Star Murphy is back with an appetite to impress for his club and county in 2021
Sligo Senior Gaelic footballer Niall Murphy is back after a year spent travelling abroad. Liam Maloney spoke to the Coolera-Strandhill talisman, who is eager to make a difference for both club and county in the year ahead
IT IS brilliant for Sligo, but woe for opposition defences. Niall Murphy is back. The lethal inter-county forward has rejoined the Sligo Senior Gaelic football squad after taking a 12-month sabbatical from county duty and work. The Coolera-Strandhill GAA Club star, who was abroad with his girlfriend, Clare Kearins, spent time in Indonesia, Mexico and America. The bulk of their trip was spent in Bali, Indonesia, with six months there. Last summer saw the couple in New York – while there Murphy was able to play some Gaelic football with Sligo GAA Club (Sligo were New York Senior Football Championship runners-up, losing to homegrown outfit St Barnabas in a replay that went to extra-time).
He admits that their holiday plans were almost shelved when Covid-19 took hold of normality worldwide. Although the pandemic altered things, Murphy said that he and Kearins adapted to the ever-changing environment that brought protocols and restrictions.
“We made the most of it. We obviously stuck to the guidelines and advice of each location we visited.” “We were definitely able to have a good lifestyle and the weather was good in the places where we stayed. It was very warm so there were a lot of outdoor activities.”
“We tried to tune out from all the bad news from home,” he admitted, “as time went on we were more concerned about how things were in Bali.”
There were constantly aware of Covid-19 and the potential dangers of getting the virus.
Indeed, at different stages they contemplated coming back and ending their adventure.
Murphy stayed in shape during his time away from Sligo, a year that included two spells in Bali.
“I done a lot of crossfit-style training – fitness holidays are a big thing in Bali, a lot of people go there just to work on their fitness in a different setting.”
“In many ways, it turned into a training holiday for me.”
For future breaks, Bali would be a place he’d love to return to – given the time he spent there last year. He enjoyed his time with New York’s Sligo GAA Club – a club, as the name suggests, has a strong contingent of Sligo natives involved, either players or club officials.
Cork man Larry McCarthy, the incoming GAA president, is a member of this club that over the years has become a ‘Sligo’ home for those from the Yeats County. “There are a lot of Curry lads there, and a few from my own club [Coolera-Strandhill], and I’ve great
time for everyone involved in the club. They made me feel very welcome – it was brilliant just to kick a ball again
and hear Sligo accents.”
“They really put an emphasis on providing a GAA community for peo
ple from Sligo who go to New York.”
The forward, who made his Connacht GAA Senior Football Championship debut for Sligo in 2013, had no regrets about heading off.
He maintains that such an opportunity mightn’t present itself again.
WHILE Murphy was absent from the GAA scene, Sligo’s Senior team struggled for form in Division Four of the disrupted Allianz Football League, eventually falling out of the promotion reckoning. Covid-19 then forced the county team to pull out of the Connacht Senior Football Championship.
Murphy’s club, Coolera-Strandhill, reached the Sligo Senior Football Championship semi-final as Barry O’Mahony did his best to step into the shoes of Murphy, who was the top tier’s leading scorer in 2019 (the year Coolera-Strandhill were county finalists). In that campaign Murphy bagged 1-50 (53 points).
He has no regrets about jetting off. Despite the valid arguments that both Sligo and Coolera-Strandhill would both have been much better off with Murphy available in 2020, he wasn’t, so that is that. The 27-year-old, who turns 28 this September, has plenty more big performances to deliver.
Watching Coolera-Strandhill’s progress to the last four of the Owen B Hunt Cup race, as one of many subscribers of Sligo GAA’s livestream service, tugged at the attacker’s heart. “When I was watching Coolera-Strandhill’s games I did get a little homesick.”
“Had they won the county semi-final I had thought about coming home [for the final] and I would have had enough time to self-isolate and then, hopefully, play.”
“But that decision was taken out of my hands, unfortunately, because the lads lost to Drumcliffe-Rosses Point.” Murphy’s status as an inter-county star – he is one of the best forwards in the country and wouldn’t look out of place in any squad, be that Dublin, Mayo, Tyrone, Galway, Donegal or Kerry – means for some that he shouldn’t have a life outside of Gaelic football. No time out. No breaks.
But the majority of fans appreciate the sacrifices that leading GAA players make on a weekly basis – just to make their respective counties proud. “To be fair, I didn’t get any negativity when I decided to opt out of the county panel for the year.”
“I suppose I had already been in the squad for a good number of years so I would like to think that I had I already contributed something.”
“It was always a case that I would be going back to football, both for Sligo and Coolera-Strandhill, after the travelling.”
“It was nice to step away from things – it was always one of my goals to see a bit of the world when I was in my 20s.” “I think people were respectful and they understood my decision,” said the finisher who has regularly been a leading scorer for Sligo in the Allianz Football League.
Sligo’s enforced withdrawal from the provincial arena was a scenario that affected Murphy. These were his teammates, many of them his pals, having their ambitions ruined by circumstances outside their control. “I was gutted for the lads that they didn’t get to play Galway. I know that the championship game is the one fixture that you always have an eye on from the start of the year.”
“It was a very, very difficult situation for them and I was so looking forward to watching the game on GAAGO. It was the one game all year that I wanted to see.”
“It was a different experienced for me to watch Coolera-Strandhill’s fixtures solely as a supporter.”
Murphy, who has already spoken to new Sligo Senior team boss Tony McEntee, is excited about the year ahead, although the campaign is already disjointed due to Covid-19 restrictions.
THE expert shooter, who was Sligo Senior team captain in 2019, is enthused about the management crew that McEntee has assembled, noting that there is a fellow forward, ex-Sligo player Mark Breheny, in the Armagh man’s backroom team. Progress in the Allianz Football League by escaping from Division Four is a must, says Murphy, who maintains that Sligo can only improve by facing quality opponents in championship games.
But the influential playmaker is unsure of how beneficial the inaugural Tailteann Cup, a second tier All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (for those counties that are in Division Three and Division Four at the conclusion of this year’s AFL) will actually be.
With at least two intriguing and viable proposals on the table to rejig GAA Football’s All-Ireland Senior Championship, Murphy could get to play in mouth-watering fixtures with his peak years to come.
At club level, meanwhile, he predicts a potentially competitive Sligo Senior Football Championship as a number of clubs, among them Coolera-Strandhill, plot the end of Tourlestrane’s reign.
Murphy is back – with a renewed appetite to do well – and Sligo GAA will be all the better for his skilful presence.
“I’m looking forward to getting back playing football,” added Murphy, who is set to return to his job with Cora Systems in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim. “Fingers cross that we’ll be allowed to return to training in March.”
Meanwhile, his girlfriend Clare Kearins, a pharmacist, has started an online jewellery business – TO:MI Jewellery & Acessories – which can be found on Instagram, @tomi_ireland
“I was gutted for the lads that they didn’t get to play against Galway. I know that the championship game is the one fixture that you always have an eye on from the start of the year.”
TEEN POTENTIAL: Johnny Kenny.
SOCCER CHAT: Garry Buckley, Greg Bolger and John Russell (assistant manager).
CUSTODIAN: Richard Brush.