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Michael Murphy wants to make amends for a 'difficult to stomach' 2017

Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy

​By John Harrington

Donegal captain Michael Murphy says the heavy defeats his team suffered to Tyrone and Galway in the 2017 Championship were ‘difficult to stomach’.

It looked like a young, new-look Donegal were poised for a strong tilt at provincial honours and possibly more after a positive League campaign that saw them defeat Tyrone comfortably, draw with Dublin, and finish third in the Division 1 table.

But then Tyrone beat them by nine points in the Ulster semi-final and Galway hammered them by 15 in Round 4 of the All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers.

Considering how good they looked in the spring, the wheels really came off their wagon in spectacular fashion come summer.

“Aye, they did, and that's the disappointment,” said Murphy. "That was the killer afterwards.

“If you were to be judged on the League we would have been fairly adequate based on the fact that it was a new and inexperienced team that we had.

“But on the big days when it really, really counted against Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final and Galway in the Qualifiers, the performances were difficult to stomach, the manner of the defeats were quite crushing.

“That's difficult to take, because in the six years before that you were always getting through to the Croke Park stage, the quarter-finals, that sort of thing.

“Over the summer and then winter months those defeats were hard to take.”

Galway v Donegal - GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 4A

Galway v Donegal - GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 4A

A mitigating factor for Donegal is the fact that they brought so many young players through last year.

Six players started Championship matches for the first time and inconsistency tends to go hand in hand with inexperience at the highest level.

“You could put it down to that, but it might be cheap to put it down to that solely,” said Murphy.

“As individuals we just didn't perform. We didn't carry the performance levels from the League to the Championship.

“The League is one beast but the Championship definitely is another. I suppose, yeah, it was virtually a new group and you need to build up relationships from playing with each other.

“It's quite difficult to build them up immediately over a number of months. You need a year, two years, three years, playing along with each other as a group to understand everybody's capabilities and strengths and for everyone to understand the team's strengths and capabilities.

“It was a fairly newish group whereas you look at the likes of Tyrone who had been together for a number of years and have really honed a pattern of play and a very consistent team give or take the few that come in here or there.

“I would like to think that going into this year that team we had together last year, albeit we took a couple of beatings, that another year down the line the younger lads will be more experienced and understand the ins and outs of the senior inter-county game that little bit more, the bigger venues and the bigger demands.

“And then hopefully the older lads we're another year down the line getting to know them that bit better and in an ideal world you would think that would count for something.”

Donegal v Fermanagh - Bank of Ireland Dr. McKenna Cup Section C Round 3

Donegal v Fermanagh - Bank of Ireland Dr. McKenna Cup Section C Round 3

Declan Bonner has come in as Donegal manager this year, and Murphy says it feels like a fresh start where everyone, himself included, has to prove themselves all over again.

When he looks around the dressing-room now he sees very few survivors from the 2012 All-Ireland winning team, to the extent that achievement now feels like half a life-time ago.

“Definitely, it does, and I suppose it is in a way,” he said. “So many things have moved on. Even two years ago it (2012) felt like a long time ago but you still had a lot of the same characters that you experienced that with there and around.

“Whereas now a hell of a lot have moved on so this is a new team and it's literally a new everything since then, there's very pieces left.

“The same culture is still there, though. I'd like to think that's still being driven forward even though there's new individuals there.

“The same demands and the same levels we want are still there. And now that Karl Lacey has moved into the management team he's really brought that to the fore and everyone is driving behind, so that's still there.”

Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy

Donegal proved it was possible to transform a team quickly from no-hopers to All-Ireland champions when Jim McGuinness led them to the 2012 title in just his second year in charge.

Few people will rank them as contenders for the Sam Maguire Cup in 2018, but Murphy knows what it takes to be champions and insists they won’t be there just to make up the numbers.

“What you need is good players and you need them playing and training at a high level,” he said.

“That's the same for all sporting teams, to train and play at a high level with good players, and I do believe that we have the raw material in terms of the players, it's just getting those performances right. We showed last year we could do it, but we only did it sporadically. It's just getting that a bit more consistently.

“It's very hard to make big statements here now saying we want to go and do this and we want to go and win that.

"But you definitely do believe in the back of your head, and I do believe, that we have the capabilities.

“That's not a headline, but we really need to go and show it on the Saturdays and Sundays.”

  • Michael Murphy, Donegal’s most successful football captain and 2009 All Stars Young Footballer of the Year, launched the 2018 Sport Industry Awards in association with JLT Ireland yesterday. The awards recognise and reward excellence in the business of sport, whilst simultaneously highlighting the contribution of sport to Ireland’s economy. The Sport Industry Awards will be held at Dublin City Hall on 22nd February 2018 and the closing date for entries is Monday 5th February 2018.