Rathnew’s Murphy and his uncanny knack for giant-slaying
ON a chilly Thursday morning in Rathnew, football is all anybody wants to talk about. In a business park on the outskirts of the Wicklow village, prospective customers stroll into Harry Murphy’s engineering business but it is hard to know if they’re after new railings or simply want to shoot the breeze about tomorrow’s Leinster semifinal against Moorefield.
‘Football’s a way of life here,’ Murphy declares.
‘There probably isn’t much else. I don’t mean that in a bad way, it is just the club connects everyone and everyone is connected to it. There’s a real family feel to it.’
Had you walked into any of Rathnew’s three pubs in the past fortnight, football was the only topic of any conversation.
And it often led to heated debate as patrons discussed who would make a combined team between the current Rathnew crop and the 2001 side that famously won the Leinster title.
‘It has led to a few arguments, alright,’ says Murphy, who was manager of both those Rathnew teams. ‘People are giving their own opinion over who would make a combined team. They would probably like to know my opinion but I won’t be giving it!’
Six of the current team were involved in the squad that claimed provincial glory back in 2001 — Leighton Glynn, James Stafford, Damien Power, Stephen Byrne, Nicky Mernagh and Peter Dignam.
Four of those played a key role as Murphy masterminded the great GAA shock of 2017, beating the mighty St Vincent’s of Dublin by four points in the Leinster quarter-final — Vincents’ first defeat in Leinster Championship football since 1981.
Stafford nailed 1-2 after Murphy deployed him as a full-forward for the final 10 minutes. Dignam made a couple of important saves in the first-half, including one from Diarmuid Connolly, who was kept very quiet by Power.
Meanwhile, the evergreen Glynn, 35 years young, is captain of the side and is also preparing for a Leinster intermediate hurling final with Glenealy against Kilkenny’s Ballyragget next weekend.
Glynn is also part of John Evans’ new management team for the Garden County so it’s hoped he can bring into the Wicklow dressing room the spirit and self-belief that seems to be bred into the bones in this small village.
And Rathnew’s victory over Vincent’s didn’t just send shockwaves through the GAA world; it was a stand for small rural clubs against their larger urban counterparts — just as happened in 2001 when Rathnew shocked Na Fianna in the Leinster final.
Since that time, the province has been dominated by urban clubs.
The Dublin champions have won 10 of the 16 Leinster titles since Rathnew’s famous win, while the likes of Portlaoise and Moorefield, from Newbridge, have also claimed the title.
‘We were confident we could give them a game. You can’t be over-confident when you are facing a club of the calibre of Vincent’s, with the sort of players that we had.
‘But we hadn’t managed to put together a full 60-minute performance all year and we knew that if we did that, we could give anyone a game.’
Murphy isn’t for ranking his managerial achievements, although beating Na Fianna in 2001 stands out for the simple reason there was a cup after it.
‘That Na Fianna side had a host of household names, Kieran McGeeney, Dessie Farrell, Jason Sherlock. That match went to a replay and it was the day before Christmas Eve when we brought the cup into the village. It was a great journey.’ Rathnew ruled Wicklow during Murphy’s first 12-year stint as manager. He left to take the county reins when Mick O’Dwyer stepped down and led his county out of Division 4 for the first time in an age.
During his two years at the helm, he also entered a pretty exclusive club of county managers.
Along with Éamonn Fitzmaurice, Mickey Harte, Jim McGuinness, Brian Cuthbert and Denis Connerton, Murphy has got the better of Jim Gavin since he took the Dublin helm.
It may have been an O’Byrne Cup game in the middle of January, but it was Gavin’s first defeat as Dublin boss — and there has only been little more than a handful since then. The most impressive thing was that Murphy masterminded the win not in Aughrim, but in Parnell Park.
‘It wasn’t a full-strength Dublin but it was still great for a Wicklow team to go to Parnell Park and beat them there. We were probably missing a few players too, so even though that was January, it was still a positive for Wicklow.’
I plan to be involved as long as I’ve something to offer
Perhaps it wasn’t the strongest Dublin side but it did include Connolly, Kevin McManamon, Paddy Andrews and Jack McCaffrey. Murphy has made a habit of these giant-killing acts. Mostly in Aughrim, admittedly.
Moorefield are coming down to the ground that’s fabled as ‘a tough place to go’ tomorrow but Murphy insists the Aughrim factor can be overblown.
‘The pitch is as good as any in the country. I think the whole Aughrim factor is a little overplayed. Moorefield won’t have any fear about going there, considering they beat us there a few years ago, and beat us well.’
However, if Wicklow manage to get past Offaly next summer, Murphy does believe that the Leinster Council should reward their players by giving them a home fixture against the All-Ireland champions.
He feels that the financial hit would be worth it for what it would do for football in the county. ‘Money talks and Dublin footballers are the GAA’s cash cow, so I don’t know if it is going to happen. But there are more important things than money, Promotion of the game is more important and if they are serious about wanting to help out the minnows, they will allow Dublin to come down here.
‘Wicklow have a big task ahead of them first, trying to get over Offaly, so maybe we are getting a little ahead of ourselves.
‘But if Offaly win, I am sure they will expect to play in Tullamore. If it was Longford, I am sure they would want to play in Pearse Park. It’s only fair.
‘We wouldn’t beat them in Aughrim, but it would just add to the occasion. And it would do wonders for the promotion of Gaelic football in a smaller county.
‘That is what they should be thinking about, rather than the amount of seats they will fill.’
Having been involved with the club for more than 40 years, Murphy is intent on sticking around until they don’t want him anymore. But he has passed on his passion to his daughter, who is currently the club PRO.
‘I plan to be involved with them, as long as I have something to offer. I was born and reared in the village, so it was just a natural step to play football and it has gone from there.
‘When the county job came up, there is always a natural pull to take charge of your county but once my time with Wicklow was up, I was always going to come back to Rathnew.’
It’s what he knows and they know him. Harry Murphy and Rathnew is a combination that has worked for over 40 years.
It is one of the main reasons why this village punches above its weight.
They may make yet another stand for the small, rural GAA club tomorrow.