Murphy movement making waves in Kildare

ALLIANZ FL DIVISION 1 SEMI-FINAL

Four of the Leinster U21 championship-winning team have been named for tomorrow’s Division 1 semi-final, just six days ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final in their own grade against Galway. With the probability that at least two more will see action, it is a clear indication of the influence the younger brigade have had at senior level so far this year.

Daniel Flynn, Niall Kelly, Paul Cribbin, Mark Donnellan, Paddy Brophy, Sean Hurley, Fionn Dowling, David Hyland all played in the league.

Dowling, Hurley and Padraig Fogarty have senior championship experience, while the latter made a matchwinning cameo off the bench against tomorrow’s opponents in last year’s Division 2 final.

Bryan Murphy’s name cropped up quite a bit in the immediate aftermath of the provincial U21 decider. An All-Ireland winner with his native Cork in minor hurling and junior football, Murphy became a Kildare hero when scoring the winning goal to help his adopted county win a Leinster senior crown for the first time in 32 years in 1998.

The Bishopstown native is a former senior selector but is in his fifth year as manager of the county minors and has had all of the U21s through his hands. But his role in their development goes deeper.

Murphy has overseen the establishment and application of a new streamlined underage county structure along with games manager, Noel Mooney. Syl Merrins was county chairman at the time and is a selector with the U21s now. He was impressed by Murphy from the start.

“We got talking and the chat lasted an hour or more” recalled Merrins. “His thoughts flowed out. It was like hitting an oil well. He had stuff on paper prior to that on his views of trying to develop Kildare.

“I sat down with him a couple of times after that with Pat Dunney, who was coaching officer and with Noel Mooney – who is considered one of the best games managers in Leinster, if not Ireland — we put the structure in place. They drove it forward then.”

Three full-time coaches became five and each coach became responsible for the clubs and schools in a particular region. As well as coaching, they could then identify talents from a young age, so that nobody would miss out on a development squad when coming of age.

Coaching programmes, workshops and conferences were hosted, with the likes of Peter Canavan, John Morrison, Mickey Harte and Cian O’Neill passing on their wisdom to club mentors.

The Flood Cup is the first tangible benefit in terms of silverware, but even before this year’s crop, players like Peter Kelly and Eoin Doyle have come through the system to become Kildare regulars at senior level.

“There’s a huge amount of young lads coming through from U14 up,” says Merrins. “And our Cúl Camps are amongst the most successful in Leinster in terms of attendance. So hopefully, there are more on the way.”

Merrins is totally unworried about the U21s’ involvement tomorrow. “Success at senior level does drive the whole thing on. Winning the league wouldn’t have been a priority at the start of the year but I’d say now that they’re there, they’ll be trying to do so.

“I wouldn’t be worried at all about the U21s. Kieran [McGeeney] has been very conscious of not burning them out. ”