WHEN THE FIXTURES list for the 2021 Women’s National League landed, Kylie Murphy couldn’t have been happier.
Wexford Youths v Peamount United, Saturday 27 March, Ferrycarrig Park.
A baptism of fire to kick off, with last year’s double champions coming to town, and Youths captain, who’s been there since the league started in 2011, was licking her lips.
“You know what, I’m absolutely delighted,” she tells The42 a few days later. “I’m buzzing.
“I hate waiting for them games, bring it on. We have loads of time to prepare, it is what it is. It’s not like, ‘Oh we have a couple of games now to settle in.’ No. We fucking start the way we mean to go on. End of story.”
Murphy is raw, honest and straight-talking, wearing her heart on her sleeve on and off the pitch. The 32-year-old has secured legendary status in Wexford, and in WNL circles in general at this stage, having skippered her side to four league titles, three FAI Cup crowns and Uefa Champions League football — scoring a hat-trick in Europe while she was at it.
She really is Captain Fantastic, an inspirational midfielder and a fearless and peerless leader.
Her 10 years in the league have been nothing short of colourful. Her story is well documented at this stage, but in brief, Murphy joined Youths ahead of their first season, marking her return from a three-year hiatus from sport. After rediscovering her love for the game despite a difficult start for the team, the Graiguecullen native’s time in the league was nearly over as soon as it started after she sustained a career-threatening back injury. She bounced back better than ever, the leading light as her side enjoyed unprecedented success, lifting trophy after trophy — completing a treble in 2018.
“I suppose you just look back, there’s so many memories and so many things that have been done, good and bad throughout the whole league,” she grins. “Reflecting on it, I probably wouldn’t change a thing.
“I wouldn’t even change the losses, like, because what we’ve learned from them… what I’ve learned from them. As the saying goes, ‘You have to be able to lose to be able to win.’ Thankfully enough, we’ve actually been quite successful in the latter years, but the first few years were tough now.
“It was immense, definitely, but I don’t think I’d change a thing. No, honestly, I wouldn’t.”
Here she is, ready for season 11 and more motivated than ever. “I’m shockingly obsessed with it,” she admits. But it all comes down to the love of the game and how it makes her feel, happiest with a ball at her feet and in the middle of this special group.
With each and every word she utters, you can hear just how much it means to her. She’s given so much of her life to football — she even skipped her own honeymoon to play in the Champions League — but she’s gotten so, so much back too.
And that’s what it’s all about.
“Absolutely,” she nods. “I mean, at the end of the day, it’s only a hobby. It shouldn’t be… what we put into it, myself and the girls often joke that we literally feel like full-time professionals without getting paid.
“It’s crazy to think about the work that has to go into it… obviously in the latter years. The first couple of years, you went to training, you played your matches and you might have had one extra day a week, but you are literally like a full-time professional now. There’s no days off.
“Your day off is a recovery day. It’s not just training anymore; it’s your eating, sleeping, good habits. Everything revolves around it. Personally, for me. Well I presume other teams are like that. I know my girls are. We just feel like that’s where you have to be now to compete.”
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Murphy lifting the FAI Cup in 2019. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
She pauses for a second, before continuing. “Obviously that’s come on a scale because having picked up no silverware last year, it was very hard to take. We just weren’t at the races, we were not good enough and we all know that.
“We put in that work last year so at the start of this year, we were like, ‘Jesus Christ, imagine the amount of work we’re going to have to this year.’ It keeps getting harder, it keeps getting tougher, but it should because the league is growing and it’s great to see. There’s better teams, the soccer is better, everything is growing. The intensity grows and the dedication grows as well.”
The growth this off-season has been something else. SSE Airtricity will sponsor the league, alongside the men’s equivalent, following notable struggles in that department over the past few years. The FAI recently announced that, for the first time ever, all games will be streamed live, and free, on LOI TV, which was met with much acclaim.
Meanwhile, an U19 tier has been added to bridge the gap from U17 to senior, while prize money has been bumped by 141%. Everything is certainly on the up in terms of off-field matters, to match the strides which have been made on the pitch in recent years.
It’s all consuming at times, as Murphy explained, but she’s loving it.
“I wouldn’t change it,” she assures. “I wish it was like this from the start. I think it should all be like this.
“You can ask Tom [Elmes, Wexford boss] or any other managers that have been over us, I’m there pushing, ‘Why don’t we have this?’ ‘Why don’t we have that?’ ‘We should be doing this, we should be doing that.’ I want the professional side to it.
I know we don’t get paid. I’m not going to be unrealistic about it, the money’s not there, it is what it is. Maybe in a couple of years time, I’ll be well gone, but in a couple years time, I really hope that maybe expenses and fees might be there for players because it takes so much, especially when you’re trying to work full-time jobs and girls are in college and this, that and the other. It needs to be professionalised.
“It needs to be pushed, because you can rest on your laurels or you can just keep getting better. We speak so much with Wexford, having been so successful for them couple years, about raising the bar, raising the bar, that bar can’t stop. It can’t stay still. It has to keep going. You have to keep adding every year. Otherwise, you’ll get ate alive.”
The mention of Elmes is a reminder of last season’s push to have Murphy included in Vera Pauw’s Ireland set-up.
A former Wexford Youths player himself, Elmes heaped praise on his captain in an interview with the club’s website last year, hailing her as “one of the best players to play in the WNL,” stressing that the opportunity to win her first senior cap has not yet passed.
Murphy thinks differently, and is honest as ever in her summation of the situation when asked if it’s something that plays on her mind.
“Eh, to be completely honest, it would have been something I thought about for the first good couple of years with the National League. Right now, when I think about it — I do think about it, but when I think about it, I know the opportunity is gone.
“Even last year, when Tom mentioned it, I was like, ‘Ah Tom, that’s fucking well gone. Nobody’s going to come in and give a 32-year-old their first cap.’ That’s just not going to happen.
It’s not a regret because I, personally, myself, I don’t think I could have done much more. I’ve given everything. I’m that player that will give everything. I try my best, I try my hardest. I don’t know is it a case of maybe I just wasn’t good enough — it’s always in my head.”
She’s accepted it and made peace with it, but feels that she should have at least been given a chance, especially when she thinks of one or two seasons in particular when she was at her brilliant best as a box-to-box, goal-scoring midfielder.
As squad lists came out through the years, Murphy never expected her name to be there, but there was always that glimmer of hope in the back of her mind.
“It’s definitely something I didn’t achieve,” she deadpans. “I’ve won everything there is to win in the National League. I’ve played in Champions League, I’ve scored a hat-trick in the Champions League. Personally with my own career, I’ve done quite well.
“If I lift up no more trophies, I’ll be really happy with how successful we’ve been with Wexford and I’ve been personally. But with regards the international set-up, it’s definitely something that I feel like I just didn’t achieve it. And yeah, that hurts a little, it does.
“It probably will always be in the back of my mind: why didn’t they give me a chance? Just one call-up for a trial. If I was absolutely shite, they could turn around and say you weren’t good enough. At least I would always think they gave me a chance.
“I still have that other aspect on the other side that I doubt myself and think maybe I wasn’t good enough. And that’s pretty shit as well.”
It’s something she’d rather not dwell on, and is conscious not to come across as bitter, but these are questions many in the league ask on a regular basis. She knows she’s not the only player; not the first, and she certainly won’t be the last.
On the contrary, looking to her former Wexford team-mate Rianna Jarrett and her involvement in the Girls In Green set-up, Murphy can’t say enough good things.
Jarrett left Slaneyside for Brighton last January, signing her first professional deal with the Women’s Super League [WSL] side. The parting of ways was difficult, but it was certainly bittersweet considering the exciting venture that lay ahead for three-time cruciate victim Jarrett.
“To tell you the truth, the proudness actually took over breaking my heart missing her, if that makes sense,” Murphy smiles. “I could have cried for her, I swear.
“What she’s went through and the injuries she’s overcome, and certain things in her life that she’s overcome that a lot of people might not know, that girl… she’s a fucking pillar of strength, I swear to God, and she literally deserves everything she is getting.
“She is the utmost professional and d’you know what? She’s a fucking good kid as well. She’s really, really good. Rianna is just a really good person. She’s making the best out of her talent. Oh my God, she’s a phenomenal soccer player, but she’s also a phenomenal person. I feel Brighton are so, so lucky to have her and have somebody like her in their team.”
They keep in close contact, and the FA Player is fired up every chance she gets, with the Seagulls gear Jarrett sent over being proudly worn. “Brighton’s number one supporter, I am now,” she laughs. “We’re all just so proud of her, she’s fantastic and we couldn’t be happier for her.”
The void left by Jarrett has certainly been a tough one to fill, and that was evident at times through 2019.
Peamount United were crowned double winners in the end, with Shelbourne running them closest in the league and Cork City their cup final opponents after ending Wexford’s three-in-row bid in the semi-final.
On decider day, Murphy was on co-commentary duty with RTÉ rather than on the Tallaght Stadium turf. While it was an experience she enjoyed, it was a strange one, and her side’s absence surely came as even more motivation for 2021.
Now, it’s all about getting back to dining at the top table, and winning as much as she can before finishing up.
“The goal every year is to be at the top no matter what, no matter what year it is, no matter what’s going on, no matter who other teams are signing, this, that and the other,” she concludes, a steely determination in her eye.
“The goal for us at Wexford is always to be at the top. We need a bounce back. We need to step it up big time this year. You could take nothing away from Peamount last year, and to be fair, Shelbourne as well. They were immense, they’re making good strides.
“Like I said about raising the bar, you can’t stay still. At the end of the day, it’s not even about us staying still last year because we were too far behind. It was below par, it was not good enough and we all know that.
“As much as we love the soccer and we love the social aspect to it, that’s a winning team. Them girls want to win. Yeah, it’s great and we love being around each other socially and things like that. But to me, there’s a goal at the end of it. There’s something we’re working towards, and that’s where you want to be at.”
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'We often joke that we literally feel like full-time professionals without getting paid'
LAST UPDATE | 20 Mar 2021
WHEN THE FIXTURES list for the 2021 Women’s National League landed, Kylie Murphy couldn’t have been happier.
Wexford Youths v Peamount United, Saturday 27 March, Ferrycarrig Park.
A baptism of fire to kick off, with last year’s double champions coming to town, and Youths captain, who’s been there since the league started in 2011, was licking her lips.
“You know what, I’m absolutely delighted,” she tells The42 a few days later. “I’m buzzing.
“I hate waiting for them games, bring it on. We have loads of time to prepare, it is what it is. It’s not like, ‘Oh we have a couple of games now to settle in.’ No. We fucking start the way we mean to go on. End of story.”
Murphy is raw, honest and straight-talking, wearing her heart on her sleeve on and off the pitch. The 32-year-old has secured legendary status in Wexford, and in WNL circles in general at this stage, having skippered her side to four league titles, three FAI Cup crowns and Uefa Champions League football — scoring a hat-trick in Europe while she was at it.
She really is Captain Fantastic, an inspirational midfielder and a fearless and peerless leader.
Her 10 years in the league have been nothing short of colourful. Her story is well documented at this stage, but in brief, Murphy joined Youths ahead of their first season, marking her return from a three-year hiatus from sport. After rediscovering her love for the game despite a difficult start for the team, the Graiguecullen native’s time in the league was nearly over as soon as it started after she sustained a career-threatening back injury. She bounced back better than ever, the leading light as her side enjoyed unprecedented success, lifting trophy after trophy — completing a treble in 2018.
“I suppose you just look back, there’s so many memories and so many things that have been done, good and bad throughout the whole league,” she grins. “Reflecting on it, I probably wouldn’t change a thing.
“I wouldn’t even change the losses, like, because what we’ve learned from them… what I’ve learned from them. As the saying goes, ‘You have to be able to lose to be able to win.’ Thankfully enough, we’ve actually been quite successful in the latter years, but the first few years were tough now.
“It was immense, definitely, but I don’t think I’d change a thing. No, honestly, I wouldn’t.”
Here she is, ready for season 11 and more motivated than ever. “I’m shockingly obsessed with it,” she admits. But it all comes down to the love of the game and how it makes her feel, happiest with a ball at her feet and in the middle of this special group.
With each and every word she utters, you can hear just how much it means to her. She’s given so much of her life to football — she even skipped her own honeymoon to play in the Champions League — but she’s gotten so, so much back too.
And that’s what it’s all about.
“Absolutely,” she nods. “I mean, at the end of the day, it’s only a hobby. It shouldn’t be… what we put into it, myself and the girls often joke that we literally feel like full-time professionals without getting paid.
“It’s crazy to think about the work that has to go into it… obviously in the latter years. The first couple of years, you went to training, you played your matches and you might have had one extra day a week, but you are literally like a full-time professional now. There’s no days off.
“Your day off is a recovery day. It’s not just training anymore; it’s your eating, sleeping, good habits. Everything revolves around it. Personally, for me. Well I presume other teams are like that. I know my girls are. We just feel like that’s where you have to be now to compete.”
She pauses for a second, before continuing. “Obviously that’s come on a scale because having picked up no silverware last year, it was very hard to take. We just weren’t at the races, we were not good enough and we all know that.
“We put in that work last year so at the start of this year, we were like, ‘Jesus Christ, imagine the amount of work we’re going to have to this year.’ It keeps getting harder, it keeps getting tougher, but it should because the league is growing and it’s great to see. There’s better teams, the soccer is better, everything is growing. The intensity grows and the dedication grows as well.”
The growth this off-season has been something else. SSE Airtricity will sponsor the league, alongside the men’s equivalent, following notable struggles in that department over the past few years. The FAI recently announced that, for the first time ever, all games will be streamed live, and free, on LOI TV, which was met with much acclaim.
Meanwhile, an U19 tier has been added to bridge the gap from U17 to senior, while prize money has been bumped by 141%. Everything is certainly on the up in terms of off-field matters, to match the strides which have been made on the pitch in recent years.
It’s all consuming at times, as Murphy explained, but she’s loving it.
“I wouldn’t change it,” she assures. “I wish it was like this from the start. I think it should all be like this.
“You can ask Tom [Elmes, Wexford boss] or any other managers that have been over us, I’m there pushing, ‘Why don’t we have this?’ ‘Why don’t we have that?’ ‘We should be doing this, we should be doing that.’ I want the professional side to it.
“It needs to be pushed, because you can rest on your laurels or you can just keep getting better. We speak so much with Wexford, having been so successful for them couple years, about raising the bar, raising the bar, that bar can’t stop. It can’t stay still. It has to keep going. You have to keep adding every year. Otherwise, you’ll get ate alive.”
The mention of Elmes is a reminder of last season’s push to have Murphy included in Vera Pauw’s Ireland set-up.
A former Wexford Youths player himself, Elmes heaped praise on his captain in an interview with the club’s website last year, hailing her as “one of the best players to play in the WNL,” stressing that the opportunity to win her first senior cap has not yet passed.
Murphy thinks differently, and is honest as ever in her summation of the situation when asked if it’s something that plays on her mind.
“Eh, to be completely honest, it would have been something I thought about for the first good couple of years with the National League. Right now, when I think about it — I do think about it, but when I think about it, I know the opportunity is gone.
“Even last year, when Tom mentioned it, I was like, ‘Ah Tom, that’s fucking well gone. Nobody’s going to come in and give a 32-year-old their first cap.’ That’s just not going to happen.
She’s accepted it and made peace with it, but feels that she should have at least been given a chance, especially when she thinks of one or two seasons in particular when she was at her brilliant best as a box-to-box, goal-scoring midfielder.
As squad lists came out through the years, Murphy never expected her name to be there, but there was always that glimmer of hope in the back of her mind.
“It’s definitely something I didn’t achieve,” she deadpans. “I’ve won everything there is to win in the National League. I’ve played in Champions League, I’ve scored a hat-trick in the Champions League. Personally with my own career, I’ve done quite well.
“If I lift up no more trophies, I’ll be really happy with how successful we’ve been with Wexford and I’ve been personally. But with regards the international set-up, it’s definitely something that I feel like I just didn’t achieve it. And yeah, that hurts a little, it does.
“It probably will always be in the back of my mind: why didn’t they give me a chance? Just one call-up for a trial. If I was absolutely shite, they could turn around and say you weren’t good enough. At least I would always think they gave me a chance.
“I still have that other aspect on the other side that I doubt myself and think maybe I wasn’t good enough. And that’s pretty shit as well.”
It’s something she’d rather not dwell on, and is conscious not to come across as bitter, but these are questions many in the league ask on a regular basis. She knows she’s not the only player; not the first, and she certainly won’t be the last.
On the contrary, looking to her former Wexford team-mate Rianna Jarrett and her involvement in the Girls In Green set-up, Murphy can’t say enough good things.
Jarrett left Slaneyside for Brighton last January, signing her first professional deal with the Women’s Super League [WSL] side. The parting of ways was difficult, but it was certainly bittersweet considering the exciting venture that lay ahead for three-time cruciate victim Jarrett.
“To tell you the truth, the proudness actually took over breaking my heart missing her, if that makes sense,” Murphy smiles. “I could have cried for her, I swear.
“What she’s went through and the injuries she’s overcome, and certain things in her life that she’s overcome that a lot of people might not know, that girl… she’s a fucking pillar of strength, I swear to God, and she literally deserves everything she is getting.
“She is the utmost professional and d’you know what? She’s a fucking good kid as well. She’s really, really good. Rianna is just a really good person. She’s making the best out of her talent. Oh my God, she’s a phenomenal soccer player, but she’s also a phenomenal person. I feel Brighton are so, so lucky to have her and have somebody like her in their team.”
They keep in close contact, and the FA Player is fired up every chance she gets, with the Seagulls gear Jarrett sent over being proudly worn. “Brighton’s number one supporter, I am now,” she laughs. “We’re all just so proud of her, she’s fantastic and we couldn’t be happier for her.”
The void left by Jarrett has certainly been a tough one to fill, and that was evident at times through 2019.
Peamount United were crowned double winners in the end, with Shelbourne running them closest in the league and Cork City their cup final opponents after ending Wexford’s three-in-row bid in the semi-final.
On decider day, Murphy was on co-commentary duty with RTÉ rather than on the Tallaght Stadium turf. While it was an experience she enjoyed, it was a strange one, and her side’s absence surely came as even more motivation for 2021.
Now, it’s all about getting back to dining at the top table, and winning as much as she can before finishing up.
“The goal every year is to be at the top no matter what, no matter what year it is, no matter what’s going on, no matter who other teams are signing, this, that and the other,” she concludes, a steely determination in her eye.
“The goal for us at Wexford is always to be at the top. We need a bounce back. We need to step it up big time this year. You could take nothing away from Peamount last year, and to be fair, Shelbourne as well. They were immense, they’re making good strides.
“Like I said about raising the bar, you can’t stay still. At the end of the day, it’s not even about us staying still last year because we were too far behind. It was below par, it was not good enough and we all know that.
“As much as we love the soccer and we love the social aspect to it, that’s a winning team. Them girls want to win. Yeah, it’s great and we love being around each other socially and things like that. But to me, there’s a goal at the end of it. There’s something we’re working towards, and that’s where you want to be at.”
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Captain Fantastic Kylie Murphy Murphy's Law Wexford