Declan Bogue

IT’S DIFFICULT TO know where exactly on the sliding scale of comebacks, that Michael Murphy resides. 

Is it right up there with Stephen Cluxton and Brian Corcoran? Or more a DJ Carey/Stephen O’Neill?

Either way, it installs Donegal as the story of the opening rounds of the 2025 league.  

After taking two full seasons out, the Donegal county board took the unprecedented step of announcing his return to the senior squad. 

Truth is, the news had been doing the rounds for a number of weeks that Murphy was back doing a strength and conditioning regime as laid out for the senior team. Local journalists had it but it proved difficult to stand up. 

In the end, the news was leaked through one of Murphy’s media outlets during his interrupted retirement; BBCNI. 

Of all the county managers, none have insisted on a level of secrecy as much as Jim McGuinness. Even his role in coaching Down when they faced McGuinness’ own Donegal has gone almost entirely unmentioned.

That it didn’t break in the county will bring satisfaction to manager Jim McGuinness. He prefers it if news emanating from the squad is minimal, and the stuff that does go out is carefully packaged and curated. 

Down but not out. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Greatly encouraged by Donegal’s 2024 season, Murphy fancied a return to county duty. Murphy would be a rarity with McGuinness in that the lines of communication would have been kept open.

Former Donegal players who won the All Ireland in 2012 have mentioned openly how McGuinness frequently changes his telephone number and doesn’t forward on the new one. You can’t imagine him taking part in a What’s App group, searching for appropriate gifs to recognise some top banter.

For Murphy, it’s different. Good management is often about making exceptions for the exceptional.

Although he hasn’t played for the last two seasons, the sportswriter Kieran Cunningham sagely noted that Murphy is in fact still younger than the reigning Footballer Of The Year, Paul Conroy, albeit the margin is only just over two months, both men born either side of the Madchester summer of 1989.

What does it mean for Donegal? 

Think of it this way. In 2011, they came out of the blue and won the Ulster title. Reached the All-Ireland semi-final and lost narrowly. 

By his own admission, McGuinness walked the roads that winter trying to dream up a way of making it all knit together before they won the All-Ireland in 2012. 

Back then, the missing element was a strategic question. 

This year, they won an Ulster title, again unlikely for the route they had to travel, and had a second-half collapse in the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Galway. 

This time, it could be personnel. Along with Murphy, another potential return could be Odhran McFadden-Ferry, just the type of man-marker they could be doing with more of. 

Questions of legacy and how Murphy will be remembered will not worry either player or manager in the slightest. It might sound almost folksy to some to hear or even to say it, but Murphy really, truly loves his county. Even when he was attracting the attention of the Aussie Rules scouts as a teenager, he turned it down with an ‘ah shucks’ and a few lines about this only child who loved living at home with his parents. 

And really, we should have seen it coming from his own remarks.

When McGuinness went back to manage Donegal, he gave up his column with the Irish Times. It was then shovelled in a sideways handpass to Murphy and he produced some very sharp and insightful opinions.

He also said in December of last year that he knew it was over for him as a player.

Why?

“My reasons for leaving for the time — and they still are there — were I wasn’t able to give it the same level,” he explained.

But then, as they say in The Wire, ‘The game done changed.’

And Murphy was on the Football Review Committee that changed the game. Providing those changes go through but it seems a racing certainty.

Now, three attackers will stay up the field. For Donegal, you’d imagine that will be Murphy, fellow veteran Patrick McBrearty and Oisin Gallen.

Fearsome.

Puts you in mind of this kinda stuff, really; 

In October, he discussed his role with the Football Review Committee in his column.

“At the start I probably took a bit more convincing about the three-up rule until I saw it in action. The first benefit is that you have three people to kick the ball to when you win possession.

“But that hasn’t turned out to be the biggest benefit, which has been the impact on the flow of the game. Speed and space are created by having only 11 opponents between the 65 and the goal plus the width of the pitch, which is 90 metres.

“Trying to defend that is far more challenging and leaves greater space for attackers wanting to take on their man or be a bit more creative with a kick-pass – in other words teams going for the jugular.”

Now, he gets his wish. A final season or two when the hope is that the Gunslingers win out.

In May 2022, McGuinness’ column included an interesting detail.

“There’s a prevailing view out there that Michael is in the autumn of his years. I don’t agree.

“To be honest I think the best of Michael Murphy may be about to come. Because whenever Michael understands that he can no longer cover ground out the field as he would wish, he will find himself back on the edge of the square.

“And he will move and think, then, like he did when he was 17 and lighting it up in Cusack Park. Except this time he will have a decade and a half of brilliance under his belt. Returning home to full-forward is still somewhere in the future for Michael Murphy. What a treat.”

Indeed. Ticket sales will be brisk.