Return of the special one
Has there ever been a more important player to any county team than Michael Murphy has, and continues to be, for Donegal? Everything about his comeback in Ballybofey on Sunday felt like one of those feel-good if somewhat schmaltzy sports movies where the grizzled hero returns for one last spin on the carousel. It had everything – the stadium erupting as he made his way off the bench, the rattled opponent meeting him head on (ahem), the sending off, the score with his first play, the flock of kids (and adults) surrounding him long after the final whistle looking for selfies, autographs, or just simply to be in his orbit for a brief moment.
Even during his stint in the media over recent years, after matches he was working at, it was not unusual to see Murphy surrounded by supporters. Some players just have that presence, that ‘it’ factor.
And as for the grizzled hero part, that was not so much the case with the 2012 All-Ireland winning captain on Sunday as he looked to be in superb physical shape.
With Murphy and Jim McGuinness reunited again – there is no doubt his return to intercounty football is a massive boost for Donegal. But it is actually a treat for all sports fans because rarely do we get a second chance to see a truly special player go at it again.
“It’s the type of game that sticks in the memory whenever you hang the boots up,” said McGuinness on Sunday evening. And not because Donegal won, but because the county’s greatest ever player was out there in the thick of it again, a sight most believed had been consigned to the past, and he lit up Ballybofey.
Whatever way the script plays out from here, the opening scene of Michael Murphy’s comeback grabbed your attention. – Gordon Manning
Sin bin advantage?
Confusion reigned in Castlebar. Mayo’s Conor Reid was black carded in the 26th minute for a ‘body collide’ on Tyrone’s Darren McCurry. In the wing forward’s absence, the visitors overturned a 0-2 to 0-3 deficit into a 0-5 to 0-4 lead at the break.
Yet, Tyrone felt they hadn’t been able to press home the sinbinning advantage. Reduced to 14, Mayo availed of what looks like an anomaly or unintended consequence of the FRC changes. A team with a player off the field for disciplinary reasons is allowed to play two in either half of the field and the home side cleverly juggled between ‘two up’ and ‘two back’.
In a game where the perfectly permissible latitude for goalkeepers to create a 12 v 11 overload by joining the attack is coming under increased scrutiny, it is surely anomalous that a team weakened by indiscipline is able to mitigate their loss by ‘borrowing’ players at either end of the field.
It also created major problems for referee Barry Cassidy and his match officials, who with Tyrone players frantically appealing 3v3 breaches in apparent or wilful ignorance of the rule, got into a tangle before Cassidy corrected the error.
Afterwards the managers reflected on the situation. Asked had there been confusion about the rule, Mayo’s Kevin McStay agreed. “Well, there was, yeah. In a very simple way, there was, yeah, I’d say on all sides.
“The black card didn’t help it because people then forgot that you could go to two. I think Barry might have forgotten that at one moment as well. But in fairness, he stopped the play and talked it through, and we got the right decision, and I think we got caught once as well.”
[ Mayo dig in for strong finish to claim first win of the season against TyroneOpens in new window ]
Tyrone manager Malachy O’Rourke, previously a member of the FRC, questioned whether teams in Tyrone’s position were actually receiving any advantage from the penalty.
“Yeah, you could argue that. You were thinking that the black card would give us an advantage and it didn’t really. There’s a number of different things that come up now and maybe they’re not working as was intended.
“But again – I keep going back to the same thing – I suppose you just have to give these things time. I think the referees are even trying to get used to the rules, so there is a lot of frustration. Nobody at times is sure what’s going on.
“Hopefully, it will over the next few weeks become a bit clearer, but that is definitely one concern you’d have coming out of the game.”
McStay also made an essential point about the whole project. “There’s nothing about the rules that are second nature. Like we’ve all been reared doing things a certain way, for 40 years maybe. But these rules are well-intentioned; they’re working pretty well.” – Seán Moran
Questions & Answers
If the good men of the FRC have any gallantry about them at all, they’ll be sending Joanne Cantwell a thank you card this morning. If they have any left-field thought going spare they’ll be asking RTÉ if they can borrow her once a week from here on out, maybe even on a Monday morning, and ask her to give them a grilling on the football rules.
She shone a light into Peter Canavan’s eyes on League Sunday and it meant that viewers got clarity around the new guideline around kick-outs having to be taken inside 20 seconds. This was an instruction issued to referees in the course of the previous week and yet this was the first time anyone from the FRC was appearing in public to talk about it. Canavan had clearly been well briefed and was ready for Cantwell’s questions, meaning anyone who watched it came away better informed.
Changing football on the fly is a difficult, multilayered problem with all sorts of plates spinning and unintended consequences arising. But as Canavan showed last night, communicating is the easy bit. All you need is a time and a place and a camera and the willingness to explain.
Everyone accepts that there will be teething problems. Nobody has any great issue with that, as long as they’re not left to stew in their own confusion. The FRC’s cause would benefit enormously from a weekly slot where one of their number fielded questions for 20 minutes after a weekend, breaking down passages of play, giving a sense of where their thinking is on certain rules.
Cantwell’s forensic, informed, just-one-more-thing style of questioning did the FRC a big favour by forcing them to communicate better. They should learn from it. – Malachy Clerkin
Kerry’s conundrum
Sixteen minutes into the second half on Saturday night, the massive home crowd in Tralee erupted at the sight of David Clifford. Kerry were still five points up against Dublin, but they had only scored once since half-time and there were early signs of distress. This time, Clifford couldn’t do anything about it.
By the end of last year, Clifford was the poster boy for the what the locals believed was general fatigue in the Kerry ranks. After a gruelling couple of years with club and county Clifford had been flat all summer. In the All-Ireland semi-final Armagh looked stronger the longer the game went on.
The complaint was that too many key players had appeared in nearly all of Kerry’s 14 league and championship matches. Gavin White, Seán O’Shea and Joe O’Connor were ever-present; Tadhg Morley, Paul Murphy, Shane Ryan, Dara Moynihan, Paudie Clifford and David Clifford had only missed one match; Jason Foley had only missed two.
Whatever rest had been scheduled for the Clifford brothers at the beginning of last year was chalked off when Kerry lost their opening league game to Derry; a week later the Cliffords appeared against Monaghan. This year, David’s return was just 12 days later; Paudie was back for round one of the league.
The Kerry players were so exhausted by the end of last season that they circulated a letter asking to be excused from the District club championships. This caused a huge amount of disquiet and generated a certain amount of pushback, but many of the players stood their ground.
But what do Kerry do now? Having gathered just two points from their opening three games they’re facing the prospect of being dragged into a relegation scrap. Three of their remaining four games are away from home against Tyrone, Mayo and Galway. How much rotation can they afford to do?
One of the other local complaints last year was that young players weren’t being blooded. The youngest starter on Kerry’s championship team was Joe O’Connor, who was 24. At the moment, that looks like a job for whoever succeeds Jack O’Connor. Right now, his concern is staying in Division One. – Denis Walsh
History in the Hyde
Diarmuid Murtagh’s tally of 12 points at Dr Hyde Park on Sunday moved the forward top of the pile as Roscommon’s all-time leading scorer with 19-333.
Murtagh has been in superb form during this year’s league campaign and has been Roscommon’s top marksman in all three of their games so far – wins over Down, Louth, Monaghan.
And in stats compiled by county chairman Brian Carroll, Sunday’s display sees Murtagh overtake Dermot Earley at the summit of Roscommon’s scoring roll of honour.
Murtagh’s long-range shooting ability has come to the fore with the new rules – he has already scored six two pointers, including four against Monaghan on Sunday.
His brother, Ciaráin, has been either Roscommon’s second or joint-second top scorer in all three league games so far. Another brother, Brian, also previously played for the county – so it’s fair to say the Murtagh family has given Roscommon some service, not to mention some amount of scores.
Murtagh’s St Faithleach’s club stated: “A truly historic day in the primrose and blue for Diarmuid Murtagh as he took his overall Roscommon tally to 19-423 making him the top scorer of all time for the Roscommon senior football team.
“He is a dedicated professional and a role model to the youth of St Faithleach GAA and the wider GAA community. Looking forward to seeing him add to that tally for many more years to come.” – Gordon Manning
