Colin Sheridan: Murphy and McDonald on two sporting journeys to be celebrated

The teenager’s talent has already been identified by Australian Rules recruiters and once the Leaving Cert is done this summer he is expected to head to the AFL. 

Mayo’s Kobe McDonald celebrates at the final whistle. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie

The rain came in sideways across the west this week, as it tends to do when February is reluctant to loosen its grip. But in a sporting sense there was illumination too - two young men from the Atlantic edge announcing themselves, in very different ways, on very different stages.

Sunday brought the ignition of what might reasonably be described as Kobe-mania. In Clones, with Mayo already comfortable against Monaghan, a Leaving Cert student was introduced to senior intercounty football. Kobe McDonald arrived into the closing stages like a spark to dry tinder. In a 16-minute cameo he produced a goal, a two-pointer and, perhaps more significantly, an energy that made the whole thing feel like an event.