TIR WON’T BE EIGHT ALIVE!

MICHAEL MURPHY has no problem with Ulster champions Donegal facing Dublin at Croke Park in the Super Eights opener on Saturday week.

The Donegal skipper insists that the Donegal county board’s meeting with GAA chiefs is to do with the third series of games, when Dublin are pencilled in for Croke Park as their neutral venue.

“Croke Park is set out in stone, we’ve known the first games are going to be Croke Park games,” said Murphy (left).

“We are playing in Croke Park at seven o’clock on Saturday (week) and that’s what we will be looking forward to. We have prepared very well since the Ulster Final. I know the county board and management released something but as a group of players we have to stay away, we can’t get too bogged up or too bogged down in it.

“They’re not trying to query the first game, it is for what comes after. The first game as far as I am aware is a Croke Park fixture so that’s where we are going to be as players and then we have a home game after, it is the third game they’re trying to query.”

Murphy describes Dublin as a “phenomenal” outfit.

“They’re up there probably with the best side that has played the game,” he stated. “It’s going to be a huge task for us.

“And it is one game – yes, against Dublin – we are going to be going into it with all our might.”