AT
nineteen years of age, Ballyskenach's Brendan Murphy will be the youngest member
of the Offaly team to step out onto Croke Park for this Sunday's Guinness All-Ireland
S.H.C. Final against Kilkenny. Brendan, in his debut season, has already left
an indelible mark on this year's championship and he is the country's top scorer
from play with 3-6 to his credit. Here, Offaly's latest rising star talks to
ALAN WALSH about his thoughts on the final.
OFFALY will be striving for All-Ireland hurling glory for the fifth time since 1981 on Sunday and if they are successful, then there will be special cause for celebration in the Murphy household in Ballyskenach.
Brendan Murphy is an integral cog on the Offaly side and if Johnny Dooley lifts the Liam McCarthy Cup, then Brendan will collect an All-Ireland senior medal and thus emulate the feat of his twin brothers Noel and Cathal who were part of Offaly's all-conquering 1998 squad that smashed through the backdoor and swept all before them.
"Yeah, the twins won medals in 1998 and it would be grand to have a third All-Ireland medal winner in the family," explained Brendan, who was also part of the Offaly under 21 side which claimed provincial honours this year.
This is his first year in the senior ranks and he is delighted with the way things have gone for him.
"Maybe, I wasn't expecting things to be as good as they have been. I would have been really happy at the start of the year just to be making the panel. Things have gone well. I've got a few scores and hopefully I can keep it going. But the main thing is that the team does well and that we do well against Kilkenny and come out with the right result." When Offaly won the 1994 and '98 All-Ireland Finals, Brendan, a student at U.C.D., was sitting in the stand admiring the action out on the pitch and little did he realise that he'd ever be out there himself on All-Ireland Final day.
"The thoughts of playing in an All-Ireland Final never actually crossed my mind. It does feel a bit strange when you are playing with people that you admired as a young lad growing up. It wasn't too long ago that I was one of the kids out there looking for autographs off Brian Whelahan, Johnny Dooley, Michael Duignan and the likes. Now I'm there playing alongside them. It is a great honour to play with them, before maybe some of them retire, and I'm enjoying the opportunity to play with players as good as them." He admitted to being quite nervous before the Wexford match where he made his debut and netted a first half goal.
"I was probably more nervous going into the Wexford match than I was in any of the matches since. The whole thing was different than anything I expected. I knew what the crowd would be like as I played in Croke Park with the Offaly minors, but the atmosphere was totally different this time. It probably caught me on the hop a little bit. I wasn't expecting it to be as daunting as what it was. But it was grand after that. I did alright in the first few minutes of the Leinster Final against Kilkenny and I then settled down." Brendan was one of Offaly's leading lights in the Leinster Final as he slotted over four points and naturally, he was hugely disappointed to lose by so much.
"It was a huge disappointment. Winning a Leinster medal means everything to all the lads. People were saying about the backdoor, but we weren't even thinking that way. On the day, Kilkenny were just far too superior for us.
"I was impressed most by Kilkenny's forwards, but I suppose they were strong everywhere. You couldn't pick out a weak spot. All their backs mark tightly and they close you down really quickly. They have all got pace and they're sharp. Brian McEvoy and Andy Comerford are very mobile at midfield and everyone knows about the Kilkenny forwards. Any one of the six could pop over five or six points.
"Hopefully things won't go as bad for us on Sunday. I think we were with Kilkenny for the first half hour, and then they just got going and the space started opening up for their forwards. It's hard to predict what will happen this time, but it is hard to see Kilkenny getting the same room again."
Did he believe Offaly could recover after losing the Leinster Final and reach an All-Ireland Final?
"To be honest, I didn't really think we could. When the quarter-final draw was made, we knew we had a decent chance. We were playing Derry and I suppose we were expecting to beat them. And then it was Cork. We were quietly confident of catching Cork on the hop. "In the dressing room beforehand, we were really getting going and looking at lads faces before we went out on the field we knew that we were up for it. At half-time we were with them. Things went well in the second half and it was a great result. Now we've got the belief and confidence going again and we'll need everything going well against Kilkenny."
PRESSURE WAS ON
Brendan was moved to midfield during the second half of the Cork game and he helped sway the pendulum in Offaly's favour.
"After I was shifted to midfield I saw Paudie (Mulhare) warming up and I knew where the next place for me was unless I started to perform. So I had to get my game going. In the long run, it worked out alright. Johnny Dooley got a few points when he moved into wing forward and he got more space in there and I picked up a few loose balls and did alright. But I knew when I saw Paudie that the pressure was on and that I had to do something." Brendan will celebrate his 20th birthday in November, and he believes that while nothing can make up for losing the Leinster senior final, the win of the under 21's in some way atoned for the reversal suffered by the seniors.
"Winning the under 21 made up for the senior to some degree. But a Leinster senior medal would have been the ultimate for me, because with the exception of an All-Ireland senior medal, a Leinster senior medal would have been the next best thing and to lose out was fierce disappointing. We went out the following Saturday to play the under 21 final and went straight into the game. There was a bit of the revenge factor there and this probably motivated the players who are on the senior panel.
"I would have really liked to have done something at under 21 level this year and I have to put the disappointment of losing to Galway behind me and concentrate on Kilkenny. It is every young lad's dream to play in an All-Ireland Final and I'm getting that chance. It is a big transformation, because playing with the under 21's last year I wouldn't have ever dreamed of this happening to me. Here I am now. Everything is going well and I have to try and keep my feet on the ground."
Many people have reminded Brendan that he is the top scorer from play in this year's Guinnness S.H.C. but it doesn't bother him.
"Being honest, I don't really think about those things. People have said it to me. But I'd prefer not to score at all and even have a bad game, as long as we win. It's a team game. And when you win, you have the medal in the back pocket. That's all that counts and it doesn't really matter how you play."
Brendan said it would mean everything to him if he could win an All-Ireland medal. "There is no point in getting to an All-Ireland Final unless you aim to win it. We have a 50/50 chance. Kilkenny are an excellent team. There is going to be a lot of pressure on them. This is their third All-Ireland Final in-a-row and I suppose you could say they are expecting to beat us, but hopefully we'll catch them, just like we did against Cork. And hopefully I'll be able to get another score or two.
"Winning an All-Ireland medal means everything to me. When you start hurling at five or six years old, it's the ultimate aim. It is drummed into you. You watch All-Ireland Finals on T.V. and see great hurlers. Now I'm going to play in one. It's everything. It's the top aim in the game and hopefully things go alright for me."