BORDER TERRIER

Rathmore star Murphy ready for dogged battle with Rebels

COMING from Rathmore, Paul Murphy is more attuned to the Kerry-cork rivalry than most. The 25-year-old maintained the club’s ongoing link to the Kerry team over the past couple of decades, following on from Declan O’keeffe, Tom O’sullivan and Aidan O’mahony (below), who only retired earlier this year at the age of 36. More than a decade younger, Murphy looks set to continue the club’s representation for another few years at least, with days like tomorrow the most treasured for the locals along the county boundary with Cork. “They’re great occasions to play in,” says Murphy. “A Munster final, particularly in Killarney, they seem to get bigger crowds, a lot of the time brilliant weather. “At home it’s a fairly intense rivalry to be involved in, but at the same time people aren’t falling out over it. “People are very into their football out there, but after the game they’ll probably shake hands with their neighbours and they’ll move on. “There are families where you might have one supporting Kerry and some people supporting Cork. It’s fairly intense.” With Cork now a mid-table Division Two side and Kerry dominating Munster on a scale not seen since Mick O’dwyer’s team was in its pomp, the fixture doesn’t excite quite as much as it used to. From 2002-10 they met 18 times in the Championship alone but it’s thinned out since to the extent that tomorrow’s game is their first meeting of any kind in two years. “It’s still a fierce rivalry,” Murphy insists, “but possibly the thing with the Kerry-cork rivalry is that the players have changed a lot on both panels in the last three or four years, whereas when they were playing in the noughties, you have very similar panels of players going toe-totoe. “You could be playing them in League, Championship and even All-ireland. Familiarity breeds contempt and it fed into the rivalry a bit and while we haven’t played Cork since ‘15, but I don’t think the rivalry diminished any bit. “New personal rivalries could develop. “I’m sure when the ball is thrown-in it’ll be like nothing has changed.” Murphy won man of the match in the 2014 All-ireland final from corner-back though that’s where he’s played the least of his football for Kerry given his versatility. He regularly lines out at wing-back or centre-forward, a position he has proven he can adapt seamlessly to given the defensive instincts that now influence the role. “I probably consider myself more naturally a half-back, I played most of my football there underage, but I’d also be comfortable in the half-forward line too. “If you’re asking me what my favourite position is, that could change from one month to the next. Centre-forward is a lovely position on the right day. “There’s an element of freedom [to playing up front], but the way the game has gone you could be playing centre-forward and you could spend more time chasing a fella back and you could have a horrible day. “There’s days you could be playing wing-forward and you could kill yourself all day trying to get on ball and it just wouldn’t fall for you, just pass you by. “It’s not all glory up there, it’s a lot of hard work, but there’s more freedom up there than you would have at the back.” He added: “The lines between half-forward and half-back are blurring all the time. “There are players throughout the country who could be named at 12 one day, five the next day. “To me it doesn’t matter where you play as long as you’d know before the game where you’d be playing and you could have mentally prepared for it, but at the same time even within a game if you’re told to switch positions, you’ll react.”