A CHAT WITH Rob Heffernan epitomised what Danny Murphy is set on doing at Cork City.
A familiar face at the club, the former league winner has been tasked with resurrecting the fortunes of their women’s team.
The Cockney Rebel became the side’s third manager in the space of the year last week, and opened his tenure with an agonising 7-0 defeat to heavyweights Peamount United on Saturday.
Cork are second bottom of the Women’s National League table with six points – or two wins – from 13 games thus far, seven points adrift of next-in-line Bohemians and five clear of rock-bottom Treaty United.
Murphy, 39, previously spent a two-year spell in charge of Welling United’s women across the water, and is confident he can turn things around here on Leeside.
He spoke brilliantly in a press conference this morning, laying everything on the table as he covered a wide range of topics across 17 minutes or so: from “starting from scratch” and the need for vast improvements and consistency, to lofty ambitions and future plans.
Within, he also offered a few interesting stories and anecdotes — one of those involving a certain Cork great and Olympian.
“I had a really good conversation with Rob Heffernan yesterday,” Murphy noted at one point. “It’s a mindset.
“He said you’ve got to have a winning mentality, a winning mindset. You’ve got to want to be the best in your position. As a player, if my manager asked me to go and play where my best mate played, I wouldn’t tell him I’m not playing because he’s my mate. I wanted to play. We need to get that competitive edge in the team.
“Someone might be your best friend, but if the manager asked your best friend to play in your position, they’re not gonna say no, they’re gonna play. We need to build that in training, the competitive edge has got to come out in training, and once we get that, I know that it’s there. Because they are good footballers.”
Murphy, who originally left City eight years, shared his delight at being back.
He also offered his thoughts on changes in the game in recent times, circling back to his previous points on winning mentality.
“The ugly side of the game has kind of gone out of it, and everyone’s way too nice. When we were playing, we hated all the Dublin teams but they all seem to be mates. Obviously through international set-ups, everyone’s friends and they’re all pally-pally, but I’m like, ‘We’re Cork City like, you’re not coming down here and beating us’.
“We need to get that in the club, where it’s a case of, ‘We’re Cork City, we want to win, we should be at the top end of the table.’ It’s a mindset, and speaking to people like Rob… he’s hopefully gonna come in and have a chat with the girls, speak to them about it and help them understand that.
“That’s part of my job as manager, I’ve got to help them change that mentality and try build that competitive edge within the team. We’ll get there because we’ll put in the time and effort. I know we can get there. I want to play good football. I’d rather win.”
“We want to win games, but it’s got to be baby steps and we’ve got to do certain things to get ourselves to that level where we can compete against Peamount and Shels,” he added at one point. “As a group we’ll get there, and it won’t take long if we do it the right way.”
Murphy is hoping to dovetail the upward trajectory the game is experiencing on a national and global scale, at the club and at a more local level.
“Women’s football is on the up and up. We’re at a good stage as a club, the effort that’s gonna start to be put in and the way we’re looking at doing things, if we do it the right way and we keep progressing, we could be one of the bigger clubs.
“If we’re successful, we’ll get crowds and be more attractive to players wanting to come here. But there’s a lot of stuff we need to do better as individuals, as a coaching staff, as a team and as a club to make it more attractive for people to be here.
“But we’ll do it, because I will pester people until it’s done. I’m very driven in where I want to be. I want to be the best team in Ireland.
“People might say it’s arrogance and whatever it is, but for me, I wouldn’t have taken the job if I was just happy to sit here. I’m not interested in being down the bottom end of the table, I want to be as close to the top as possible.”
Cork face Treaty in a basement battle this weekend at Turner’s Cross.
