KINGDOM BLOODLINE
Legend Cooper is a ‘great influence’ on niece Murphy
“Last year was gutting, really disappointing”
SAME opposition, same goal, same blood. When Kerry corner-back Ciara Murphy raced up the Austin Stack Park pitch and fired the ball to the back of the Dublin net in last February’s Lidl National League clash, there was no need to check the family tree to establish that she is Colm Cooper’s niece.
The comparison between her strike and her uncle’s iconic goal, where he swiveled to fire past Stephen Cluxton in the 2009 AllIreland quarter-final, reducing the Dubs to ‘startled earwigs’ in the process, was irresistible.
Just like the Gooch, after she took a pass from Siofra O’Shea with her back to goal, Murphy swivelled before firing hard past Emer Ní Eafa in the Dublin goal.
She admits to fobbing off the complimentary comparisons in the aftermath, but acknowledges that her famous uncle has been a constant presence in her career.
‘He was always there or thereabouts,’ she recalls.
‘When we used to go to my Nana’s house at a young age, he was living there at the time so I was there nearly every second day.
‘He had a big influence on my career. I would have been supporting him ever since I was two or three years of age when he started off playing for Kerry so I have travelled the length and breadth of the country supporting him and he does the same for me when he can.
‘He was in Croke Park for the last two All-Ireland finals. He is a great influence and he always reminds me of a few things as well as I would have reminded him when he was playing, just small little details which help you to improve.’
Her Kerry team will start out in search of those same small details when they travel to Parnell Park this evening, in what is a rematch of last August’s All-Ireland final to Dublin. It was their second AllIreland final loss inside 12 months and it cut them to the very bone, devaluing last year’s league success and leaving them to rue league and championship wins over the girls in blue that would ultimately be deployed against them. In many ways – they trailed by seven points at half-time – it was over before it even had started for them. ‘Definitely, last year hurt the most,’ admits the Keel woman, who plays her club football with Milltown Castlemaine. ‘I think because Meath were in a phase (12 months earlier)where no team could stop them as they just had that system and that fitness, where everything was just mind blowing really. They deserved it after they came up from intermediate and won the AllIrelands and fair play to them. But last year was gutting, really disappointing. ‘We’d have played Dublin in the league and in the group stage of championship as well and we had beaten them twice so I am not saying going into the final... We knew they were going to bring it up a notch and we knew it was in them as well so we weren’t naive, but maybe Dublin had learned more from those two previous meetings.
‘And they just came out of the blocks that day, all guns blazing the first 15 minutes, pinned us down everywhere on the field and we couldn’t get going. And while we sort of came back into it in the second half they always had that lead over us. Their athleticism is phenomenal, they have some proper athletes and some good footballers as well so they have that balance.
‘It still hurts to this day but hopefully we can learn from it.
‘I know you can say that as well about the Meath game but definitely this hurt a lot more and we will use that hopefully this year going forward.’
Adding to Kerry’s sense of wellbeing is that their joint managers, Declan Quill and Darragh Long have committed to coming back for one more year with a very specific goal set.
‘We’re going back to win an All-Ireland, we’re not going back for any other reason,’ said Quill, when agreeing to a 12-month extension.
For Murphy, who is now set to spend five of her six years as a Kerry footballer playing under them, their return has added to the belief that this could be the year when they finally draw a line under the 31-year wait for the Brendan Martin Cup.
Before Quill and Long made up their mind, they consulted the players.
‘They wanted to get a sense of what we thought of them staying on.
‘This is their fifth year now with us so we’re happy with where they have brought us. When I started playing with Kerry ladies the quarter-finals was the furthest I had got.
‘It was great the lads came in and brought us to a whole new level, reaching two All-Irelands and two league finals which we won – so they have improved Kerry Ladies football immensely.
‘And we believe in them as well as a management group.
‘So, of course we are delighted to have them on for another year and the girls back them all the way.’
It is not just that Quill and Long have Kerry winning again, they have also got them playing to a traditional style that rhymes with the county’s footballing history. Playing direct football – the injury sustained by captain and full-forward Siofra O’Shea was a significant blow ahead of last August’s final – and scoring at will, they charmed neutrals as well as their own on the way to the final. ‘Very few teams at the moment are playing open football, a lot of teams are playing defensive football, over and back the field, but we like to move the ball quick, let the ball do the work,’ said Murphy. ‘We are very much a kicking team. ‘Even with the men’s teams now, it is very much over and back, it is defensive, it is tough to watch, it can get boring so even we hear from people on the streets around Killarney and Tralee, “We like the way ye play, we watch more ladies football because of ye” and that’s great to hear. ‘The more the merrier that are following us because it promotes us and promotes the game a lot more as well.’