DONEGAL’S MICHAEL MURPHY has voiced his disappointment at the ineligibility row which ruled two of his DCU team-mates out of their Sigerson Cup title defence.

Murphy dazzled spectators this week with a wonder point as the champions marched on to this year’s semi-finals.

But once again DCU lined out without inter-county stars Aidan Walsh and Michael Boyle who have been deemed ineligible by a controversial Higher Education Board ruling. The board ruled that players who have studied for six years or taken more than two college courses are unable to compete at third level.

Manager Niall Moyna publicly slammed the decision and said Murphy, who landed 1-4 against UCD on Thursday, was “disgusted” by it.

Speaking yesterday, the All-Ireland winning captain described the row as a “tricky issue”.

There are a couple of players in DCU at the moment and players right throughout Ireland, they are looking to play Gaelic games and they aren’t being afforded the opportunity to play amateur sport.

That’s a bit disappointing and that’s all you can really say on the matter.

Murphy also indicated that he would answer his country’s call if picked by manager Paul Earley for the International Rules series against Australia in Ireland next autumn.

“The chance of playing for your country is massive and it’s still something I’m interested in playing in. It’s still a fantastic initiative, when it’s done right.

“In the last number of years there’s been a lot of bad press but having been part of the last two Irish teams, from our end we took it very, very serious.

“To represent your whole country, it’s not something to be frowned upon and I was delighted as a player that it’s going again and I hope it keeps going.”

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