Michael Murphy: 'We need to use 2023 and not write off the year'

Former Donegal captain Michael Murphy has reiterated his decision to step away from inter-county football was the right one.

The Glenswilly clubman was a county senior from 2007 until last year, making 177 appearances in all, before opting to hang up his intercounty boots late last year. Murphy, last weekend, scored 2-8 for Glenswilly in their 3-23 to 2-6 All-County Football League Division 2 win over Naomh Bríd and is enjoying the campaign to date.

Murphy was speaking as a guest at ‘From Castle Tales to Croke Park Legends' - a fundraiser for his old school, St Eunan's College, where he was joined on stage with former Donegal teammates Rory Kavanagh, Colm McFadden, Neil Gallagher and Brendan Devenney, with Charlie Collins the MC.

“I’m back with the club now and enjoying it and we hope to get promoted,” he said. “I mightn’t be as fit at this time of year as I would usually be! But no, if there was a glimmer or if I knew a reason in my head [to go back to playing for Donegal] maybe, but no. I take too much pride in who I am representing. I had so many good days and brilliant friends from it, but you don’t give up something like that unless you’re 100 percent sure. 

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“There are plenty of talented players there now and we’re blessed with footballers here in the county. A number of them have stood up this year. We need to push forward and try and push this forward.”

When Murphy announced his retirement last November, he said it was a decision he initially made at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones following Donegal’s loss to Armagh in the All-Ireland qualifiers. Since then, he has not doubted his decision.

“I knew coming out of Clones last year, the decision was made,” Murphy added. “I knew I couldn’t give it any more. My time was up. These things are in the past now. We as a county need to take learnings over what has happened over the last year. 

Donegal’s form has dipped this year and on Saturday they face Clare in Ennis in the first set of fixtures in the newly-introduced last 16 group stage. Off the pitch too, an independent review into the running of Donegal GAA is taking place. The review, which was announced last month, will cover the Donegal GAA Academy, as well as both finance and governance, with its findings to be returned on May 31.

“There’s a review going on and we need to move on,” Murphy added. “We need to find out what is wrong so we can learn from it. We can’t wait until October, November, December. We need to use 2023 and not write off the year, support the lads playing during this learning period. The county board, the clubs, everyone needs to take charge of this. The clubs need to be demanding it. It will take a push from every person in the county to lift this.