‘It’ll be small steps, but we’ll get there’
Kerry senior hurling captain Bryan Murphy is itching to get back playing, but only once it’s time, writes Damian Stack
IT would have been playing on his mind all week. Familiar, yet subtly different. Nerves and tension of the sort you get in the build-up to a big game, all playing out against the backdrop of knowing that there’s nothing – absolutely nothing – you can do about it.
For a man normally in the thick of things, an all-action full-back, a Garda on the beat, it must have been torture. Passivity doesn’t come easily to people like that. Passive is all Kerry hurling captain Bryan Murphy could be, however, as he and his team mates waited for events to play themselves out on March 8 in Tullamore.
Natural justice told you Kerry deserved to be in that league final, having beaten Offaly in Austin Stack Park. The way things transpired, however, victory for the Faithful over already-promoted Antrim would have ensured they and not Kerry advanced to the decider.
On the day of the match, Murphy was going about his normal routine. Out driving and listening to the Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1, following the twists and turns of events in Tullamore on tenterhooks before stopping at a service station for diesel as the game neared its end point.
When he went to pay it looked very much like dreams would be dashed. Offaly were in control. By the time he got back to the car, however, everything had changed dramatically. The reports from O’Connor Park turned on their head as Antrim roared back into the game.
Two late Glensmen goals and the road to the Division 2A final opened up again for the Kingdom. Sitting in the driving seat Murphy couldn’t contain himself, roaring with excitement as he says himself. It’s amazing how quickly things can turn in a game of a hurling and, for that matter, in life more generally as we’ve all come to appreciate.
For two or three days Murphy was buzzing. The excitement of qualifying for the final was added to with the news that the game was to be played in Croke Park. The Causeway man knows all about the big house, having played there on a handful of occasions. Knows how special it is.
That was the thing he wanted to impart to Shane Conway – Kerry’s bona fide hurling superstar who has yet to line out at HQ – when they spoke early that week.
“This place is made for you,” Murphy confided in him.
“There’s space galore. You’ll have so much time on the ball you won’t know what to do with it.”
At the back of his mind, though, the longer the week went on, there was that uneasy feeling that COVID-19 was coming down the tracks fast. Having trained Tuesday, he was living in hope. A hope dashed two days later as the lockdown swung into place. An unwanted reminder that nothing ever comes easy for Kerry hurling.
YOU might think it inevitable, coming from where he’s from, that hurling would be a big part of Murphy’s life and identity. Causeway is, after all, at the heart of hurling country and hurling mad with it too. As he tells it, though, there was nothing inevitable about it.
“I would only have taken up hurling when I was nine years of age,” he explains.
“At the beginning I didn’t actually have that much interest in it. The circle of friends that I had were playing it and I got stuck in it and just fell in love with it then. I remember the first training session that I went to – my mother had to buy me a helmet.
“I think it was £60 at the time and she threatened me and she said ‘after buying this you better keep it up’. So I instantly fell in love with it.”
Still, though, it was more than that. It was in the blood. His mother was from hurling stock in Kilmoyley – her brother, John B Griffin, played for both club and county – and even though Bryan’s dad never played himself there was hurling on that side of the family too.
“People would say that I got the hurling from my mother’s people, but dad would argue differently – that if he played the game he’d have been a dinger himself – but that’s for another day,” he jokes.
Young Murphy wasn’t short of role models in those early days. Maurice Leahy – probably the greatest evangelist Kerry hurling has ever known – was regularly in and out of the schools through his work with the County Board. Then there was John Mike Dooley, the free-scoring forward, county hurler and Causeway legend who also did his bit to inspire the next generation.
“We used to have great banter with John Mike, and to think we won a county title with him last year and he used to come around to the schools when we were nine, ten, eleven years of age... Last year he was in goals minding the house. That’s just the history of the game, and that’s why we play it for – the friends you make and the passion.”
Last year’s County Championship success for Causeway was a popular one even outside the parish. It had been a long time coming. Twenty-one years is far too long for club like theirs to wait. Then again, the wait made it all the more special when it did arrive.
“We had a few hard years,” Murphy explains.
“I suppose the press as well were saying that ‘Causeway were an up and coming team’ and ‘they should be winning this’. I suppose we were nearly listening to that too much instead of focussing on ourselves and focussing on the internal side of it and the team side of it. We were listening to the outside
voices a bit too much.
“Last year everything just seemed to come together and Stephen Goggin is a massively passionate man. We went through a few years of having outside managers. It’s just not the same passion, determination and drive. Fellas don’t put in the same.
“Stephen would have hurled with Causeway for a number of years and got to county finals and I think just lost out on three or four county finals. He wouldn’t have had a county medal. It meant as much to him as us... if not more.
“Last year we just seemed to have a good team and a good group and we had thirty lads turning up to training every night. We were travelling down, myself and Billy Lyons and one or two others. Every single night when you’re driving down you’re nearly questioning ‘Jesus we’re two hours down and two hours up and two hours training’ and you’re thinking ‘is this worth it?’
“But at the end of the day it’s massively worth it. I’d put it up there as the best day of my life winning that county final, and I’d say a lot of the Causeway fellas would considering it the same. The following week obviously was great craic as well.”
Causeway’s famous win over Lixnaw last September put Murphy in place as Kerry captain this year. An honour that after ten years in the trenches was his due and he’s the kind of guy you’d want as your skipper. Commanding, resolute and well able to talk. A born leader.
It’s a bit of a surprise to be reminded that Murphy is just 27 years of age, such a fixture has he been on the county panel for so long. It says a lot about Murphy that then Kerry manager John Meyler put so much faith in him so young, taking advantage of Murphy missing out on a year at minor level due to being born in mid-December.
“I’d have massive admiration for John,” he says.
“He’s a massive man to join the set-up with. We actually won the Christy Ring that first year I was in and I thought ‘this is fantastic, we’re going to win silverware every single year now.’ It didn’t turn out that way. We beat Wicklow in the final and it was a fantastic year for myself.
“I’d meet John around Cork [where Murphy lives] the odd time and we’d be talking away. He’s a solid man, there’s no messing with him. John is a true gentleman and really passionate about the game. He’s a character as well.
“Frankie Flannery would have been there that year as well and I would have only been seventeen going into the panel as well. Frankie wasn’t long hardening me up. There was a lot of tracking drills and a lot of things I was being introduced to that I wouldn’t have been used to.”
In training Murphy’s regular sparring partner that first season was St Brendans’ John Egan – an education all of its own. The years since then haven’t quite been as laden with silverware as the 17-year-old Murphy might have imagined, but they’ve rarely been anything less than interesting.
He’s had four managers since Meyler’s term ended and probably the most successful period came under the management of Tipperary man Éamonn Kelly. During his time the Kingdom were promoted to Division 1 of the league and won the second Christy Ring Cup of Murphy’s career.
“I would have great admiration for Éamonn Kelly and Brian Horgan,” Murphy enthuses.
“Jesus, I thought they were up there with the best we’ve had. The professionalism they brought to the set-up. The standards they set. I’d have fantastic time for Éamonn and for Brian. The sessions they did with us were just next level, top class.
“The challenge games they got, the tactics they had, the way they worked with individuals was just super. Even bringing in Caroline Currid, the sports psychologist. She just brought a different dimension into it.
“If you could look at her honours it’d be the length of your arm... with the honours, the All Irelands and things like that. I’d have great admiration for her. She’s a super woman.
“She’s an outlet for players as well. I think she changed my game completely in how I approach it. I would approach the game even up to today different. She only would have had three or four sessions with us, but she seemed to bring us together to the next level so much that you’d nearly jump in front of a bus for the fella beside you. Just a next level relationship with the lad lining out beside you.”
Along with the highs there have been several lows too and, of all the time Murphy has spent on the Kerry senior hurling panel, he pinpoints last year as possibly the most frustrating period of the lot.
Losing to Westmeath in the league final in Ennis still rankles with him, which makes the indefinite postponement of the game in Croke Park all the more difficult to take. The Joe McDonagh Cup then felt like one step forward and two steps back as a victory over Westmeath in Mullingar was followed by defeat at the hands of Laois in Stack Park.
That frustration is tempered by the belief that despite those setbacks the Kingdom are on the right path, that they’ve got the right man and the right team over them. The 2020 season is Fintan O’Connor’s fourth over the Kerry senior hurlers, and has brought much needed stability and continuity.
“The managers before would have won silverware, but the difference is we would have been playing at a lower level,” the captain explains.
“Whereas now we’re really trying to break through to the next level. I think with Fintan, one of his great strengths is his man management skills. You’re never afraid to pick up the phone and give him a shout.
“Some of the others you’d be half afraid to ring up and say ‘I can’t make it to training.’ You might get a ‘that’s not good enough you need to make it to training’. Fintan is sound that way. He knows the fellas that will do the work on their own.
“He knows that if I can’t make a session I’ll go and do a running session and do a ball alley session. The lads around him are fantastic as well. Brian Culbert is a fantastic hurling coach, probably up there with the best we’ve had, him and Brian Horgan. Technically brilliant, has a great mindset.
“Éamonn Fitz[gerald] is great on the sideline. John Barry [physical trainer] is there us with the last few years. Ger Keane [physiotherapist] is top class.”
One thing that’s probably not fully appreciated is the level the Kerry hurlers operate at. The standard of hurling in the Joe McDonagh Cup is pretty damn high as was proven last year when Laois advanced out of Cup and went on to down Dublin and reach an All Ireland quarter-final.
“They definitely don’t,” Murphy says, when asked if Kerry hurling gets the respect and recognition it deserves.
“Even at work there I get a slagging from the public, ‘sure you’re only with the Kerry hurlers’ and all this. I’d have to bite my tongue at times… because if they realised we put in as much work as the Kerry footballers. We do as many sessions. We do as many gym sessions.
“Every night they’re training, we’re training and there’s fellas doing their own work on the side then as well. It’s nearly a professional set-up at this stage and every county is the same. You’re just trying to get the edge on your opponents.
“I don’t think people respect Kerry hurling for what it is. I know it’s a small pocket, but I always wanted to play for Kerry. I think it’s a huge honour to play with your county at any level. Be it with Kerry footballers or Kerry hurlers, you’re still representing your county – still representing your parish.
“You’re putting on the green and gold and that should be a huge privilege for any young fella playing hurling for Kerry. Sometimes the clubs don’t really promote Kerry hurling or playing with Kerry, and I think that is wrong as well.
“I’d always push a fella to play with his county. It will only bring his standards on and he’s going to bring a better game or a better learning back to his club.”
THE last few weeks haven’t been easy for anybody. For a front-line responder such as Murphy it’s been a really busy period in his professional life, but it’s not as if sport has ceased to be a major part of his life either.
In the first phase of the lockdown the Kerry hurlers were following quite an intensive programme of running and home gym work. The longer the hiatus has continued, however, the clearer it’s become that it’ll be a while yet before we get back to normal. Priorities and training have changed because of that.
“We have weaned off the training,” Murphy explains.
“Obviously lads are still doing their own gym sessions and their own coaching points and stuff like that – but in their own time. We were doing Zoom sessions and stuff like that online. I didn’t mind the structure, but some fellas found it hard doing stuff on their own.
“It is asking a lot of guys. It’s not the same as everyone going to the same training ground and the banter and the craic with the lads as well. You’d miss that side of it. That’s one of the sides you’d miss the most
“You’d hope it’s not too far down the line that you could train in threes or fours on a place that’s 130m long and maybe puck ball to each other and stuff like that. It’ll be small steps, but we’ll get there eventually.”
No doubt we will and, you’d hope that the Kerry hurlers and their captain get to play that final in Croke Park once all this shakes out. God knows they deserve it.
She changed my game completely in how I approach it. I would approach it even up to today differently