Pressure for places motivates Murphy

Jim O’Sullivan

It's not the fault of current manager Billy Morgan, who as player and coach did more over the past three decades to raise the profile of the game than any other single individual. In his second year back in charge, he faces possibly his greatest challenge if Cork are to raise their standard this season.

Nothing is calculated to motivate him more than a game against Kerry, all the more so when there is something at stake in this case raw pride. The All-Ireland football champions are visitors to Pairc Ui Rinn this evening (8 pm) for the opening game in the Allianz National League, a competition they also won last year and which Jack O'Connor has many times acknowledged as being hugely important to the Kerry team.

Specifically, he recalled the corresponding game against Cork twelve months ago in Tralee as giving him personally and the team a huge boost after an upsetting defeat away to Longford in the first round. Kerry won a stormy encounter by two points after having been caught by an injury-time goal a week earlier.

Diarmuid Murphy was in goal against Cork, but he had sat on the bench in Pearse Park for the opening tie as Declan O'Keeffe continued his tenure in the position.

But, soon afterwards, O'Keeffe announced his retirement, a decision influenced by a number of factors, not least a troublesome injury and the way was open for Murphy to step in and quickly establish himself.

Originally brought into the squad by Paidí Ó Sé in early 2001, Murphy made his League debut two years later against London in Ruislip. In the interim period he played the odd game, taking over for a few rounds after Cork had beaten Kerry 4-8 to 1-9 in the very first floodlit League game in Pairc Uí Rinn two years ago and played in every one of the games last season after the Cork match. It turned out to be a fantastic year for him, culminating in the winning of a Vodafone Allstar award.

"All you can do when you get your chance is to play as well as you can and hope to impress the players and management. It's really their decision after that,'' he says. "Everybody on the panel is shouting hard for a place in the team! And I was probably no different last year.''

Murphy, who works with AXA Insurance in Killarney, is realistic enough to know that his place in the team is not totally secure, that there is no guarantee he will equal or surpass O'Keeffe's longevity. He only has to look over his shoulder at Kieran Cremin on the bench to be reminded that all it takes is a bit of bad luck or a temporary loss of form to see their positions reversed. "Obviously my passage on to the team was made a little easier last year (when O'Keeffe retired), but you are constantly under pressure,'' he adds.

After enjoying the Kerry team holiday to Mexico and Las Vegas in January, Murphy was one of five of their Allstars who went off to Hong Kong a few days later. It hasn't been easy to get back into training mode, he agrees, but returning to work and the normal daily routine helped. "The few training sessions we have had since helped to 'bring us around'. Because of the holiday, our preparations may not have been what we would have liked. We know it's going to be a difficult game, but we are all looking forward to it.''

When the counties squared up in the championship in Killarney, the outcome was an emphatic win for Kerry and, as things turned out, the first of two embarrassing defeats for Morgan's team.

Murphy's recollection of the Killarney tie is of a game where everything went right for them and 'everything went wrong' for Cork.

"After the first ten minutes they were in control of the game but we were two points up.

"I'd say we can expect a much tougher game tonight!''