Hell's Kitchen is back for the digital age as Tipp produce Guerilla warfare
When Ronan Maher, captain of the Tipperary team stood on the steps of the Michael Hogan Stand, 100 years after it was named after the man who died during the violence and carnage of Bloody Sunday, he recalled another fallen Tipperary man.
In another, fairer dimension, the red helmet of Dillon Quirke would have been on the pitch here, rather than gone after he collapsed and died in a club championship match in August 2022. Captured forever as a 24-year-old Tipperary hurler.
'You weren't just with us in your spirit today,' said Maher.
'You were with us in the dressing room. You were on the field of play. You were in our hearts. We hope we did you and your family proud today.'
If the defining quality of Quirke was bravery, then that's what Tipperary were here. It couldn't be just all blood and snotters. They needed more and so their strategy set up bravery.
The extra man at the back hardly came as a surprise. At times it was Craig Morgan but as soon as Shane Barrett picked off two early points it was left to Bryan O'Mara.
Doing that, concedes the puckout. But then you can put pressure on the second ball. They were willing to do that because they trusted their half-back line to play out in front, with a safety net of a sweeper. They could also gum up the works when Cork attempted to run the ball with overlapping runs.
The Tipperary backs ate Cork whole. As a unit, this is the Hell's Kitchen of the John Doyle – Michael Maher – Kieran Carey, reimagined for the digital age.
'We just attacked everything… We just let it flow…' said Michael Breen afterwards.
Michael Breen afterwards with girlfriend, Sharlene Mawdsley. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
What's the opposite of flow? That's Cork. As soon as momentum started to shift, the ground beneath their feet went. The choice was there for them when Eoin Downey was booked on 32 minutes. Their gamble backfired with a second yellow and red. But even before that, they were baling water and holed beneath the waterline.
Pat Ryan has been around the block and has a shrewd hurling brain. But you sense that although they could have predicted Tipperary would employ a sweeper, they appeared to give it as little thought as, oooohhhh, Neil Young gave to his outfit on stage at Glastonbury.
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The Cork performance has already got the MemeLords busy. Welcome to Cork, twinned with Mayo. All the high brow stuff. But in terms of the embarrassment stakes, it was hard to see at the start of the week who could top the Coldplay Jumbotron extra-curricular couple. We aren't wondering now.
Let's not let this moment pass without acknowledging that nobody was shouting this prediction. Even as we walked to the stadium and happened upon a father-son duo from Roscrea who eventually pumped me for my prediction, I felt miserable as I opted for Cork.
'But if we're in it with fifteen minutes to go…' they reasoned. And I let them have that crumb of comfort. It made me feel happy. For a while.
You can parse and analyse all you want. Go intellectual and converse on strategies and approaches. Do what you want, but these games are decided by young divils such as Darragh McCarthy scoring 1-13 in an All-Ireland final as a teenager, hours after he put in a few hours playing video games on his phone, as revealed by Michael Breen.
Time enough for checking up on children with temperatures, we suspect.
There was a flavour of Tipp-ness from early on in the day. A tradition on All-Ireland final day has grown among their people whereby they meet at Talbot Street at noon, to honour the memory of Seán Treacy, a key figure in the War of Independence who died in a shoot-out at that very spot in October 1920.
It used to be confined to west Tipperary people and Dublin folk of Tipperary extraction that attended. On Sunday there was a gathering of several hundred people.
The difference this time was that the GAA President Jarlath Burns delivered an oration. Despite the scratchy amplification, the event was moving and profound. The hurling game to follow was guerilla warfare.
An interesting diversion for the next few days around Thurles, Cashel and Tipperary and into the surrounding parishes will be a parlour game of your particular favourite ending to the game.
Was it Liam Cahill, calm and measured all season finally exploding in emotion by chewing the linesman over a questionable line ball in the closing moments with the game long settled?
Perhaps the twinkle in Liam Sheedy's eye as he made his way down the sideline, togged out in punditry gear and heading for a most enjoyable debriefing, being cheered by the Tipperary supporters.
Liam Cahill meets Liam Sheedy with a third Liam. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Eoghan Connolly's 'f*** it' clearance actually being met with the most delicate of touches by John McGrath and steered to the net on the hour?
'John McGrath won the county final, so hopefully John McGrath will win the All-Ireland for Tipperary next Sunday aswell' - Frankie McGrath pic.twitter.com/zm5wqsoswN — The GAA (@officialgaa) July 20, 2025
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How about Rhys Shelly and his primal scream of delight when he saved Conor Lehane's penalty in injury time.
How about Rhys Shelly again, this time with a point from play?
Perhaps it was Tipperary's defence going all free-form jazz experimentation with overhead flicks with the space to indulge themselves.
Or Noel McGrath scoring the final point of the day?
As Michael Breen said afterwards, 'It was a fun second half to play in.'
That will hurt.
But look at them on top now. Galtee mountain boys.
Look at the view below. Two moments from last year jump out for us, seeing as we were there in the flesh; the league semi final against Clare in Portlaoise when Tipp burned through – I think – four different freetakers.
And then the Gaelic Grounds in the Munster championship when Bonner Maher bowed out in front of a Tipp crowd that felt invisible.
As Jake Morris said afterwards, 'We all live close to the big towns and that's where you would be meeting people. You'd have been ashamed to show your face in public.'
Not your problem now, Jake.
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Irish Examiner
6 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Paul Murphy's All-Ireland Final diary: That pure Kerry euphoria...and relief too
Wednesday, July 23 I don't know how teachers do it. The weeks and days before the final are an exercise in distraction management. Do whatever you can to make sure that it's not the only thing on your mind. How do the teachers distract themselves this time of year when they are off? We have a lot of them. If I start overthinking a game, I start getting anxious about it. During the season, the days immediately after a game are when it can be most difficult. It's not until we meet up again as a group and do a video session that the cycle of playing the game over in your head stops. So work continues until Friday. I can work from home for Kerry Group as an accountant which is huge help in a week like this. Thankfully, we've plenty to keep us busy lately. Last April our first daughter Lucy was born. She is four months old now and a really settled baby. She arrived on the Wednesday after the League final. That was one hell of a stressful weekend now, nothing to do with marking Ryan O'Donoghue, being away from the phone for a four-hour block is far from ideal at a time like that. She is named after my grandmother on my mom's side. It makes you a lot more conscious of time, the stretch from getting up, working, off to training for a few hours, out of the house while my wife Michelle is minding the baby. You want to be with them too. Keeping your mind occupied is a fundamental part of Gaelic football. Each All-Ireland final defeat leaves regrets. You dwell on all the breaks and small margins. You wonder whether it's even worth dwelling on. But it stays in your head through the winter, eating away all the while. Going into the final, I know there was a case we had experienced a final before. And it is overall a net positive. But we'd been through it and lost it too. I know how rough it can be. That brings its own pressure. Part of me does wonder is it actually true that ignorance is bliss. That's why the club can be a blessing. It must be a desperate part of being a manager. Of course, they watch club games, but they're not directly involved in them. I know Jack would have talked about the 2011 final and how it just gnawed at him. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your head is to find another focus. The week started with a small personal victory: the first night home alone with Lucy. Michelle headed out for a well-deserved night with her friends. I played with her, got her settled, watched the hurling, scrolled through Instagram to see the Tipperary celebrations and homecoming scenes. There's a danger in that too. Before you know it, you're thinking about after the game and the craic you could have. You have to recognise that trap and snap out of it. I left Twitter in 2023 after the Mayo game, and I steer clear of TikTok because I see the addictive spiral that lies in store. That night finished in front of the television. We're watching the first season of The Traitors. I wish I had a cooler series to reference, but I'll justify it as being nice and light, something that doesn't demand total attention. The perfect mid-week kickback. TWICE AS GOOD: Paul Murphy of Kerry celebrates winning his second All-Ireland at Croke Park last Sunday. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile Thursday, July 24 Most mornings start the same. Up for the morning feed with Lucy, out for a walk, blast a podcast. I'm a Second Captains man but I skip the Gaelic football stuff. Otherwise it's Football Weekly or a some business entrepreneurial show. Work is uneventful and then it's into Fitzgerald Stadium. The Thursday is a tough session. It's walk-through pace, but the ball gets thrown in, you start shadowing someone, they kick a point off you, you start to get higher and suddenly you are sprinting when it's the last thing you want to be doing in case of injury. I learned a long time ago that Croke Park requires metal studs. At the same time, I've had issues with my calves the last few years so try to stay off the metal in training. If I find a boot I like, I get two kinds; moldies and studs. This is about comfort, psychologically as much as physical. I'm a creature of habit. By Thursday, the tactical heavy lifting is done. The previous Saturday morning is our analysis session. That gives the group two or three trainings on the pitch to work on what we spoke about. I know I'm going to be on Oisin Gallen. He's hard to get a handle on. It's the way they play, they're not kicking a huge amount of ball in, that 50/50 pass which you can compete for. It's coming on the loop with a bit of uncertainty; do you track the runner or pass him on. At the same time, we were wondering about Michael Murphy. Did he have a knock? That might affect our matchups. We have to be mindful of that as well. Our team psychologist Cathal Sheridan runs a session before training. The over-riding message is one performance at a time. That's what it has always been about. It's not ground-breaking, just focusing on the inches in front of your face. Shane Ryan is a superb talker and he stressed that we weren't to wish the game away. 'If we are five points up, don't think, 'hang on. Just hang on here.' That's one thing I wrote in my notebook that night. As a defender, you can get caught up thinking, what if something goes wrong here? Whereas a forward can think about the next attack, tagging on another point. After training we head up to the room above the back of the stand for the catering. It's lasagna, always a big hit. At this stage I'm fairly relaxed. What's meant to come, will come. BREAKING FREE: Kerry's Paul Murphy and Conor O'Donnell of Donegal. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne Friday, July 25 The closer the game gets, the more nerves start to build. Bubbling up slowly as Sunday approaches. In the morning, the four of us, including our dog Freddie, head for a walk and come back for an omelette. It started a few years ago as a Friday treat. Creature of habit, what can I say. Before she retired, Mom was a teacher. She used to have a half-day on a Friday so we've a tradition of heading into Killarney for lunch. That evening I bump into Micheál Burns and Mark O'Shea coming out of the Great Southern. We've a power gym session to do in our own time, it's a 20-minute primer type of job. 25 minutes in the gym, bit of a stretch, jacuzzi, sauna and then back home. My father always calls in for a cup of tea the Friday evening before a championship game. He helps out with whatever he can. I was handed my ticket allocation the previous Saturday and handed them to him on the Sunday to disperse. That night, I make a bit of carbonara. It's the same dinner I made before the Armagh game, so it's become a staple. The proper Italian one now, with the egg and parmesan. Tricky, but I'm getting there with it. TWO TO TANGO: Kerry's Seán O'Shea and Paul Murphy celebrate after the game. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne Saturday, July 26 An All-Ireland final means new gear. We were given new gear bags, so I'd to empty out the old one. It's funny the wave of nostalgia that comes with such a routine task. I keep every match programme and you flick through them for a few minutes before snapping back to the present. You are reading this on the day of my 34 birthday. That's a significant age in sport. All year long, it's in the back of the head that this isn't going to last forever. I'm closer to the end that I am the start. You cant shy away from that. We run through some routines tasks: drop the dog to the kennel, into town for an easily-justified scone, carb loading and all, and back home. Typically we drove to the Woodlands and get the bus from there. An All-Ireland final is different. We're going to be getting the train on Sunday, so plenty of the lads get on the bus in Killarney. I'd rather not to be on the bus all day. Just personal preference. The spare key goes with my father and one of them can get the car and drive it home on the way back. We hit the road around 12. In the car is Shane Ryan, Tadgh Morley, Killian Spillane and Graham O'Sullivan. Until I moved in with my wife, I would stay in Rathmore and drive from there. Even now, I often travel in to get Shane. Tadhg is a particularly harsh critic of this route. It means we head up the back roads, Kanturk, Freemount, Charleville. The bus hit a bit of traffic in Newcastle West and ended up getting a Garda escort so they are there before us. Everything about this is kept consistent. Where we sit and what we play. I'm always beside Seánie, Graham and Diarmuid are in front, Paudie and Dara Moynihan at our back. We always play Uno. This was cause for another brief panic in my head. I'd changed gear bags. Did I remember to swap the game? Fortunately, it was a false alarm. 11 of us play and it's a tenner a man. A nice start to the weekend for Graham who ends up winning it out. That's how we occupy the time. There's an Instagram page with Kerry match programmes, so I screenshot teams and two pairs have to guess. Kerry vs Dublin 2009 trips up a few because Kieran Donaghy was injured. The craic is good. The company is entertaining. The football chat is minimal. Jason McGahan is our Head of Athletic Performance but he's also deadly at logistics. Dunboyne is our base. He has it down to a tee. I've had a few room-mates down the years. Aidan O'Mahony at the start was a great man to show what good habits looked like. In recent years, it's been Tadgh. We're good buddies and his wife, Ciara, is friends with Michelle. But he was injured for the Armagh game and I ended up in with Brian Ó Beaglaoich. He's just solid out. Doesn't get overly excited by anything, loose about what we watch or when it's time for bed. We do a group stretching session and stroll into town. How do you pass the night before an All-Ireland final? In my case, it's in the team room, with a game involving Flight Radar. You know that app you can point at the sky and it tells you where a plane is going? It's handy in Dunboyne given it's close to Dublin airport. The way it works is that one person has ten yes or no questions, everyone is in on the answer except for the two lads guessing. You have to get creative with the questions. Did Cristano Ronaldo play for a club in this country? That sort of thing. I wouldn't be a man for sitting still, there is a lot more to be said for having a laugh instead. Around 9.30pm, it's more grub. Johnny O'Connor is our nutritionist now and the night before a big game is always pancakes. Dozed off well, Brian is no trouble as per. GENERATION GAME: Paul Murphy of Kerry, right, celebrates with Liam Hassett, a member of the Kerry 2000 All Ireland winning jubilee team, after the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Kerry and Donegal at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile Sunday, July 3 Breakfast is late enough, given the game will not throw in until 3.30 p.m. It is a mix of cold and hot options. Muesli, a bagel, scrambled eggs with beans. A scoop of collagen too. When I did my calf, John recommended it. I think it helps the tendon. After breakfast, we have a short meeting. Cian shows a bit of video and highlights some tactical points. We stroll into Dunboyne for coffee. Caldwell's is the usual spot, but before the Armagh game, Brian and I found it packed. Rather than rush, we headed up to another spot called Ardú. Obviously, beat Armagh, did the same for Tyrone so that becomes the routine. We're sitting inside the window while the boys walk up town. We're both big United fans, chatting about the West Ham pre-season game and whether Højlund will do it in his third season. I wouldn't write him off. Back at the hotel, we have a players' meeting. It is just the squad and Cathal. Some lads speak really well. Shane, Seanie, Paudie, David, Gavin. A good few of them are teachers. You look at some and think they could definitely be managers. It is not always about tactics either. It is mindset. Triggers. Energy. I used to speak more myself, especially up to 2021 when I was captain. That probably took something out of me. The group has more vocal lads now and they are better at it. After that, it is time for the pre-match meal. The atmosphere is calm. I hear Dara Moynihan across the room saying, 'Gyokeres is going to be shite anyway,' giving it to poor Tony Brosnan, who is Arsenal through and through. We meet our analyst Colin Trainor for the key metrics and then Jack speaks. This isn't tactical. There are times he just nails it. He can read the pitch of it perfectly. We bounce out of the room and onto the bus, same seats, this time game face. I have a playlist for the trip. It starts with Remember My Name by Sam Fender. Not a particularly upbeat tune, but it's about his grandparents. It has me thinking about family and where I'm from and representing Kerry and all of them. And you should think about that. We embrace that. Before we played Armagh, Michelle sent me a picture. It was Lucy in her Kerry jersey and I just kept looking at it. When we got to Croke Park, it was front and centre in my head. Then we landed in the dressing room and Colm Whelan, our trusted kitman, had printouts hanging above each of our spots in the dressing rom. I see myself and the lads, Stephen my older brother, Cathal and Sarah the youngest, the four of us in our jerseys. Family and the Kerry jersey linked. Talk about an emotional double whammy. As a group, we're incredibly grateful to Colm and all the families who sent in the pictures, it means more than we can say. MOVING MOTIVATION: Paul Murphy's spot in the Croke Park dressingroom features a photo of all of the Murphy siblings in the supporter days. Pic: Paul Murphy That's in my head on the way in. There are available routes. One is get off the M50 and come down that way, otherwise we come down Phibsborough towards Drumcondra. That's the best build-up possible. Wheeling in and around traffic, our driver Danny like a guided bullet, colour overwhelming you, it's a sea of green and gold. The roars. The fist pumps. The boos. It's just class. By the time we hit that road in front of Gills, you slow down to a crawl. People are able to touch the bus. It's unreal. It's living. Colm meets us at the door with a fist pump. That's a piseog of his now. I get in, get a rub from Harry and get out for a quick walk of the pitch. Check the wind at either end. A bit of stretching and activation before the call comes. Time to go. We are out first. Donegal come after us. I always think the second team gets the bigger cheer. Suddenly you realise there is a serious Donegal crowd here. We talk quickly about meeting the President and the parade, just to stay relaxed. Shane is on one side of me. Jason is on the other. They chat away. Then the walk begins. That is one of the electric moments of an All-Ireland final. You turn a corner and boom. The noise hits you. People losing it. Donegal break early but we hold it out. Same thing happened against Tyrone. In fact, both teams stayed in line that day. The parade leader called the break but Tyrone stood their ground. Maybe it was a psychological test. See who breaks first. We headed off anyway. This time we finished it out and then the game starts. And we start well. Gavin wins the throw-in. That has happened a few times this season. He's come close to a goal but a hop breaks down or the pass doesn't stick. Whereas Dylan kicks the point to put a good marker down. Then Gallen kicks their first point. I didn't get close enough to him. David Moran used to say, you can look back at a game and say that was a long day. Or you can look back and say, that was a long five minutes. If you lose the first ball, if your man scores in the first attack, that doesn't have to be it for the day. I settle. The boys up the field are really on it. Being an inside defender is different in the new rules. My first touch in the league final was a kickout just before half-time. My role has changed in the team. Man-marking is more destructive, whereas previously I was trying to be more constructive. We went big on our short kickouts before the match. Shane had said that it comes down to body language for him. Someone can make a run without looking like they want to win one. If a fella really attacks the space, if he really wants the ball, Shane will find them. I win a kickout early in the corner and make sure to get back in the pitch. If you go to the wing, there is potential to be trapped. Gavin can do that. I'd be more likely to side-step someone in space or move the ball with my hand or foot rather than burning someone up the line. Then a few minutes later, I slipped and spilled the ball. That's another mental scramble. But you go back to the session with Cathal on Thursday night. There will be mistakes. It's a game of football. The two-pointer before half-time has been talked about a good bit and it was massive, but the few minutes after half-time when we scored the first two points was hugely important too. Our half-time routine is well established now. Into Johnny for a bottle of Energise, a few sweets for carbs. Cian comes in with a few tactical points. James talks too and we actually show a few clips at half-time. We go into the warm-up room before Jack says a few final words and we're out again. Despite having played so well, anything can happen in that madhouse. Even though we spoke about not wishing the time away, it's in my head. Just blow it up now. Please. Let it be over. We push clear again and then Joe scores the goal. The boys had been talking about cool celebrations in the days before, he pretended to throw a grenade into the Hill and covered his ears. I just remember going nuts. Next thing Shane Ryan runs up behind me for a bearhug, its not often your goalkeeper gets to do that while the game is still on. It's fitting that Seán is the one who drives the ball into the Hill and ends it. He is just phenomenally driven. He's very demanding — and of no one moreso than himself. In the gym, in drills, in rehab, he's at it to the nth degree. You could be playing a game of table tennis and he is determined to win. When I lose a game, I am cranky out. Nothing anyone says can change that. I shake hands with a few Donegal lads but I do not want to be a hypocrite. The last thing I want in my ear is some sort of speech. Eventually I find friends and family. Then we go for a lap of honour. At the corner of the Davin and Cusack stands, Stephen Brosnan, Tony's brother, comes over and lifts the cup. That is class. Liam Hassett is with the 2000 jubilee team in the other corner. He was a selector with Eamonn and managed Rathmore. A pure football man. I thought we were going over for a handshake. Next thing, he pulls me up on the barrier and we are fist bumping the crowd. Then comes the dreaded handshake. Sports Ireland. Time to provide a sample. They are sound about it. The representative never leaves your sight but you are allowed to hydrate in the dressing room. The first tune I hear is Daft Punk, One More Time. Joe is on the speaker. Freed From Desire follows. I am in dad mode now, watching all the barefoot lunatics bouncing around and empty bottles rolling underfoot. By chance, Dylan and Jason also get picked for doping control. The entire full-back line. They take their time and get a lift home with Colm because the bus is already gone. I get changed quickly and head downstairs for a final moment. Time for true celebrations and for Gavin to collect his Man of the Match award. NEW PERSPECTIVE: Amy Lilly (4) is pictured with Sam Maguire and player Paul Murphy as Children's Health Foundation welcomed the All Ireland football champions Kerry to Children's Health Ireland at Temple Street. Pic: Andres Poveda Monday, July 28 There is a lot of admin that comes with being a captain. Liaising with management, players meetings, media, Gavin was top class at all of that. I've to do a quick television segment from the Burlington and then Gavin grabs a few of us to head to Children's Health Ireland (CHI) at Temple Street. I'm more conscious now after Lucy about what that day means, to the parents and staff as well as the patients. With that done, we excused ourselves for a quick pit stop at the Boar's Head. That is another long-standing tradition. There are loads of lovely moments spread across the day. Later, back at the hotel, I met my older brother Stephen and his ten-month-old son, Alex. Stephen lives in Dublin, so it is a rare enough chance to catch up. Outside the team bus, my cousin James was hanging around hoping for a chat. I also met a bunch of colleagues from Kerry Group when we stopped in at their offices in Naas. It was a proper mix of football, family and work life all rolled into one. Finally, we head for the train at Sallins. It's there that the news breaks about Jamie Doolan passing away. It hit like a punch in the chest. All the Dr Crokes lads were friends with him, the chairman Patrick O'Sullivan. He was two years older than me and just a typical Crokes player, so skilful and quick. I remember he had proper Predator boots back when those were like gold dust. That kind of thing stuck with you. It was just tragic. The sense of shock and sadness was immediate. They cancelled the homecoming at Crokes as a mark of respect. There's not much more you can say in a moment like that. The first stop traditionally is Rathmore. It's 15 minutes in and out and it's still absolutely amazing, especially for myself and Shane. He was delighted with all the goalkeeper jerseys in the crowd, while slagging Jack about his ambitions to operate out the field. These days can be long and emotional. After Rathmore, we went on to Tralee, then to Killarney, and finally landed at the Gleneagle that evening. Tired but still on a high. The day finished with myself, Jason Foley, and Cathal Sheridan sitting around talking late into the night, mostly bonding over obscure Simpsons references until we could barely keep our eyes open. RAISING A GLASS: Kerry footballer Paul Murphy with supporters Craig Hughes, left, and Paul Moynihan during a visit to The Boars Head on Capel Street in Dublin, after winning the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final at Croke Park on Sunday. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile Tuesday, July 29 The bus was headed for Dingle. Michelle's mom is the saint of the week, she took Lucy for the night so we could drive back and meet up with the lads. There is just a brilliant energy everywhere you go. That pure Kerry euphoria. On the way across, I spotted a crowd gathered outside Foley's in Inch. I rang Patrick to tell him about it, just to give him the heads-up to pull in and spend a few minutes with them. We marched up through the town behind a pipe band. It was pure magic. Paul was up on stage belting out An Poc Ar Buile. The backroom team were in flying form too out the back of Paul Geaneys. They were honouring some internal bet, which apparently involved a five-cigar wager. It was a sight to behold. WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: Paul Murphy at the Kerry homecoming in Tralee Wednesday, July 30 Time to head to Kenmare, the home of one Seán O'Shea. En route we'll take in Templenoe and the Spillane's. They re-opened the bar in 2023. We came down on the Wednesday after the All-Ireland that year. It wasn't in any way enjoyable. Still a bit raw. Lads booking holidays inside there, looking to get out of Dodge. On New Year's Eve, myself, Michelle, Tadhg and Ciara were chatting with Killian Spillane's partner Megan. She said, "We went to Spillane's last year, it's great craic." So we went. It ended up being the extended Spillane family and the four of us. We've been down there in depressing circumstances, and we've been there in gas circumstances. It was nice to go back in celebrating circumstances. Adrian was out in full business mode, directing traffic and organising the crowd. Although, to be fair, his professionalism was slightly undermined by the pint of Guinness he was holding in one hand while doing it all with the other. We had Lucy with us and got the photo of her in the cup. There's no feeling like it. It is a weird thing to write, but it was almost a motivation during the season to have that for her. I bailed out of Kenmare early. Starting doing a bit of work on Thursday. As I look back now, the over-riding emotion is relief. It's a relief. This group in my head has been together since 2018 or 2019, the end of Eamonn's time and the start of Peter's. It's largely the same core, with a few new faces this year. But if we had only won one All-Ireland, I think we would have underachieved. We've come close. Two semi-finals in extra-time. A final lost by two points. I just know if I finished up and looked back having only won one, I'd carry massive regrets. It's this bunch in particular. Don't get me wrong, there are great players who never win one. It's a privilege, maybe even a bit of arrogance, to be in a position where you're aiming to win more than one. But if that group, the likes of David, Seán and the rest, had only one All-Ireland, it wouldn't sit right. It doesn't change how I see them really. I know how good they are, both as players and as people. But with this win, now everyone else will know it too.
Irish Examiner
6 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
'The winning ensured we had that time with each other' - Juliet Murphy on life, legend and loss
The bible and a basket of breakfast pastries sit side by side. Tears and treats. The same as Eamonn Ryan used to mark homework for Juliet Murphy before sending her back up the road from Ballingeary, I had my own spot of homework to do ahead of Wednesday morning's class in the Montenotte Hotel. The bible, as Juliet calls it when she sees the book tucked under my arm, is Relentless. Relentless is the phenomenally well-told story of Cork ladies football, as penned by Mary White. Relentless got a second reading this week. We searched through the yellowed pages for anecdotes and old quotes that would hopefully enhance Wednesday's conversation. Faded tales that might relocate Juliet to 20 years ago and Cork's breakthrough All-Ireland. After all, that is why we are here. To reminisce on their relentlessness. To rake through the time of their lives and the mark left. Success and its shaping. The people they were and the people they became. Club cliques to one still tight circle. The moments and memories spawned by the medals. For all the pages folded at the edge and for all the paragraphs marked with a biro, we begin with a picture. I hand over the bible, direct her attention to the image at the top of the right-hand page, and ask what comes to mind. The moment, caught expertly by retired Examiner snapper Denis Minihane, is a joyous embrace in the Hogan Stand tunnel between Murphy, with the Brendan Martin Cup in her left hand, and Eamonn Ryan. Manager and captain. Master and pupil. Friend clasping friend. History-makers. LETTING IT ALL OUT: Cork manager Eamonn Ryan hugging team captain Juliet Murphy after defeating Galway for their breakthrough TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Final triumph at Croke Park. Picture Denis Minihane. There's silence in this corner of the hotel lobby. The tears present themselves. A steady queue of tears present themselves. I apologise. My last intention was to upset her. 'I know, I know,' she replies. Eamonn is never far away from her thoughts. This particular picture, though, she'd not come across anytime recently. The emotion stirred creeps up on her the same way their Cork team did the summit of ladies football. 'I remember that hug. We were out of picture, or so I thought. I was struggling off the pitch at that time, so it was the relief that we did it, that gorgeous feeling of achieving something that we thought for so long was beyond us. And then to share that with somebody who was making us feel so good about ourselves. 'A group that weren't even cohesive, a group that weren't just not talking about achieving, but not even challenging, not competing, not enjoying their game at that level, to then move into the realm where you want to go training, you can't wait for it. 'I often think that team was capable of winning an All-Ireland, maybe two, but nobody could have got out of us what Eamonn did and no other coach could have impacted our lives as much as he did. That hug for me represents just gratitude to him.' Gratitude for everyone else in red. No gratitude spared for herself. Not for a number of years. For a number of years, there were two of her. There was the self-assured matchday athlete. There was the Juliet Murphy who stepped onto the field knowing the role she had to fulfil and knowing she had the requisite tools to execute. And then there was the everyday individual riddled with self-doubt. Two strangers. Two opposites living in co-existence. Before she came to prominence in red, Murphy was prominent enough on local hardwood floors to earn selection in green. An Irish basketball teammate of hers from down the road in West Cork, Paula O'Neill, died tragically in 2001 following a car accident. The deceased was just 21, so too was the friend mourning the loss of a 'gas woman and brilliant basketballer'. 'She died a few days later in hospital. Those few days, I can remember it all so vividly. It was just so tragic. It was a trauma,' Juliet recalls. 'I didn't really know anyone locally that knew Paula, I had no other friends that knew her because it was the basketball scene. I just struggled with it. I probably had struggled bits and pieces with my confidence before that.' That confidence became transient. Her inner self-critic shouted louder and for longer. Doubt became a fierce opponent and even fiercer motivator. Juliet convinced herself that to succeed she needed to do more than everyone else in every aspect of life. 'I trained extra hard. Looking back now, I over-trained. But then it drove me on as well. There is that fine line, isn't there, of having the confidence to say, I am ready, and saying, no, I need to do more. And I always felt that if I could run longer than whoever I was marking at midfield, I would be giving myself every advantage. 'With Cork and the opponents you were meeting, there was always that sense of 'would you be good enough, would you be fit enough, would you be strong enough?' The challenge became greater every year because we were there to be knocked off.' The paradox was her internal silence amid the matchday chaos. The chatter and the noise checked out and disappeared. She was in her happiest room. Even an in-possession mistake was given a free pass until long after the final whistle. Her on-field persona was no front. She wasn't acting. No mask was being worn. Inside the whitewash, instinct took over and game intelligence won through. A tower of composure in the centre of the field. LUCKY 13: Cork players, from left, Juliet Murphy, Elanie Harte, Briege Corkery, Bríd Stack and manager Eamonn Ryan celebrate with the Brendan Martin cup after the 2103 TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Final against Monaghan. Pic: Ray McManus / SPORTSFILE 'I knew exactly what my role was and I wasn't going to let anyone down,' reflects the eight-time All-Ireland winner and now 45-year-old mom to Moss (6) and Sophia (5). She also mined confidence from those around her. And given the sheer spread of quality she kept company with, who wouldn't mine confidence from having in your corner Briege Corkery's engine, Nollaig Cleary's left peg, Valerie Mulcahy's penchant to never stop scoring, or the defensive nous of Bríd Stack and Angela Walsh. And that is to literally name but a few. 'You saw your teammates doing brilliant stuff and you went again. I loved that. Not long before he passed away, I was chatting with Eamonn on the phone and I was talking about football being a complete mindfulness. I was like, 'Eamonn, you are just following this white thing all around the field'. Being the psychologist he was, he said sure that's completely it. But it was. Just so absorbed and so in the flow and feeling good about what I could do. It was brilliant. 'I needed football. I needed it to express myself. I needed it to feel good about myself. I knew I had ability. I knew this was something I was good at because I was damn well sure of the things I wasn't good at. I wanted more of this. I wanted more of the thing I had ability in. That made me feel good about myself, which I needed.' TIME TO REFLECT: Eight-time All-Ireland Senior medallist and three time winning captain Juliet Murphy of Cork during a special LGFA 50th Anniversary celebration event last year in Thurles, Tipperary. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile A sip of Americano, a pastry pulled from the basket, and we go again. She starts talking about luck. There's an eye-roll from this chair. From 2005 through 2016, Cork played 66 championship games. They won 61 of them. Of the five they lost, only the solitary - the infamous 2010 quarter-final against Tyrone - was knockout. And so luck has no business intruding on this conversation. She goes again. There was luck, she insists, in the collective coming together of such like-minded individuals. Individuals relentlessly driven to keep pushing their ceiling north. 'The timing and when you come along is so important. And I know you're smiling, thinking 'ah c'mon now Juliet, there is more than timing', but there's a lot of luck involved in the decisions people make to get involved with us, and for people to stay on and keep going with the team for as long as they did. 'We were all getting such enjoyment from it that we wanted to stay on the train for as long as we could.' Subtly steering the most successful team in modern Gaelic games history was the late Eamonn Ryan. He was, of course, so much more than their manager. It was Eamonn who convinced the three-time All-Ireland winning captain to return to college and become a primary school teacher. It was he who helped lift her Gaeilge to the required level. The grinds, more often than not, took place in his 'trí na cheile mancave' in Ballingeary, but only after his wife Pat had served Juliet a bowl of homemade soup and a plate of homemade brown bread. 'The odd time Eamonn might be cranky with you, you'd kind of think he is fed up with me today, I am not getting it as quickly as I should,' she says, smiling wistfully. 'But I think he'd nearly do that on purpose to make you cop on and do a little bit more. The psychologist was always at play. 'I've kept the notebooks he wrote from that time. Eamonn had gorgeous writing, so I love looking at them. I know that he helped loads of people in terms of education and career and life choices.' She remembers him floating blissfully in the sea on various team holidays. She remembers their chat in the corner of a Castletownbere pub the Tuesday after the 2006 triumph. 'It was maybe 15 minutes, maybe longer, before everyone else came across. We had a drink together and a chat about life. It was magic.' When he passed in 2021, Covid denied all those he impacted in life and in sport a proper goodbye. For his players, it was organised that they say goodbye in a familiar setting. PANDEMIC FAREWELL: Current and former Cork players part of the guard of honour for former Cork manager Eamonn Ryan at the UCC Farm. Picture: Eddie O'Hare On Eamonn's final journey from Ballingeary to Ballinaltig Cemetery in Watergrasshill, the hearse briefly detoured to take in UCC's training ground, The Farm. The Cork ladies lined either side of the road in. The hearse stopped and they clapped. They clapped for their friend and all he'd done for them. The tears come again. There's a napkin at the bottom of the pastry basket. She rips off a piece to wipe them away. 'It felt surreal for a long time because there wasn't closure. I watched his funeral on the couch at home, it's not really a proper goodbye, and not surrounded by each other either. But look, that's only one story of how many from those Covid times?' The memories are so many. The memories are warm. On their way up to a GPA event last Friday week to celebrate the 2005 history-makers, they reminisced on how Briege missed the train to Dublin the day before the 2006 All-Ireland and so took the next train up alone. On the way home from the same GPA event, they rekindled the singsongs they so cherished during their playing days. Not everyone in their carriage was delighted to hear the Cork ladies once again belting out the hits. 'My medals are in a drawer somewhere, I have never taken them out to look at them. What I have and what we all have is our memories. We are lucky we have so many of those because of the time we were together. 'The winning ensured we had that time with each other, and don't get me wrong, loved to win, hated losing, but you can only take the memories with you.'
Irish Examiner
6 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Amee-Leigh Costigan: 'We really want to put in performances and we want to make Ireland proud'
Wednesday afternoon, just three days out from a long-anticipated warm-up with Scotland in Cork. A World Cup, Ireland's first in eight long years, is just over the horizon and yet Amee-Leigh Costigan is casting her mind back 12 months. It's a year to the day as she talks since the Olympic medal matches at the women's sevens in Stade de France. Since the USA edged Australia to bronze and New Zealand had seven points to spare on Canada in the final. All of it in front of a raucous full house. Paris was something to behold last summer. You can't adequately explain the frisson that permeates a host Olympic city until you've experienced it and Costigan was part of a rugby programme that more or less kicked things off before even the opening ceremony. 'I saw the American girls and Canadian girls resharing their medal videos and stuff, so yeah, one year ago,' said Costigan. Wistful? There was a touch of it. The Tipperary winger endured the needle for the obligatory Olympic tattoo after a campaign that saw the Irish team lose a quarter-final by 33 points to the Aussies before another pair of defeats fed into an eventual eighth place finish. If that wasn't the goal that they had set for themselves pre-Paris then Costigan, one of half-a-dozen players in the current XVs squad aiming for the World Cup after involvement in the Games last summer, is confident that the experience will stand to her. 'Yeah, it's probably a similar mindset for me, that they are two huge pinnacle occasions in both sports, and I am so grateful to be able to say that last summer I got to go to the Olympics and this summer I'm preparing to put my hand up for selection for a World Cup. 'So it really is a great place to be. The Olympics inspired me to become a better player. So does every game that I play, every session that I play, and it's had a good effect on my mindset around how I want to be the best version of myself on-pitch and off-pitch.' Now 30 years of age, and with well over a decade of experience across both forms of the game behind her, Costigan spoke of the goosebumps she was still feeling a year on from her part in the biggest show on earth. The Clanwilliam RFC graduate stood up before the XVs group when they assembled for pre-season last month and spoke about the experience, and how it equated in magnitude to what they will absorb in the form of a World Cup in England. Yes, she can now call herself an Olympian but she is still Leigh, still the same person, so the point made was that her teammates should embrace this without letting the enormity of the hoopla wash over them like a wave, or change them as a person. 'When the squad heads over to England we will have time to digest this feeling of getting to the World Cup and how it actually feels, but then switching on, knowing we're not there just to show up. We really want to put in performances and we want to make Ireland proud.' That a World Cup is 'big' is stating the obvious. This one is all the grander for the fact that Ireland aren't alone in redirecting a swathe of their sevens players to the XV format for the year that is in it. The Black Ferns, England, France: they've all done the same. But Scotland, first. This first warm-up game takes Scott Bemand's side back to Cork for the first time since they faced England there during the Six Nations. That was a game that showed the progress made, the potential still to be unlocked and the distance yet to travel. The visitors won 49-5, after all, and yet the buzz when Costigan went over after 24 minutes to give Ireland the lead on the back of a brilliant start was inescapable with the winger's own exuberance in the celebration helping to ignite it all. 'At the time it was just, 'let's get this crowd going'. That's probably why I celebrated so hard. I don't usually celebrate that hard. But it just came off so well and I was like, 'you know what it deserves it'' and the crowd here deserves something to be screaming and roaring about'. 'The energy down there that we felt was something else. It really felt like an extra player. Coming into this weekend, I hope they give us good cheers if we win a turnover, win a scrum, score tries, whatever it is. They're just as part of the game as we are.' Let the odyssey begin. Another one.
