DONEGAL SUPPORTERS WILL not mourn the loss of drama, but Michael Murphy’s escape from a hard-earned red card on Sunday denied the rest of us the chance of hearing his grounds for clemency.
Fancifully, we wonder if he had faced sanction, would he, in his soft Donegal brogue, have gone before the GAA’s Central Hearing Committee and pleaded mercy for a crime of passion?
It might not have been that fanciful given he might just have been the first player in history to have been sent off twice for the one tackle, which is the kind of momentous achievement that would merit double the one-match sanction.
As one friend of this column argued, if Murphy’s first blow to Dylan Casey’s rib cage deserved a red card, the second flirted with meriting a mass one.
Kerry's Dylan Casey receives treatment following a strike by Murphy. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
He has been here before, of course, seeing red in the past, but more often than not for fouls that seemed to suggest that the price for being such a gifted player with the ball was to be anything but when in the act of trying to get it back, given his rudimentary execution of the tackle.
What God giveth and all that jazz.
But what happened on Sunday felt different; it was wide open to the naked eye, a frenzied and fierce flurry of blows that offered no hint of awkwardness, but rather a man so consumed by a raging passion to get it done that he was blinded to its consequences.
If so, the source is not hard-fingered.
It is not just that Donegal lost the All-Ireland final last July to Kerry, but for the first time an opponent sought as much to exploit his presence as shield themselves from it.
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He led from the front like he always does, and was one of his team’s top performers, but his then-35-year-old legs might as well have been age-certified with a neon sign.
If Kerry took control by dominating the contested battle for kick-outs, they kept it on their own kick-outs by going short early and often, and used whoever (usually Jason Foley) was left alone in a foot race with Murphy to execute it.
Among the many learnings, that one was right at the top for Jim McGuinness and, on Sunday, he deployed speedsters such as Conor O’Donnell, Shane O’Donnell, Shea Malone, Ryan McHugh and, on occasion, just to be sure to be sure, Peadar Mogan on the edge of the Kerry arc which proved to be such a deterrent that Shane Murphy had no out ball, other than one kicked on a wing and a prayer into the wind in the first half.
More often than not, it went out under the Hogan Stand where Murphy was a key contributor to the chaos in which Donegal thrived.
Murphy had a major influence playing further out the field. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
His presence there was an obvious source of comfort for Donegal, but what is remarkable is that it was not that long ago when his deep-lying role did not sit well with many in the county, to the point that it even threatened to stain his legacy as their greatest ever.
That was partly because so many still saw him in their mind’s eye as the original man-child, standing on the edge of the square, swatting Kevin Keane aside, clawing the ball out of the air and stressing the rigging of the Croke Park net, rather than the man he always was.
They pined for the old days even though Donegal spearheaded the design of layered defence which ensured there was no future going that way as everyone else followed and evolved.
And when times got hard for Donegal, Murphy became as much a target for criticism as admiration.
That angst hardened into something darker when lining out at full-forward in the 2022 Ulster final against Derry. He typically went deep in an attempt to run the game and brought his marker Brendan Rogers with him, who would kick three points as the Oak Leafers lifted the Anglo Celt for the first time in 24 years.
He took heat in the fallout and one qualifier defeat to Armagh later, it appeared he was gone for good.
But not only is he back, he continues to defy the compromised expectations of many.
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In the aftermath of last year’s stunning return, capped by a fourth All-Star and a Footballer of the Year nomination, there was still a theory hard peddled around Donegal that this season he would be used in an impact role from the bench. Stripped down, the theory was that others would, just like Kerry had, seek to exploit his lack of pace and his greatest value would be around the dressing room, and coming off the bench as some kind of human adrenaline syringe.
Lost in the furore of the red card that wasn’t last Sunday was the hard evidence of just how critical he remains to Donegal’s bid to get back to where he led them 14 years ago.
Michael Langan may well have been the game’s outstanding player, Caolan McColgan and Max Campbell may have quelled the respective threats of David Clifford and Seanie O’Shea, but the one player who relentlessly kept his foot on Kerry’s neck was Murphy.
He finished with 1-5, directly assisted for 0-3, and was indirectly involved in the build up to another 1-5. In short, by the time he had left the pitch in the 55th minute, his fingerprints were on 2-13 out of the 3-19 Donegal had on the scoreboard.
Murphy, left, celebrates with Donegal manager Jim McGuinness. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
It begs the question as to how a player who was deemed to be too vulnerable to play a deep-lying role four years ago in a turgid game can now thrive while doing so in one perceived to be utterly dynamic.
There are a couple of reasons for that, including the fact that, particularly this season, the game is not as cartoonishly manic as the new rules make it sound, with ever-increasing frequencies of slow-build attacks, which seek to suck heat out of contests and place an increased value on having smart players on the ball to prise out openings.
The other is that speed between the ears wins the foot race when it matters most.
Fourteen years after he blew away Mayo, he scored his second goal in a national final in Croke Park by being so fast out of the blocks, the fastest full-back in the country was literally left standing.
Prior to Mark O’Shea dispatching a routine lateral handpass to Foley, Murphy 10 metres away had already scanned O’Shea’s intention and made his move, executed the steal on his tormentor from last July, and dispatched it into the corner
It was a potent reminder that when it comes to delivering blows, he still knows how to dispatch the ones that hurt the most.
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Michael Murphy's deep-lying role proves he'll still be a spearhead for Donegal's All-Ireland quest
DONEGAL SUPPORTERS WILL not mourn the loss of drama, but Michael Murphy’s escape from a hard-earned red card on Sunday denied the rest of us the chance of hearing his grounds for clemency.
Fancifully, we wonder if he had faced sanction, would he, in his soft Donegal brogue, have gone before the GAA’s Central Hearing Committee and pleaded mercy for a crime of passion?
It might not have been that fanciful given he might just have been the first player in history to have been sent off twice for the one tackle, which is the kind of momentous achievement that would merit double the one-match sanction.
As one friend of this column argued, if Murphy’s first blow to Dylan Casey’s rib cage deserved a red card, the second flirted with meriting a mass one.
He has been here before, of course, seeing red in the past, but more often than not for fouls that seemed to suggest that the price for being such a gifted player with the ball was to be anything but when in the act of trying to get it back, given his rudimentary execution of the tackle.
What God giveth and all that jazz.
But what happened on Sunday felt different; it was wide open to the naked eye, a frenzied and fierce flurry of blows that offered no hint of awkwardness, but rather a man so consumed by a raging passion to get it done that he was blinded to its consequences.
If so, the source is not hard-fingered.
It is not just that Donegal lost the All-Ireland final last July to Kerry, but for the first time an opponent sought as much to exploit his presence as shield themselves from it.
He led from the front like he always does, and was one of his team’s top performers, but his then-35-year-old legs might as well have been age-certified with a neon sign.
If Kerry took control by dominating the contested battle for kick-outs, they kept it on their own kick-outs by going short early and often, and used whoever (usually Jason Foley) was left alone in a foot race with Murphy to execute it.
Among the many learnings, that one was right at the top for Jim McGuinness and, on Sunday, he deployed speedsters such as Conor O’Donnell, Shane O’Donnell, Shea Malone, Ryan McHugh and, on occasion, just to be sure to be sure, Peadar Mogan on the edge of the Kerry arc which proved to be such a deterrent that Shane Murphy had no out ball, other than one kicked on a wing and a prayer into the wind in the first half.
More often than not, it went out under the Hogan Stand where Murphy was a key contributor to the chaos in which Donegal thrived.
His presence there was an obvious source of comfort for Donegal, but what is remarkable is that it was not that long ago when his deep-lying role did not sit well with many in the county, to the point that it even threatened to stain his legacy as their greatest ever.
That was partly because so many still saw him in their mind’s eye as the original man-child, standing on the edge of the square, swatting Kevin Keane aside, clawing the ball out of the air and stressing the rigging of the Croke Park net, rather than the man he always was.
They pined for the old days even though Donegal spearheaded the design of layered defence which ensured there was no future going that way as everyone else followed and evolved.
And when times got hard for Donegal, Murphy became as much a target for criticism as admiration.
That angst hardened into something darker when lining out at full-forward in the 2022 Ulster final against Derry. He typically went deep in an attempt to run the game and brought his marker Brendan Rogers with him, who would kick three points as the Oak Leafers lifted the Anglo Celt for the first time in 24 years.
He took heat in the fallout and one qualifier defeat to Armagh later, it appeared he was gone for good.
But not only is he back, he continues to defy the compromised expectations of many.
In the aftermath of last year’s stunning return, capped by a fourth All-Star and a Footballer of the Year nomination, there was still a theory hard peddled around Donegal that this season he would be used in an impact role from the bench. Stripped down, the theory was that others would, just like Kerry had, seek to exploit his lack of pace and his greatest value would be around the dressing room, and coming off the bench as some kind of human adrenaline syringe.
Lost in the furore of the red card that wasn’t last Sunday was the hard evidence of just how critical he remains to Donegal’s bid to get back to where he led them 14 years ago.
Michael Langan may well have been the game’s outstanding player, Caolan McColgan and Max Campbell may have quelled the respective threats of David Clifford and Seanie O’Shea, but the one player who relentlessly kept his foot on Kerry’s neck was Murphy.
He finished with 1-5, directly assisted for 0-3, and was indirectly involved in the build up to another 1-5. In short, by the time he had left the pitch in the 55th minute, his fingerprints were on 2-13 out of the 3-19 Donegal had on the scoreboard.
It begs the question as to how a player who was deemed to be too vulnerable to play a deep-lying role four years ago in a turgid game can now thrive while doing so in one perceived to be utterly dynamic.
There are a couple of reasons for that, including the fact that, particularly this season, the game is not as cartoonishly manic as the new rules make it sound, with ever-increasing frequencies of slow-build attacks, which seek to suck heat out of contests and place an increased value on having smart players on the ball to prise out openings.
The other is that speed between the ears wins the foot race when it matters most.
Fourteen years after he blew away Mayo, he scored his second goal in a national final in Croke Park by being so fast out of the blocks, the fastest full-back in the country was literally left standing.
Prior to Mark O’Shea dispatching a routine lateral handpass to Foley, Murphy 10 metres away had already scanned O’Shea’s intention and made his move, executed the steal on his tormentor from last July, and dispatched it into the corner
It was a potent reminder that when it comes to delivering blows, he still knows how to dispatch the ones that hurt the most.
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Donegal GAA GAA Gaelic Football King of the Hills Michael Murphy