Kevin Cassidy looking forward to some tasty match-ups on Sunday

​By Paul Keane

Michael Murphy versus Sean Rafferty. Now there's a potentially game-defining matchup we didn't anticipate ahead of an All-Ireland football semi-final in 2025.

Rewind back to last Autumn and Donegal great Murphy was still deep in inter-county retirement while, down in Meath, Rafferty hadn't long graduated from the county's development squad, and was yet to play in the National League or Championship.

This has been a year neither will forget though, and there is every chance that they will pair off together in a little patch of Croke Park just before the ball is thrown in this Sunday.

Murphy's creative instincts and score poaching ability hardly requires recounting at this stage while full-back Rafferty has arguably been the breakthrough player of 2025, certainly for Meath.

Rafferty never played underage for the county and, by his own admission, 'probably had the football, just not the belief'.

But after coming on as a sub in Meath's first league game last January, he has started every game since and got increasingly more influential as the season has gone on, frustrating a string of top class county forwards.

"Do you know what, it's something I'm really looking forward to," said AIB ambassador and former Donegal All-Star Kevin Cassidy of the likely Rafferty versus Murphy showdown. "Even take away the Michael Murphy element, I watched Rafferty in a couple of games this year and am looking forward just to seeing him again.

"He's a young lad, his first year on the panel, and he just plays with no fear. He's probably the closest you could get to Darren Fay. He attacks every ball. I'm thinking about the turnover on Johnny Maher the last day against Galway.

"If that was any other defender, they'd probably shadow and they wouldn't want to jump in. He just plays with no fear.

"He's physical in the tackle, he's aggressive and he can also kick-pass the ball out of defence which is really good. In terms of Michael Murphy, I think Michael will probably try to drag him out of position because Michael's obviously comfortable out the field as well.

"If he can drag Rafferty out of the full-back position, it may leave gaps for other players. I can see Michael maybe being unselfish this weekend and trying to drag Rafferty around the pitch."

At the other end of the field, Cassidy is intrigued by the possibility of another match up.

"A lot of people are saying that Brendan McCole will pick Jordan Morris up," continued the former wing-back. "Maybe Jim McGuinness might just trust young Finbarr Roarty to do it, he's got the same kind of build as Morris. I'd love to see that because Roarty's got no fear either."

The list of possible match-ups is mouthwatering. The bottom line for Murphy is that Donegal are in good shape, right where they want to be, as the season nears its conclusion.

"Obviously we weren't great against Tyrone, the first-half against Louth wasn't great, the first-half against Monaghan wasn't great," said Cassidy. "But listen, we're exactly where we want to be. And especially after having two weeks off now, it gives the boys a real chance of focusing in on this one big one-off game."

Cassidy has another optimistic take on things, that there are clear parallels between what is happening now in Donegal under McGuinness and what happened when he first took over as manager for the 2011 season.

A little like 2023, 2010 hadn't gone well for Donegal, ending with defeat to an Ulster rival, prompting the SOS to McGuinness. In both of his first seasons with Donegal, in 2011 and 2024, he guided the county to Ulster success as well as an All-Ireland semi-final.

Donegal retained the Ulster title in his second season each time too and, of course, went on to win the All-Ireland in 2012. Perhaps the latest season two under McGuinness will end with All-Ireland success also?

"Back at home, it feels like that too," smiled Cassidy, referencing the chatter locally about history repeating itself. "With Jim, he takes on a project and he breaks everything apart and builds it back up, block by block. In 2011, that's what he did, he stripped it back and started to build. We failed in 2011 but he saw the differences in what needed to happen to get to the top table.

"Like, if you look at the game against Galway last year, if we had Michael Murphy, would we have got over the line? Jim obviously identified that. He brought Michael back in.

"I think they're playing a better mixture this year. We were just running the ball constantly last year. There's a small mixture change this year. I think for any team to win the All-Ireland, especially in Croke Park, you need to vary your game. You have to be able to kick it.

"But yeah, it does look like that (2011 and 2012 repeating) at the minute. We have to get Meath out of the way first."