OF THE MANY people who reached out since Eoin Murphy announced his retirement, it was a conversation with Martin Fogarty that stood out.
A selector during Brian Cody’s reign, Fogarty was there for Murphy’s introduction to the Kilkenny senior squad in 2011. Fogarty’s son, Conor, is a close friend of Murphy’s too, but it was hurling business that dominated much of the phone call.
The chat took Murphy back to a time when he was auditioning for different positions on the Kilkenny team. Murphy was actually a forward during his time as a Kilkenny U21 player, but his versatile skillset made him a candidate for goalkeeper as well as the outfield positions.
That was when it was all before him. He didn’t know where he would find his fit on the pitch, but everything was possible. He was facing down a road that would lead to 16 seasons with the Cats, picking up four All-Ireland senior medals and four All-Stars along the way.
But long before he became one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, he posed a conundrum for the Kilkenny management. Martin Fogarty relayed it all to Murphy as they rolled back the years together.
“When we asked you in, we weren’t entirely sure whether you were going to be a goalkeeper, back or forward. We knew you had something, but we didn’t know where we were going to place you.”
Eoin Murphy at the All-Ireland homecoming in 2014. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Stepping Away
Murphy knew from around May that this season would be his last. That sense of clarity helped put a shape on the conversation with new Kilkenny manager Henry Shefflin when the pair met recently. After accepting Murphy’s decision, Shefflin had just one request as they parted ways.
“He asked me to leave it a couple of weeks until after the club season to see how I was feeling. My mind hadn’t changed, even though I thought I had a good club season. I was fairly adamant.”
Had he agreed to stay for a 17th season, it would have been something of a full circle moment for Murphy and Shefflin.
The concluding years of Shefflin’s Kilkenny career coincided with the start of Murphy’s arc. They didn’t always play together, but training with Shefflin left a lasting impression. His comeback from a cruciate injury which forced him off in the early stages of the 2010 All-Ireland final against Tipperary comes to mind now.
“I’ll never forget the first day he came back on the field. We were training at Kilkenny College.
“He beat every single one of the players by about 10 metres in the 100m sprints. He was just an absolute animal to train, and that transferred onto the field just by his drive.
“When I started playing at ’13 and ’14, Henry had a few injuries and was coming to the end of his career as well. When things weren’t going well, he just dragged players along with him.”
Time has been moving on for Murphy lately. New opportunities at work, coupled with the arrival of a baby earlier this year, meant there was a shift in his priorities.
The emergence of Aidan Tallis was a factor too. While Murphy started his last game for Kilkenny in their Leinster championship defeat against Dublin, Tallis has become a regular choice between the sticks. Murphy always endeavoured to be a good mentor for the Lisdowney player, but accepting the role as substitute is never an easy adjustment.
“You play for so long and then obviously when you’re not playing, it is hard. If you’re an outfield player and one of the named subs for the backs, you have six positions that you could slip into.
Advertisement
“Goalkeeper is probably the most difficult one in the sense that even if the guy gets injured, he’ll come back in. So, you’re there waiting on poor performances, but while that may take place, you have to be training really well.
“All the control is out of your hands. So, that’s where I did find it hardest in that regard.”
All is changed
Murphy’s departure marks a time of great change in the Kilkenny dressing room. Another link to their last All-Ireland triumph in 2015 has been severed. And the subsequent loss of TJ Reid means there are no players from that starting team still involved with the squad.
Richie Reid, who was a sub-keeper in the 2015 final against Galway, is the last man standing.
That ongoing absence of Liam MacCarthy success was compounded by a slump in form this year. A 0-35 to 0-17 drubbing against Galway in March was their worst league defeat since 1953. Kilkenny lost by 15 points when the sides met again in the Leinster round-robin while a 1-26 to 0-22 loss against Dublin marked their earliest championship exit since 1996.
Derek Lyng’s four seasons at the helm delivered three consecutive Leinster titles as well as an All-Ireland final appearance three years ago.
Succeeding the great Brian Cody was always going to be a colossal challenge, and Lyng became visibly emotional while trying to explain his side’s sharp decline in post-match interviews this year. Murphy can testify to the deep hurt that Lyng felt.
“Derek is an extremely driven man. I felt sorry for Derek in the sense that it was a huge period of change with Brian [Cody] leaving. The volume of players that were turned over and the introduction of new players into the squad and guys retiring, and going travelling. It was a difficult time for Kilkenny hurling in general.”
Being a player throughout that downturn was challenging too. Theirs is a county that is always expecting, and those expectations have not been met. Under Brian Cody, Kilkenny contested 19 All-Ireland finals in 24 seasons, winning 11 titles.
Murphy was there for the final years of that dynasty, but times are different now.
“We had bursts in games and no real consistency. You can blame it on injuries and illnesses and different things. But the fact is we weren’t playing well enough. If we were to get out of Parnell Park [against Dublin] and escape out of Leinster, it might have just prolonged the suffering for a couple of weeks. We just weren’t going well.
“With games coming thick and fast and the lack of training, it’s more so recovery and skills work that goes on. It’s very hard to find that form by turning around into another game.”
Eoin Murphy in action for Glenmore against Eoghan Rua during the 2016 All-Ireland junior final. Donall Farmer / INPHO
Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO
Best position
The journey to becoming a goalkeeper began with his club Glenmore. As Murphy recalls, numbers were low, and they needed a volunteer for the number one jersey. Neddy Aylward, a coach in the club, had a saying to sell the idea to Murphy.
“You need a good hurler on the goal,” he was told.
Glenmore were competitive at underage level as word began to spread about Murphy’s skills as a goalkeeper. That was the position he played for the Kilkenny minors, and his first year with the county U21s was also spent minding the net as a sub keeper. He subsequently moved up to the forwards, and by the time he received the call-up from Brian Cody, he was exploring different opportunities on the field.
He can remember a 2012 league game against Cork where a chance to play at corner forward “didn’t necessarily go too well”. In fact, he was replaced by Colin Fennelly after 43 minutes. Earlier in that campaign, he started in goal for a 2-21 to 1-15 win over Waterford.
Murphy believes his contrasting fortunes in those two games dictated his future with Kilkenny.
“I made a couple of decent saves [against Waterford] and there were a couple of dropping balls that I dealt with pretty well. I think maybe off the back of playing poor in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and then playing OK in Waterford, they were probably going to throw me down the path of a goalkeeper.
“I probably used to frustrate Brian [Cody] somewhat. I used to make some mental errors that he knew I was much better than that. I don’t think I was mentally ready. I worked very hard on the mental side of the game with a good friend of mine, Brother Damien Brennan. It allowed me to have confidence in my own self.”
Murphy has spent much of his club career playing outfield, sometimes marshalling their defence at centre-back. And when Glenmore won the All-Ireland junior final in 2016, he scored a point from play as a half-forward to help secure a 2-8 to 0-12 win over Eoghan Rua of Derry.
Glenmore have been operating as a senior club since winning the Kilkenny intermediate title in 2021, and Murphy has since found himself back in the goal again.
“At the end of ’24, I got a bad injury in my shoulder and missed the last league game, but then missed the championship with the club.
“We had keepers in and out and a few guys going travelling and different things like that. So, there was a bit of instability there. We have a good core of younger players that were coming through.
“We’ve been doing OK the last couple of years, and just hopefully we can make the semi-finals, [or] the county final, if you’re lucky.”
Kilkenny's Eoin Murphy celebrates with his mother Bridget after winning the 2023 All-Ireland semi-final. Bryan Keane / INPHO
Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO
Big moments
Murphy can’t explain how his mother Bridget managed to slip past the Croke Park stewards in the moments after the 2023 All-Ireland semi-final. Amid the wild celebrations, she invaded the pitch and jumped into her son’s arms. A fitting image to cap a thrilling game which ended in a 1-25 to 1-22 victory over Clare.
“Our mad streak definitely comes from her,” Murphy says, laughing. “Our dad [Paddy] is a bit calmer when we’re on the field. It was class to share that moment with her.”
That match has resurfaced in the wake of Murphy’s retirement. His brilliant injury-time save to keep out a thunderous volley from Peter Duggan received another round of applause as the public marvelled at his acrobatic movement all over again. Murphy had a sense of how impactful that intervention was at the time, and would have loved more time to savour it.
“It’s very important to appreciate what just happened before you move on to the next game because you’ll never take any joy out of sport then.
“That evening was great, but the All-Ireland [final] turnaround is pretty quick now, which would be the only complaint I would have with the calendar. There should be a three-week window to an All-Ireland final to give it the hype that it deserves. It would promote the game even more.”
Murphy has a lot to be thankful for as he departs the stage. He hurled with his four brothers at different times, while also sharing a Kilkenny dressing room with siblings Alan and Shane. Their sister Helen has lived in London for almost 20 years and is “the toughest of the lot of us” having won multiple titles with the Tara camogie club.
Invitations to get into coaching have been extended, but Murphy will hold off for now. This is the time to reflect on living out a boyhood dream for 16 seasons. It’s a time to think about the highlights and lowlights, and the various people who helped him find his fit on the pitch.
“It’s only then you fully realise what you mean to the Kilkenny people. That’s been incredibly gratifying over the last couple of weeks now.
“It’s been a nice time to look back on the career. We’ll see what comes.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
The man of many playing positions who left a lasting legacy as a Kilkenny goalkeeper
OF THE MANY people who reached out since Eoin Murphy announced his retirement, it was a conversation with Martin Fogarty that stood out.
A selector during Brian Cody’s reign, Fogarty was there for Murphy’s introduction to the Kilkenny senior squad in 2011. Fogarty’s son, Conor, is a close friend of Murphy’s too, but it was hurling business that dominated much of the phone call.
The chat took Murphy back to a time when he was auditioning for different positions on the Kilkenny team. Murphy was actually a forward during his time as a Kilkenny U21 player, but his versatile skillset made him a candidate for goalkeeper as well as the outfield positions.
That was when it was all before him. He didn’t know where he would find his fit on the pitch, but everything was possible. He was facing down a road that would lead to 16 seasons with the Cats, picking up four All-Ireland senior medals and four All-Stars along the way.
But long before he became one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, he posed a conundrum for the Kilkenny management. Martin Fogarty relayed it all to Murphy as they rolled back the years together.
“When we asked you in, we weren’t entirely sure whether you were going to be a goalkeeper, back or forward. We knew you had something, but we didn’t know where we were going to place you.”
Stepping Away
Murphy knew from around May that this season would be his last. That sense of clarity helped put a shape on the conversation with new Kilkenny manager Henry Shefflin when the pair met recently. After accepting Murphy’s decision, Shefflin had just one request as they parted ways.
“He asked me to leave it a couple of weeks until after the club season to see how I was feeling. My mind hadn’t changed, even though I thought I had a good club season. I was fairly adamant.”
Had he agreed to stay for a 17th season, it would have been something of a full circle moment for Murphy and Shefflin.
The concluding years of Shefflin’s Kilkenny career coincided with the start of Murphy’s arc. They didn’t always play together, but training with Shefflin left a lasting impression. His comeback from a cruciate injury which forced him off in the early stages of the 2010 All-Ireland final against Tipperary comes to mind now.
“I’ll never forget the first day he came back on the field. We were training at Kilkenny College.
“He beat every single one of the players by about 10 metres in the 100m sprints. He was just an absolute animal to train, and that transferred onto the field just by his drive.
“When I started playing at ’13 and ’14, Henry had a few injuries and was coming to the end of his career as well. When things weren’t going well, he just dragged players along with him.”
Time has been moving on for Murphy lately. New opportunities at work, coupled with the arrival of a baby earlier this year, meant there was a shift in his priorities.
The emergence of Aidan Tallis was a factor too. While Murphy started his last game for Kilkenny in their Leinster championship defeat against Dublin, Tallis has become a regular choice between the sticks. Murphy always endeavoured to be a good mentor for the Lisdowney player, but accepting the role as substitute is never an easy adjustment.
“You play for so long and then obviously when you’re not playing, it is hard. If you’re an outfield player and one of the named subs for the backs, you have six positions that you could slip into.
“Goalkeeper is probably the most difficult one in the sense that even if the guy gets injured, he’ll come back in. So, you’re there waiting on poor performances, but while that may take place, you have to be training really well.
“All the control is out of your hands. So, that’s where I did find it hardest in that regard.”
All is changed
Murphy’s departure marks a time of great change in the Kilkenny dressing room. Another link to their last All-Ireland triumph in 2015 has been severed. And the subsequent loss of TJ Reid means there are no players from that starting team still involved with the squad.
Richie Reid, who was a sub-keeper in the 2015 final against Galway, is the last man standing.
That ongoing absence of Liam MacCarthy success was compounded by a slump in form this year. A 0-35 to 0-17 drubbing against Galway in March was their worst league defeat since 1953. Kilkenny lost by 15 points when the sides met again in the Leinster round-robin while a 1-26 to 0-22 loss against Dublin marked their earliest championship exit since 1996.
Derek Lyng’s four seasons at the helm delivered three consecutive Leinster titles as well as an All-Ireland final appearance three years ago.
Succeeding the great Brian Cody was always going to be a colossal challenge, and Lyng became visibly emotional while trying to explain his side’s sharp decline in post-match interviews this year. Murphy can testify to the deep hurt that Lyng felt.
“Derek is an extremely driven man. I felt sorry for Derek in the sense that it was a huge period of change with Brian [Cody] leaving. The volume of players that were turned over and the introduction of new players into the squad and guys retiring, and going travelling. It was a difficult time for Kilkenny hurling in general.”
Being a player throughout that downturn was challenging too. Theirs is a county that is always expecting, and those expectations have not been met. Under Brian Cody, Kilkenny contested 19 All-Ireland finals in 24 seasons, winning 11 titles.
Murphy was there for the final years of that dynasty, but times are different now.
“We had bursts in games and no real consistency. You can blame it on injuries and illnesses and different things. But the fact is we weren’t playing well enough. If we were to get out of Parnell Park [against Dublin] and escape out of Leinster, it might have just prolonged the suffering for a couple of weeks. We just weren’t going well.
“With games coming thick and fast and the lack of training, it’s more so recovery and skills work that goes on. It’s very hard to find that form by turning around into another game.”
Best position
The journey to becoming a goalkeeper began with his club Glenmore. As Murphy recalls, numbers were low, and they needed a volunteer for the number one jersey. Neddy Aylward, a coach in the club, had a saying to sell the idea to Murphy.
“You need a good hurler on the goal,” he was told.
Glenmore were competitive at underage level as word began to spread about Murphy’s skills as a goalkeeper. That was the position he played for the Kilkenny minors, and his first year with the county U21s was also spent minding the net as a sub keeper. He subsequently moved up to the forwards, and by the time he received the call-up from Brian Cody, he was exploring different opportunities on the field.
He can remember a 2012 league game against Cork where a chance to play at corner forward “didn’t necessarily go too well”. In fact, he was replaced by Colin Fennelly after 43 minutes. Earlier in that campaign, he started in goal for a 2-21 to 1-15 win over Waterford.
Murphy believes his contrasting fortunes in those two games dictated his future with Kilkenny.
“I made a couple of decent saves [against Waterford] and there were a couple of dropping balls that I dealt with pretty well. I think maybe off the back of playing poor in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and then playing OK in Waterford, they were probably going to throw me down the path of a goalkeeper.
“I probably used to frustrate Brian [Cody] somewhat. I used to make some mental errors that he knew I was much better than that. I don’t think I was mentally ready. I worked very hard on the mental side of the game with a good friend of mine, Brother Damien Brennan. It allowed me to have confidence in my own self.”
Murphy has spent much of his club career playing outfield, sometimes marshalling their defence at centre-back. And when Glenmore won the All-Ireland junior final in 2016, he scored a point from play as a half-forward to help secure a 2-8 to 0-12 win over Eoghan Rua of Derry.
Glenmore have been operating as a senior club since winning the Kilkenny intermediate title in 2021, and Murphy has since found himself back in the goal again.
“At the end of ’24, I got a bad injury in my shoulder and missed the last league game, but then missed the championship with the club.
“We had keepers in and out and a few guys going travelling and different things like that. So, there was a bit of instability there. We have a good core of younger players that were coming through.
“We’ve been doing OK the last couple of years, and just hopefully we can make the semi-finals, [or] the county final, if you’re lucky.”
Big moments
Murphy can’t explain how his mother Bridget managed to slip past the Croke Park stewards in the moments after the 2023 All-Ireland semi-final. Amid the wild celebrations, she invaded the pitch and jumped into her son’s arms. A fitting image to cap a thrilling game which ended in a 1-25 to 1-22 victory over Clare.
“Our mad streak definitely comes from her,” Murphy says, laughing. “Our dad [Paddy] is a bit calmer when we’re on the field. It was class to share that moment with her.”
That match has resurfaced in the wake of Murphy’s retirement. His brilliant injury-time save to keep out a thunderous volley from Peter Duggan received another round of applause as the public marvelled at his acrobatic movement all over again. Murphy had a sense of how impactful that intervention was at the time, and would have loved more time to savour it.
“It’s very important to appreciate what just happened before you move on to the next game because you’ll never take any joy out of sport then.
“That evening was great, but the All-Ireland [final] turnaround is pretty quick now, which would be the only complaint I would have with the calendar. There should be a three-week window to an All-Ireland final to give it the hype that it deserves. It would promote the game even more.”
Murphy has a lot to be thankful for as he departs the stage. He hurled with his four brothers at different times, while also sharing a Kilkenny dressing room with siblings Alan and Shane. Their sister Helen has lived in London for almost 20 years and is “the toughest of the lot of us” having won multiple titles with the Tara camogie club.
Invitations to get into coaching have been extended, but Murphy will hold off for now. This is the time to reflect on living out a boyhood dream for 16 seasons. It’s a time to think about the highlights and lowlights, and the various people who helped him find his fit on the pitch.
“It’s only then you fully realise what you mean to the Kilkenny people. That’s been incredibly gratifying over the last couple of weeks now.
“It’s been a nice time to look back on the career. We’ll see what comes.”
****
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Cats Eoin Murphy GAA Goalkeeper Hurling Interview Kilkenny GAA