Ambitious Sligo hoping to build on near misses
Narrow defeats. Overall it sums of the big games Sligo have been involved in over the last 12 months.
The Yeats County went within a whisker of a Connacht final and one of the biggest upsets in recent years before Galway struck late at Markievicz Park, Rob Finnerty's palmed goal in second-half stoppage time ensuring the Tribesmen escaped to victory.
Two months later and there was more semi-final disappointment as Down prevailed in extra-time at Croke Park to seal a place in the Tailteann Cup decider.
Expectations were tempered going into this year Connacht championship – three opening defeats in Division 3 meant consolidation, rather than promotion was key – but again they put it up to Division 1 opposition.
Late Sligo scores made it a jittery three-point win for Mayo and another near-miss for the underdogs.
"We set our sights out to beat Mayo," he told RTÉ Sport. "I know that was obviously going to be a tough ask but we've been knocking on the door a little bit in Connacht over the last couple of years."
The team captain accounted for nearly a third of their 2-17 tally against Mayo, but insists there was still a difference between that three-point loss and the two-point defeat a year previous.
"Against Galway, we should have won that game, but to be fair to Mayo we were second best. We put ourselves in a position to win the game, but I had no hard feelings watching the game (Connacht final) really when you knew we were probably just that bit short.
"The Connacht championship is where we really want to compete. Hopefully over the next year or two we can actually turn Galway, Roscommon or Mayo over."
Despite representing Sligo for more than a decade and his country in the International Rules, Murphy has previously stated that Coolera Strandhill's unlikely Connacht club title last year was his greatest sporting achievement.
That memorable journey was ended by eventual champions Cuala at the penultimate stage, the final few games in a world before the FRC changes, "chalk and cheese" according to Murphy.
"Back then if you got three or four shots away a game it was nearly a good thing. Whereas now you're nearly guaranteed that and even more. It's a completely different game."
The ace forward wasted no time in getting back into the inter-county bubble. Coolera bowed out on Sunday, he was back with Sligo on the Wednesday, a decision he reflects on differently now.
"I probably shouldn't have done that really. I feel fine now, but I definitely wouldn't do that again. There was no pressure or anything like that to come back.
"You're in that good form and you're nearly happy to jump in. Losing it (semi-final) was so disappointing. I was in bad form for the week and I thought maybe getting back into it would be the best thing to do. It probably wasn't on reflection."
First up in Group 1 for Sligo is a home match against Tipperary on Sunday. Home being Tubbercurry rather than Markievicz Park, with the former out of commission until the middle of next year due to repair works.
The team have only had one training session there to date, with Murphy hoping the tight-feel to the ground can create its own atmosphere.
Twice semi-finalists in the competition, Sligo have been lumped in with Westmeath, Kildare and Offaly as genuine Tailteann Cup contenders. Murphy admits that competing for Sam Maguire is the ultimate ambition, but there has been complete buy-in for the secondary competition.
"Nobody has left the panel or anything like that," he says. "You see that in different teams, players dropping off, we haven't had that, we haven't experienced that over the last couple of years.
"Our goal now to try and win this. There are a lot of good teams in it, but we've had two semi-finals, two close calls, next stop for us is getting to a final anyway at minimum."
Watch the Ulster Football Championship final, Armagh v Donegal, on Saturday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
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