Michael Murphy is "still a threat" as former Donegal teammate addresses goalkeeper rumour
Eamon McGee reckons Michael Murphy’s return from exile stems from a deep-lying belief he can win a second All-Ireland.
The Prodigal Son retired from inter-county football two years ago but after seeing Donegal make rapid progress under Jim McGuinness last season, their 2012 All-Ireland winning captain is back on board for a final roll of the dice.
Murphy, 35, played for Donegal from 2007 to 2022, winning five Ulster titles as well as that All-Ireland 13 years ago.
Now he is seeking Ulster Championship number six and to become the first Donegal player to feature on two All-Ireland winning sides.
And McGee, who soldiered with him on that All-Ireland win, knows precisely why Murphy has returned - namely because they are contenders again, after spending years in the doldrums.
McGee said: “If Donegal were the ninth or 10th team in the country, Michael would have said, “no, I'm not coming back”. But I think that the prospect of a potential All-Ireland, a potential provincial medal, influenced his decision.
“The previous year, I know that the likes of, you know, Jim and Neil had a path warmed to his door, and I thought, “you know, they're going to break him eventually”.
“But he held out, and I was so impressed by it. And I thought that was it, done. I thought that he had made his mind up, and that part of his life was finished.
“But whatever wee seed was planted, that worked.
“From chatting now within the circle, the boys (his former Donegal team mates) were saying, “with Michael there, could he make a difference?” And McGuinness just says, “listen, we'll not take that chance again this year”.
So, yeah, I think the prospect of a medal is a carrot to Michael.”
But the big question remains whether Murphy will be able to have an influence, after two years out of inter-county football.
McGee answers: “He will make a difference, no question. Michael has been coaching and views the game differently now than how he did as a 21, 22-year-old.
“He'll play it differently, he'll be able to manage it differently, and he's a bloody good player in the midst of it too.
“He had a good (club) championship in Donegal, he's still a threat. And that is good for Donegal because the opposition are not going to leave Murphy alone, they're going to be nervous with Murphy on the field and will keep one eye on him. And that frees Gallen up. You do that to Gallen, and then it frees Murphy up for a bit of space.
“So the ideal for most teams is if they can get three threats, three real big threats, in that top three that they plan to keep up, and Michael Murphy and Oisin Gallen and Paddy McBrearty are as good as top three is what it's about.”
With the rumour mill heading into overdrive over the winter, there was speculation that Murphy may end up doing a job as a goalkeeper. McGee, however, dismissed that speculation.
He said: “I see that the keeper thing now has gathered legs. I think Michael might have been hurt when he stood in goal and someone spotted it.
“I get what the logic is behind it but Michael Murphy's not coming back from retirement and busting his balls to sit in goals and get up and down the field.
“He's going to be either that link man at 11 or sitting in at 14, whatever way Donegal play now.”
As their inter-county careers overlapped - McGee played for Donegal between 2003 and 2016 - he and Murphy regularly conversed about the difficulty in breaking down a blanket defence.
Once, sitting on a bus heading to a routine League game, McGee asked Murphy if he would back himself against any of the game’s top full-backs.
In reply Murphy asserted how he would fancy his chances against most full backs … if he got to engage them in a one-on-one battle.
“And I just kind of, for a moment, I felt sorry for him,” McGee says.
But the new rules frees up players like Murphy, Gallen, Kerry’s David Clifford and Dublin’s Con O’Callaghan.
McGee says: “The opportunity is there to go out and express yourself. So he will make a difference and I think no full-back in the country, even though Michael's been out, no full-back in the country will want to see him coming.”
One thing McGee didn’t see coming was the opportunity to be featured on Laochra Gael, with the new series starting this Sunday on TG4.
Initially he turned down the opportunity to appear on the programme because he suffers from imposter syndrome. “I didn’t see myself in the category of people like Tony Scullion and Kevin Cassidy who had appeared on the programme,” he says.
But then after a chat with his wife, he changed his mind.
He says: “I'm trying to tell my kids, “you have to believe in yourself, you have to back yourself and it's okay to be good to yourself” and Joanne says, “well you're being hypocritical now. You're not backing yourself and you're telling your kids,” so I kind of says, “bloody hell, let's go for it then”.
Eamon McGee will appear on Laochra Gael on 13 March at 9.30pm on TG4
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