Michael Murphy exclusive: 'Life changes and moves on. It’s not the end of the road'

Michael Murphy admits that although his decision to step aside from inter-county football was only announced this evening, it was a notion he had cemented in his mind for some time.

The Donegal captain called a halt to a glorious playing career that saw him win five Ulster SFC titles and an All-Ireland championship. To put that in perspective, the sum total of Donegal’s achievements before he joined the senior ranks was exactly that - five provincial championships and one capturing of Sam Maguire.

Murphy admits that his mind was essentially made up the day Donegal exited the All-Ireland qualifiers in June, when, in Declan Bonner’s last outing as manager, they were beaten 3-17 to 0-16 by Armagh at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones in an All-Ireland qualifier. It was his 177th appearance for Donegal, 77 of which came in the championship. 

It was a position that Murphy had been in before but this time his considerations seemed clearer. Breaking from the norm of almost half his life, he didn’t board the team bus and instead travelled back to the north-west in the car with his father and mother, Mick and Mary.

The wheel had turned full circle with the same three people making their way back home as they had so many times many years beforehand, like when Mick and Mary had to console a teary eight-year-old in 1998 when Donegal lost an Ulster final to Derry, with Joe Brolly scoring a last minute goal in the rain. And then blowing a few kisses.

“I always knew it was coming and it’s something that I would’ve thought about every year, even when I was young,” Murphy says of his retirement. “You always ask yourself the question about going back again and this year, well when I was leaving Clones that day in summer. I had a fair idea. I let it sink in a wee bit, tried to let it bed, but for the weeks and then the months since, I ended up in the same place where I was that day.

“I was up and down the road many times when I was young with mum and dad and that day I told them where I was at. In my head it was the right decision and now, five months on, I’m content and happy with the decision I have made. If we had won Ulster this year, the All-Ireland, or if we were put out in the first round I always had a feeling this year would be the last.”

The chapter opened over Christmas in 2006 when he was at his grandparents’ house in Buncrana, the “old Nokia” rang. Brian McIver, then Donegal manager, offered the precocious teen a place on the panel for the Dr McKenna Cup.

“I just finished my first year as a minor,” Murphy says. “I remember the excitement and the likes of Ciaran Bonner and Neil Gallagher picked me up at the house and helped me settle in with Donegal. I was playing for Glenswilly in an U-21 game against Gaoth Dobhair at the Banks on the Saturday and for Donegal against UUJ on the Sunday in Ballyshannon.”

Donegal went on to win Division 1 in 2007, although Murphy was part of the minor panel who were aiming to defend the Ulster title. The seniors bounced into the championship on the wave of their fine league form. But after a somewhat fortuitous win over Armagh when a speculative Brendan Devenney shot deceived Paul Hearty on a baking-hot afternoon in Ballybofey, ran out of luck and were hammered by Tyrone in Omagh, 2-15 to 1-7, in the provincial semi-final.

The back door opened the front door for Murphy, who, on his championship debut, was a goalscorer as an otherwise shaken Donegal scraped past Leitrim at Carrick-on-Shannon in extra-time.

“That game passed me by from the off and the first time I touched leather was for the goal, when Kevin McMenamin gave the pass,” Murphy recalls. “Every time I see Brian Roper, I tell him how indebted I was to him. He would look after me in the camp, playing the PlayStation and always giving good advice. I don’t know how to thank so many people.”

Murphy had niggling injuries which did hamper his last year or two in a Donegal jersey, although admits they were not the reason for reaching the decision he did. By his own admission he’s an “all-in” type of person and feels he would be unable to bring the same energy to another year, which would be his 17th in a senior jersey.

“What is required to represent Donegal is, for me, just full-on energy, the best energy you can possibly give it,” he adds. “I’m content to say I have given the best that I can for every single minute and now, I just struggle to see where I can get the energy to go on. Yes I’ve had a few hamstring injuries and a few back injuries, but like anything, I probably had more injuries in the early days than in the latter. I had surgeries and missed the start of National Leagues and managed to make it back for Championship.

“To do everything - what’s required to get your body perfect, your strength and conditioning, to get to play at that highest level - the energy has to be there. I was so fortunate really to have got so long.

“I’m a full-duck or no-dinner type of guy and I’ve been doing it all-in. I can’t go through a season unless I’m like that. People say you can manage your body in a way to get around that. But I can’t. I have to be all-in. Your Monday, Wednesday, Friday gym has to be there, as does your Tuesday, Thursday, weekend training for me. Pulling back on one of them won’t work for me. Maybe it works for others, but not for me. That’s the level that Donegal needs.”

When Jim McGuinness took over the Donegal seniors in late 2010 - the coldest winter on record since 1947 - was put to good use. Murphy, his U-21 captain, was promoted to senior skipper and less than two years later was standing on the Hogan Stand as an All-Ireland winning captain.

McGuinness and Murphy also won three Ulsters and when Bonner opted to take over from Rory Gallagher and return as boss in 2017 - he previously managed Donegal from 1998 to 2000 - guided the county to two more Anglo-Celt Cups, in 2018 and 2019. Bonner was replaced this year, with Paddy Carr stepping in only last month. Murphy is keen to stress, as already stated, his retirement plans were essentially cemented in June.

“There’s a good group of players, new management and come new year the games will start again and there will always be a Donegal team,” Murphy adds. “I wished them nothing but the very best. They are a great group, a younger group who certainly brought out an energy in me over the last four or five years; an energy I didn’t know I had. I have no doubt the new management will bring out the best in them.

“They were great moments and the people along the way, I’m always thankful. We had our downs too but all in all, I wouldn’t look back with regrets.

“There were bonds created that will never leave me. The players I played with, you might pass them in a car, see them at a club game, notice them on the street - you will always have time for them. It’s not only players. There’s a bond there between Donegal people and supporters, people who followed Donegal for years and I was one of them as a child. We’re fortunate to have that togetherness here in Donegal.”

Down the years, Murphy never made a secret of his affection to both Gaelic football, as well as his native county. His father once told a story that a tree at their garden in Bomany on the outskirts of Letterkenny only seemed to grow leaves when it finally got a break from being hit by a football when his son moved to study in DCU.

Michael Murphy has always admitted he was “obsessed” with Gaelic football from an early age, watching the 1992 All-Ireland VHS over and over and over again, dreaming of becoming the next Anthony Molloy, which, 20 years later, he managed. Murphy, who was then 12, was in the local papers in Donegal in 2002, shaking the hand of Devenney following Donegal's win over Meath.

“I have played with great players, worked under brilliant coaches and made some friends for life,” Murphy says. “I’ve picked up something from every one of them.

“Life changes and life moves. It’s definitely not the end of the road for me. I’ll move onto something else and Donegal will keep going. If I can help Donegal in any other way, I will. I love the county and I love the people here. That will always be with me. It was an honour to represent those people and all I ever wanted to do was represent them as best I can.”

Murphy is living next door to the garden in Bomany with the leafy tree, with his fiancé Annie Keeney, with the couple to wed next autumn. Murphy, Head of Sport at ATU Donegal, took up management with what was then known as Letterkenny Institute of Technology and brought an almost all-Donegal panel to the semi-finals of the 2020 Sigerson Cup, on their maiden appearance in the third level competition.

Since then he has been working with Glenswilly, a club who were perennially in the Donegal junior and intermediate championships. With Murphy on board, Glenswilly have won three senior titles and made the 2013 Ulster Club final. Last month, with Murphy patrolling the sidelines, Glenswilly, who have never won an underage A title, made the Division 1 Minor Championship final. He will line out for his local club for some time yet and plans to continue in management and coaching, to see where that particular journey takes him.

“I’ll get stuck into something and I’ll still be available to play for Glenswilly … if selected,” he adds. “I’ve been dabbling in management and bits of pieces in coaching and it’s been enjoyable. Some of the teams I’ve just been helping out and someone else has been doing the heavy lifting.

“I’ll help out there in any way I can. Maybe in the years ahead, I’ll find new ways to offer something more to my home county. That hunger is there. It might not happen in the coming months or even years. Let’s see …

“There’s a hell of a lot I have to learn there on that journey. I’m starting from scratch. It might be something I will continue to enjoy, maybe I won’t, but the experiences so far are enjoyable. I’ll certainly give that a go with the club and have the chance to spend more time with the family.

“I might have retired from playing for Donegal and listen, I’ll not be going too far and as I said, it’s just the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. We wanted to be the team to put Donegal back on the map with the rest of the counties and we managed that. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would get to the levels we did."