Reuben Murray getting his just reward for dedication to club and county

By John Harrington

The Centurion Club - those who have played more 100 times or more for their senior county team - is a small and exclusive one.

It takes a rare combination of dedication and ability to earn the right to wear your county jersey that many times, especially in the modern era of the game when the demands are so high.

If you’re fortunate to play for a county team regularly in the shake-up for the Liam MacCarthy or Sam Maguire Cups, then the motivation required to keep going must be that bit easier to source.

You could argue then that those who keep coming back for more even when the lean years vastly outnumber those of plenty are even more deserving of our respect.

Longford hurling captain, Reuben Murray, is one such example.

He can remember nights in Shroid when only 11 or 12 lads turned up for Longford team training, and there was one trip up to Armagh for a match when they had a panel of just 19.

But even though it was hard work at times, his commitment to the cause has never wavered since he made his debut in 2014. That dedication was richly rewarded this year.

On his 111^th appearance he captained Longford to victory over Leitrim in the Lory Meagher Cup Final and even somehow produced a man of the match performance despite being seriously ill with a stomach flu.

That achievement and his excellence throughout the whole season as a high-scoring midfielder earned the Lory Meagher Cup Hurler of the Year and a place in the Champion 15 Hurling Team of the Year.

All well deserved and very much appreciated by the Longford Slashers clubman.

“It's not just about getting rewarded for this year, it's a reward really for 14 years of work,” he told GAA.ie

“It's a recognition award really, and hopefully I have another few years left in me yet.

“It was very nice, in fairness, and my family are all as delighted as I am

“My brother, Karl, actually got on the team of the year in 2014 as well, but I kind of went one up on him with the Player of the Year!”

Karl was there on the night to support him as was his mother Jennifer. Reuben wouldn’t have had it any other way, he knows he wouldn’t be the hurler he is today were it not for the pair of them.

“My mother was actually with us with the Longford team in 2014. She would have been the Maor Uisce. She's been there through everything for the last number of years from when Karl started senior county with Longford.

“I'd say in all that time she's only missed two or three games since we both started playing.

“She's made a lot of sacrifices to support us which is why I made sure both she and Karl were there on the night of the Champion 15 Awards because we've all been in this together for the length of time we've been at it.

“Karl is five years older than me and I definitely learned a lot from him. There's a hill at the side of our house and I'd always be at the top because I was at the youngest and he'd always be at the bottom.

“When we'd come in the first thing we'd do would be to play hurling. We wouldn't care about the homework, the bag would be left in the car nearly.

“We'd be hitting the ball up on the roof of the house as well and trying to catch it against each other. That wasn’t easy for me being five years younger but he wasn't too much of a fan of having me jumping behind him either!”

In the traditional hurling counties it’s easy for young boys to grow up with the ambition to be the best hurlers they can be because they’re hardwired to have that attitude.

There’s rarely the same sort of expectancy or encouragement in developing counties where Murray admits the game needs to be driven by those “who aren’t half well in the head”.

From the moment he picked up a hurley he fell in love with the game, but he also counts himself very fortunate to have benefited from the guidance of some very dedicated mentors with Longford Slashers along the way.

“I first started hurling in school,” says Murray. “There used to be this indoor tournament out in Newtownforbes for all the schools in the Longford. It was indoor hurling with the rubber-headed hurleys and that's where it would have started for us.

“I got friendly with a fella living up the road from us who was down in Slashers and the two of us started playing with Slashers then and we got a load of our friends in with us.

“I just fell in love with hurling straight away and it helped that we always had a good underage team with Slashers. We won U12, U14, U16, Minor, U21, everything the whole way up.

“There's lots of different managers and selectors I could thank for helping me along the way. I'd be a long time listing them all but definitely without someone like Niall Ward I don’t know where hurling in the club and even the county would be.

“He used to go around to the schools and brought numerous kids to training and games just to keep them at it. I'd say he's up in Slashers six out of seven days of the week if not seven days a week which is a massive help.

“There are others then like Robbie Stakelum, Adrian Flynn, and Tommy Hawes in the club who all just seem to love hurling as well.”

Murray’s own dedication to the club is laudable. Back in 2021 he and his friend and team-mate, Cian Kavanagh, took it upon themselves to coach the team with Niall Ward as caretaker manager, and thanks in no small part to their combined efforts Slashers won their first county senior hurling championship for 20 years.

And even though he plays for the club’s intermediate football team as well as the senior hurlers, he somehow found the time last year to help manage the club’s U21 team and helps out whenever he can too with the U16s this year.

When Slashers won that 2021 Longford championship with an extremely young team the expectancy was that they could potentially dominate for a few years, but instead they lost three finals in a row by narrow margins.

It looks like they’re now finally ready to capitalise on the great work being done in the club at underage level with this year’s 10-point county final win over Wolfe Tones the first time they’ve put senior titles back to back for 25 years.

“I always say it's nearly the toughest championship to win in the country even though there's only three clubs competing in it,” says Murray.

“We would have felt like we left those three finals behind us. We had a young enough team and those lads are starting to come to the right age now.

“There are a few right good hurlers there now around the age of 22 who have matured.

“Things have really come together for us and we still have more good young lads coming behind them. There's a very good system from the underage which has really helped us.”

Murray believes the next step the team needs to take is to win some provincial silverware.

Last year they were beaten in the AIB Leinster Club Special Junior Hurling Championship Final by Amsterdam, and this Saturday they’ll have the chance to exact a measure of revenge against the same opponents in this year’s semi-final.

In the developing counties any opportunity to put hurling in the shop window is an important one, and Murray sees provincial success as a great way of promoting hurling in the club and county.

“It would be absolutely unreal to win something like that,” he says.

“I know it's only the Leinster Junior, but it would be unreal for the club to bring something like that back to Slashers. I don't think it's ever been done in Longford before.

“It would be great for profile of hurling and publicity of hurling in the club and hurling in Longford over all if we could do it. It would be out there in the papers and on social media and would hopefully attract more people to hurling.

“We've all seen how the success of the Longford Slashers ladies football team has attracted in a huge amount of girls to the underage set-up in the club.

“They've won eight county titles in a row, an All-Ireland Intermediate, and are now in a Leinster senior final in two weeks time.

“They have huge numbers of girls up there training every night because of that success so hopefully we could do something similar.”

Murray is focused for now on winning all he can with Longford Slashers but he sees the bigger picture too and knows that what Longford hurling really needs is more senior clubs.

Currently the Longford senior championship is just made up of three clubs – Longford Slashers, Wolfe Tones, and Clonguish Gaels – and for the county to really progress in the coming years they really need to grow the base of the game.

“It's about getting some of those lads who aren't half well in the head into different parts of the county to get the game going in more clubs," says Murray.

“The likes of Kenagh, Rathcline, and Dromard have underage structures going and it's just about keeping them going up through U-16, minor, and U21 stage and getting a senior club if possible.

“It'll take some time and they should be given all the support they need because it takes a lot of funding to get the equipment you need.

“It’s encouraging though to see there’s now hurling teams in secondary schools like St. Mel’s, Granard, and Ballymahon because when I went to school there wasn't so hopefully that will keep developing down the line.

“I've a few years left of playing myself but when I get older I'll definitely push the thing on in whatever way I can and try to get more clubs involved.

“Even if we had five or six senior clubs instead of just three it would make a huge difference.”