Red Óg’s passing was a shock for the panel says Sligo manager

CURRY’S Red Óg Murphy, who died suddenly, has been and will be in the thoughts of the Sligo senior squad according to team boss Tony McEntee.

Although the rising star, pictured right, opted out of the inter-county scene for 2022, he had been in the county team for the past two years, 2020 and 2021, and had many pals in the current group.

“What has happened will affect the group massively, we have a number of players who were very close to him [Red Óg] and others who knew him through being on county teams and from club stuff,” McEntee said.

“It is not just his unexpected passing it is also why this happened to someone at just 21 years of age.”

He continued: “But we can’t forget that there has been such a huge loss to the Murphy family – we have a game to look forward to but, for his family, they’ve something that they have to try to recover from.

“We will move on but others don’t have that luxury.” Meanwhile, the winner of Sunday’s quarter-final will be up against Roscommon – this year’s AFL Division Two champions – in the provincial semi-final on Sunday, May 1.

“Strictly speaking, we are in New York to win a match. We’ve had some good results in the Allianz Football League and we’ve played well in a lot of our matches.

“We want to play well against New York and win – obviously – and there have been other teams who’ve gone out there and have been unable to perform properly because of the environment,” he added.

The Sligo group, including players, backroom team and County Board officials, will arrive in New York this evening, Thursday, and – win or lose – they’ll be flying back to Ireland on Monday afternoon.

New York have never won a game in the Connacht GAA Senior Football Championship since first participating in the competition back in 1999.