ROSCOMMON FORWARD CIARÁN Murtagh knew he was likely to hit his 100th appearance for his county earlier this year.
After making his debut in 2014, the county board chairman Brian Carroll flagged the impending century mark to him.
Congratulations to Ciaran Murtagh of @FaithleachsGAA who makes his 100th appearance in the primrose & blue today! 🇺🇦🇺🇦
— Brian Carroll (@bcarroll17) February 26, 2023
Ciaran has scored 20-246 in those 99 games!
A mighty man both on & off the pitch! 💙💛 pic.twitter.com/Doj5cSx18Q
And what a thrilling time to hit such a significant milestone. Roscommon have, in spite of the doubts over their ability to survive in the top tier, enjoyed a stunning start to their Division 1 campaign. They racked up three wins on the bounce before succumbing to their first defeat last weekend when they were undone by Monaghan.
Unfortunately for Murtagh, that was when he reached game 100. He has chalked up 20-248 so far, while also captaining his county to a Connacht title in 2017. Of course, he’s hoping to tag on a few more goods to that haul, but he can still take a breath at this remove to reflect on an already satisfactory career.
“I never thought I’d get to that many games with Roscommon,” he tells The42 looking back on the last nine years with the Rossies.
“2014 seems like a long time ago now. You’re just happy to be on the panel at the beginning and when you get a few games, you get a bit greedy. You want to be playing all the time.
“I actually made my debut against local rivals Longford as well which makes it extra special.”
Longford is right over the road from Murtagh. His local St Faithleach’s club is situated right on the border, with just a bridge over the Lough Ree separating the two counties.
Throughout his career, Murtagh has enjoyed the unique honour of playing with his two brothers Diarmuid and Brian. All three siblings were involved for Roscommon’s provincial success in 2017. Brian, the eldest of the three, was the first to be added onto the Roscommon senior panel, with Ciarán and Diarmuid following his example in 2014.
“We started off on a development panel. There was a good crew of us under John Evans and my own clubman Wally Burke was a selector at the time. We were there for a few weeks and then we were drafted into the senior panel. There’s a good crew of us still there that was on that development panel.”
Brian was a defender while Ciarán and Diarmuid are still prolific forwards for the county team. And in their debut season, they found themselves in direct competition for an attacking position in the starting team.
“We were both trying to get onto the team like every player that’s on any panel wants. No matter who’s there, whether it’s a brother or a best friend or whatever it might be, you just want to get that jersey. When you’re younger you have that selfish nature and competitiveness.
“I kind of enjoyed that battle against him and other players as well. Just trying to get that jersey and get game time…. at training, we just left it at that and never fell out.
“We’re very close as a family in general so once training was over, we switched off. We might give each other a few pointers but not too many pointers in case we’d give too much away. It was very competitive but it was very enjoyable as well playing alongside brothers and battling for a position made it extra special when you’d win things together.”
The 2017 season is obviously a highpoint for Murtagh as he captained Roscommon to an unlikely provincial title, beating a highly fancied Galway side in the final alongside his two brothers. Roscommon’s then-manager Kevin McStay entrusted Ciarán with the captaincy role, although he wasn’t sure if he was the right fit for such a title.
“When I started off with Roscommon, I probably never thought I’d play 100 game and I definitely wouldn’t have thought I’d be a captain. It’s not in my nature to give these motivational team-talks or anything like that. I always saw Brian or Diarmuid being a captain but I never saw myself [doing it], so 2017 was very nice.”
Murtagh took some time away from inter-county football over the last decade, heading off to Boston to play football in the summer of 2018 before going travelling with his now fiancée in 2019.
Even with those pauses in his career, Murtagh is still in the 100 club. And he is still heavily involved at an exciting time for Roscommon football. Under new manager Davy Burke, Roscommon are making strides towards preserving their Division 1 status and ultimately shaking off the yoyo label of a time that floats between the top two tiers.
Their place in the Connacht rankings is on similar unsteady footing. Despite their recent triumphs, many would still consider the province to be a two-horse battle between Galway and Mayo with Roscommon placed somewhere in the ether.
Murtagh doesn’t disagree with either argument.
“When I first started, we were in Division 3 and we made the jump straight from Division 3 up to Division 1 so I’ve been playing in Division 2 and Division 1 for most of my career. We’ve got that yoyo tag and it’s not a great one to have but it’s our own fault really. We have been going up and down; we can’t deny that.
“I suppose we’re trying to get that bit of consistency in our performances and try to stay in Division 1 for longer than a year or two which is disappointed when you’re getting relegated and promoted again. And then you’re back down again. We lost last weekend and we’ve a huge game this weekend again against Mayo so it doesn’t get any easier.
“Division 1 is very unforgiving. You can go on a run and pick up wins and then it can just as easily go the other way. And I suppose that’s why we’ve been the yoyo team: we just haven’t been getting them wins. You actually don’t know when you’re safe this year with the way things are working out. Making sure we stay in Division 1 is the main aim.
“Mayo and Galway deservedly get their recognition. When you look back at the amount of titles they’ve won, and even what they’ve done outside Connacht, I don’t think you could really argue with the number one and two tag, whichever order you want to have it in. We just have to look at ourselves.”
With 100 games under his belt, Murtagh already has his targets set for what needs to be done throughout the next 100 outings. The next step is facing down current Division 1 leaders Mayo later today.
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