The week before last year’s All-Ireland final a crew in Rathmore spotted a small gap in the ditch; Paul Murphy for man of the match, 33-1. Rathmore had provided three different All-Ireland final men of the match before, all defenders. Murphy was bound to be picking up Ryan McHugh. After scoring the goals against Dublin and the write-ups that followed, whatever McHugh did was going to be news. Anyone who could stop him was going to be news, too.
They also knew what they were getting with Murphy, born into a crowd stone mad for football with the head of an old player, the patience to figure how to wear McHugh out and the endless running and skill to wear him down. A farmer across the frontier in Cork tells of a day he called Donal Murphy, Rathmore club chairman, father of Paul and vet, for help with a cow who was calving. Donal took position behind the cow and began his examination, beginning a conversation on local football matters with a farmer who wouldn’t know a football if it bounced off his head.
Even the cow got agitated, and released a kick that threw Murphy back onto the ground. He got back up, resumed his examination, and the farmer swore he hadn’t stopped talking football even in mid-air. And everyone in Rathmore knew there was truth in the story for the way the Murphys had always been about football.
So when Kerry won their All-Ireland and Paul won man of the match, it was seen in Rathmore as the smallest miracle in a year of great wonders. Denis Moynihan manages the club senior team and had taken a spin back to Tralee on a squally day that January for a McGrath Cup match against IT Tralee that became Murphy’s first ever game with Kerry. “He had a great game,” says Moynihan. “His only worry then was to make the panel for the League. Then you see what happens after.”
That was the type of him: slow and steady, seeking gradual, incremental progression. No fuss, no panic. Murphy never played minor for Kerry. When he was a teenager development team selectors always thought him too small. Even Rathmore tried him as a forward before trusting him as a defender. People wondered a little bit about him, but no one worried too much. Tom O’Sullivan never played minor for Kerry and won six senior All-Irelands. Aidan O’Mahony was only called into a minor panel before an All-Ireland semi-final; five All-Ireland medals.
Advertisement
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t [disappointed to miss the minor team],” says Murphy. “There was actually three lads from the club on the team, so naturally you’d be very jealous. You’d see them going off to matches and think ‘I’d love to be going off with them now’, but I didn’t make it. Then it was Leaving Cert time and I threw myself into that.”
He got stuck in UCC behind a heavy volume of young inter-county players. He never started a Sigerson Cup game but he kept pushing. “You always set targets, but first and foremost play well with the club. Every game you want to do as well as you can and maybe I stepped things up then. I tried to get gym work in which, obviously, when I was younger I wouldn’t have been doing. I set the target for myself to rattle the under-21 panel.”
Eamonn Fitzmaurice was over the Kerry under-21s in 2012. He saw the speed, skill and intelligence in Murphy that translated into good seniors. “When he came in you’d look at him first and wonder will he make it?” says Harry O’Neill, under-21 selector in 2012. “But he was nearly man of the match against Cork in the Munster final.
“Eamonn had a style of play in mind and in one of the first games I remember Paul being given instructions to do certain things. He was frustrated, he wasn’t sure about his role. But once it was explained again, he nailed it down. That’s the difference at that level. Some guys wouldn’t get it. He got it.”
Murphy was piecing together scraps of ideas from players in UCC and training smarter and harder. He didn’t get bigger, but he grew stronger. With Tom O’Sullivan retired and Rathmore needing a new man-marker to neutralise the assassins lurking in every club team, Murphy was sent back one day to mark Kieran O’Leary against Dr Crokes. He reacted well. More assignments followed: Colm Cooper, Darran O’Sullivan, James O’Donoghue. Another huge pile of learning.
Advertisement
“I had notions that I wanted to be further out the field, but it probably brought me on as a player. If you’re able to hold your own against the likes of Colm and James you’ll take a bit of confidence from that. They’re tougher than what you might face in a lot of inter-county games.”
Once Fitzmaurice brought him into the senior panel Murphy quietly ascended through last year like steps on a stairs. A good McGrath Cup begat his first League game against Dublin in Croke Park. He started the championship against Clare and scored a goal and did greater things against Cork, Mayo and Donegal.
“It’s always a step up. You never get to the stage where you’re thinking ‘I’m flying here now’, because a corner-forward’s going to come in then and skin you. The fact that you’re being picked to play, you have to take that as a show of confidence in you.”
After the calm deliberation that guided him through the summer, the morning of the All-Ireland final still caught him cold. No book could hold his attention. Television had him bored into a bad mood. He did his stretches and hung around waiting for lunchtime to tune in. Then everything in his head fell into place.
“I wasn’t fazed by [the All-Ireland final build-up]. I wouldn’t ever be hugely nervous. It’s a good thing to have: you never get overwhelmed by the whole thing. At the end of the day it’s a game of football, it’s 30 lads kicking a ball around a field. You break it down with things like that.”
Advertisement
This year rolled on from last September like old man river until Murphy took a smack that damaged his shoulder on Kerry’s training trip to Portugal. There was no panic, just more patience and a timely return to face Cork in the Munster final replay. In Rathmore, Denis Moynihan sees him in different places playing like the same kid they always knew at home. After taking a trimming from Dr Crokes in the club championship early this summer he fell into conversation with Murphy as they left the field. Rathmore were playing Kerins O’Rahillys six days later in the county championship. Big stuff.
“It’s amazing what you can learn from losing a game,” said Moynihan. “We’ve enough learned,” replied Murphy.
Moynihan knew where that steel came from. Enough lessons. Enough hardship. Enough rejection and frustration. Murphy’s time is now.