Murphy eager to answer calls of club and country

Ireland captain Michael Murphy said he is fully prepared to lead out his country this evening, just 21 hours before he plays for Glenswilly in the Donegal SFC final.

The 24-year-old is refusing to dwell on the negatives of a hectic schedule. He will leave for home straight after the test against the Australian Indigenous All Stars in Kingspan Breffni Park to prepare for the tie with Killybegs.

“It is something I have thought about and something I have spoke about to quite a lot of people. I took the decision fairly early. I suppose making the decision fairly early helped to deal with it as best I can.

“I have been very fortunate in that the communication lines between the management teams have been brilliant. The decision has been made. I am comfortable with that decision. I am just going to go with it now.

“It is better to be in this position than out of this position. I am fortunate enough to represent Ireland. I am also fortunate enough to represent my club.

“To get the opportunity to play at this time of year is fantastic. I am just going to try and grasp it and go for it rather than stay back from it.”

Murphy’s opposite number, Daniel Wells, praised Murphy for his willingness to serve both teams. “I’m particularly impressed with the commitment he has for his county and his county and it shows a lot of class.”

Opposing coaches Paul Earley and Michael O’Loughlin are convinced winning this evening’s first test is paramount to winning the series.

History would suggest the pair are correct as just once since the inception of the two-test series in 1998 (13 series) has a team come back from an opening test defeat to claim the series on aggregate.

“Momentum is huge,” said Earley, who was just as exercised about the 75% win rate visiting teams have had in the competition.

“We need to get off to a good start and get the crowd behind us. Clearly both sides will want to get off to a good start. That will be the challenge for both of us.”

O’Loughlin, who only has star player Lance “Buddy” Franklin available for this evening as he flies home for a wedding afterwards, is just as keen to put an emphasis on taking the spoils in Cavan.

“One thing I do know about the series is that you have to get off to a good start. We know what the Irish can do. They are very, very skilful. We have our work cut out for us. We have picked a team specifically for this game.”

Earley said Ireland will be paying particular attention to the interchange, a part of the game which has hurt them before in not changing enough personnel to keep up with the frenetic pace of play.

“We are going to use the interchange quite a bit. The way the game has gone it is a very fast game. The Australians talk about speed, pressure and movement. We have been working on using the interchange as much as possible, and giving guys a balance between game time and recovery. That will apply to pretty much every player.

“We are not going to let the Australians know in advance how much game time any of our key players are going to have but I can say that we are going to use the interchange as much as possible.

“The nature of the game is that you are looking for players to work very hard in short bursts and then give them recovery time. That has been the plan all along. That hasn’t changed.”

O’Loughlin admitted his players have found it difficult to get used to kicking the round ball. He has named Brisbane Lions’ Ashley McGrath as goalkeeper, a position foreign to Australian Rules.