical to Donegal and for Derry if they can’t execute their preferred mode of attack.
If Donegal can protect themselves against Derry’s transition then they will hold the whip hand. And we might see a moment or two when Michael has a chance to open up and show that extraordinary power that is still under that bonnet. In this scenario Anglo-Celt number six – and number 11 for Donegal – becomes more realistic. And that bare statistic tells its own story about Michael Murphy and Donegal.
There’s a prevailing view out there that Michael is in the autumn of his years. I don’t agree. To be honest I think the best of Michael Murphy may be about to come. Because whenever Michael understands that he can no longer cover ground out the field as he would wish, he will find himself back on the edge of the square. And he will move and think, then, like he did when he was 17 and lighting it up in Cusack Park. Except this time he will have a decade and a half of brilliance under his belt. Returning home to full-forward is still somewhere in the future for Michael Murphy. What a treat.
