Murphy staying focused on personal performance

Parades, bands, flags.

The GAA has always been big on pageantry, but the pre-match scuffle that marred Sunday’s Ulster Championship tie between Armagh and Cavan has placed a new emphasis on their place in the modern game.

“It’s a funny one,” said Donegal’s Michael Murphy yesterday. “It’s individual preference. It may add to the general spectacle. There’s so many different things. You go out to a game now, and you go out early.

“You get through your warm-up, which is needed, and then there’s the whole thing of the toss, the parade, the national anthem (and a) minute’s silence tends to be in nearly every game at the moment.

“So, there’s a lot of stop-starting things. You just get into a routine as a player. It’s not something you can control. You deal with it as best you can.

“Is it needless? I don’t know, it’s just a tradition.”

Murphy has been involved in his own pre-match shenanigans before.

Or, at least we thought he had been. In 2011, the Glenswilly man took the parade around Croke Park for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Kildare before disappearing to the bench prior to throw-in. Turns out he fully intended starting only for a dodgy hamstring to get the better of him.

He’s adept enough in interviews to avoid definitive statements on contentious issues. The issue of whether Mark McHugh could return to the county squad this summer is couched in vague, polite terms, for instance.

It was much the same with the pre-game bells and whistles although he was clear enough when put to him that players would surely prefer to take to the pitch and start the game. “Aye, that’d be fair enough. You would.”

As ever in matters relating to Gaelic games, there is a tendency to construct a mountain out of a molehill after an unfortunate incident, but Sunday’s actions didn’t reflect well on either side.

“I’m sure both teams that went out on Sunday were focused to carry out their plan and execute the game plan, but football and hurling, everything, throws up things you can’t plan for. It’s how you react as individuals and react as a team and what your principles are that matters. The teams didn’t want to be showing any fear, they didn’t want to back down and I suppose it’s natural for the first game of the championship. It was just unfortunate the time it happened, it was unfortunate the position that it happened, so close to spectators and what not. It’s just important the whole association learns from it now and tries to put in procedures and protocols that everybody follows.”

Donegal will be following those same protocols in Clones on Sunday week when they meet Antrim in the Ulster semi-final, and Jim McGuinness’s side will be expected to progress with something to spare against their Division Four opponents.

Murphy, predictably, begged to differ. Donegal’s so-so display against Derry in the last round was proffered as evidence, as was Antrim’s own outing against Fermanagh in what was an extraordinarily high-scoring affair.

“Whilst Fermanagh got a few scores, Antrim out-scored them 1-10 to 0-1 at a stage. I don’t care what team you are playing, any team that does that are always going to pose a challenge.”