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Irish Times
25-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ryan McHugh on Michael Murphy's brilliance: ‘People from all over Ireland are starting to get it now'
It may, in time, be remembered as the Murphy v Clifford final – when Goliath faced Goliath in Gaelic football 's showpiece event. Several unlikely scenarios had to come to fruition for Michael Murphy and David Clifford to wind up here in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day. This time last year, Murphy was 20 months retired and was spending his summers analysing the championship as a pundit. Then, last November, everything changed. Two years after stepping away, Murphy announced he was returning to play for his county. If it ultimately transpires that the Glenswilly man's return is just for one season, it seems a fitting stage from which to sign off – Donegal 's greatest ever footballer up against the player many deem to be Gaelic football's greatest ever. READ MORE Sunday's game will be just the fourth championship meeting of the counties but Murphy and Clifford did swap scores at Croke Park in the last championship match between the sides, a 2019 drawn round-robin fixture. It was only Clifford's second year playing at senior level. Murphy made his debut in 2007. Murphy finished that game with 1-7, his goal coming from the penalty spot, while Clifford scored 0-3. The pair enter Sunday's final as their respective teams' chief attacking weapons. Murphy (35) is the only player to have scored in all ten of Donegal's championship games this year – leading the way as their chief marksman with a personal tally of 0-44. Clifford (26) is the only Kerry player to have scored in all eight of their games this summer. The Fossa man is well clear at the top of the overall scoring charts in this year's championship, with a remarkable haul of 8-53 so far. I knew he wouldn't come back in unless he believed in his heart that he would be able to really contribute — Jim McGuinness Murphy's ability to slot back in as if he never left the top level of the game hasn't come as a shock to his teammates. 'It hasn't surprised me. There isn't a lot more that you can say about Michael, to be honest,' says Ryan McHugh. 'He is a phenomenal footballer, but it's the way he lives his life outside of football. He lives like a professional person and the way he conducts himself – he's a real role model and an unbelievable ambassador for our county. 'For him to come back in the shape he was in didn't surprise me. I knew he would keep himself in good shape and we saw him in the club championship. 'There are no words. People from all over Ireland are starting to get it now. He's a phenomenal person and a phenomenal leader and a phenomenal footballer.' Donegal have been doubling down for the last fortnight on their message that Murphy is not carrying an injury ahead of Sunday's final. Donegal's Michael Murphy is given a standing ovation after being substituted in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Meath. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho He was taken off after 45 minutes of his side's semi-final win over Meath. Members of the Donegal medical staff immediately checked on the 2012 All-Ireland winning captain when he came off the field. But Jim McGuinness poured cold water on any talk of an injury in his post-match press conference. At Donegal's media night two days later, he maintained that stance. 'He's fine, he's fine. He was a wee bit tight going into the game so we didn't want to be taking any risks. He's fine, he's 100 per cent,' said McGuinness of Murphy. Either way, there is little doubt Murphy's return this season has been a catalyst for Donegal to progress to Sunday's decider. 'When he did come back in, I knew he wouldn't come back in unless he believed in his heart that he would be able to really contribute,' added McGuinness. [ Darragh Ó Sé: The margins are tight but Kerry have one thing that Donegal don't Opens in new window ] 'He's not that kind of fella. We're delighted to have him back. I think the other players that came back in as well have massively helped the depth in the squad, which was lacking last year.' McHugh's presence has been huge, too. The Kilcar clubman, who made his debut in 2013, stepped away from the Donegal panel during the 2023 season but returned ahead of got back involved for 2024. 'I didn't want to make the decision to step away from the Donegal squad, but unfortunately with different things I did,' he said. 'Coming back in at the end of 2023, I was really refreshed and ready to go. We had Jim coming back too which gave everything a massive lift too. I'm happy with where I'm at as a player and happy where we're at as a group. 'I supposed I was fortunate enough in 2014 to be on the team and getting to the All-Ireland final that day, you thought that you'd get a chance to get back to another one. That didn't happen, but to get back here 11 years later is great. It'll mean nothing if we can't get over the line. 'Kerry are a top team with top players and arguably, in my opinion anyway, the best player to play the game. But this is where you want to be as a player, getting ready for an All-Ireland final.' The 2014 All-Ireland decider is one of his only games McHugh has never rewatched. 'I don't think I played well that day, just could never bring myself to (watch it),' he added. 'It was a tough one, there's no point in lying. I was fortunate to get back in with my club, Kilcar, a week later. It still haunts you. You go into the game on such a high, we did everything so right against Dublin and then not to click against Kerry. 'Obviously Kerry had a good performance, but it was such a disappointment for us. You move on, but you don't get over defeats like that. Even if we won this one, it wouldn't get over 2014. We were in a position to win the All-Ireland final and we didn't do it.' But McHugh, Murphy and Donegal get another chance this Sunday.
Irish Daily Mirror
28-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Clifford and O'Callaghan two modern legends.. The tale of the tape
It was Coretta Clay, an aunt to Cassius, who first labelled the prize fighting supernova who, as Muhammad Ali, would go on to shake the world, 'the Alpha and the Omega.' The beginning and the end. Those whose knees have trembled before stepping onto a rectangle of grass to spar with David Clifford or Con O'Callaghan would hardly protest the laying of Coretta's sweeping claim onto the shoulders of Kerry and Dublin's respective polestars. For both teams, the sense this weekend is of their world starting and finishing with the fitness and form of their leading men, a photo-finish required to determine which of the pair is, at this moment in time, more critical to their side's fortunes. Charlie Redmond, the former Dublin forward who is one of the game's shrewder observers, offers an interesting take as Tyrone and Armagh loom into focus for football's Old Firm. 'Right now, I would say Con is more important to Dublin than Clifford is to Kerry. Because, with Paul Geaney, Seanie O'Shea and Paudie Clifford, I think Kerry have better supporting forwards. 'Look at Dublin's two-pointer total. It's terrible and that's down to a lack of confidence in their forwards. Without Con, the attack can lose all cohesion.' With Clifford, the Fossa master who seems to deliver a Mona Lisa almost every time he steps behind the easel, the Alpha and Omega argument is not one that can easily be trampled underfoot. He glided into our world as a wunderkind, a teenage divinity, scorer of 4-4 in an All-Ireland minor final, his reputation dwarfing even Carrauntoohil. Somehow, even the ear-splitting drumroll that accompanied the Chosen One onto the stage, understated his ability to cause our eyeballs, as one observer of Roger Federer famously commented, to protrude like novelty-shop eyeballs. The sense of irresistible menace that accompanied his latest eruption – a 3-7 avalanche that swiftly interred Cavan even as he squandered three further goal chances - offered just the latest illustration of how the Kingdom's fortunes remain so inextricably wedded to their generational supe talent, an avatar of the impossible-made-flesh. Many are the days he walks in a special light, unmarkable, unstoppable, a force of nature, a trick of the light, a killing machine. On the days he falls a little short of his impossibly high standards (2024) or when injury diminishes him (extra time v Tyrone in 2021, after an otherworldly 70 minutes) Kerry tend to crash and burn, Many have to come to regard Clifford and Kerry as one and the same, his supporting cast, to borrow Hugh McIlvanney's memorable depiction of Ali's heavyweight predecessors, no more than 'blurred figures dancing behind frosted glass.' If that does an enormous injustice to the profound influence asserted by his exceptional playmaking sibling, Paudie, to Seanie O'Shea's ball striking or the growing authority of Joe O'Connor, still one truth remains cast in bronze. It is the one that says it is impossible to imagine Kerry winning an All-Ireland without their pilot light fully aflame. You might as well ask a 747 to soar across the Atlantic's mighty expanse having just clipped away the mighty beast's wings. As a point of reference, perhaps Diego Maradona carrying a moderate Argentine team to the World Cup through the sheer breadth of his genius (and the bypassing the game's handball laws) might come closest to explaining Clifford's task. Joe Brolly, never a man to run from an inflammatory soundbite, is unequivocal as Kieran McGeeney's All-Ireland kingpins ready themselves for battle: '[Kerry's] problem is that they only have one forward. If you could call David Clifford a problem.' Tomorrow, as Kerry's summer arrives at a point of no return and they seek to unseat Armagh's increasingly impressive champions, their superstar, as he does each time he dons that storied uniform, will shoulder the burden of an entire tribe's hopes. Imagine the psychological weight he carries on his back, immense even for a player apart, one who long ago (his first 20 championship outings yielded 5-58 from play) made the suspension of disbelief among his audience a defining calling card. O'Callaghan has had to learn to bench press similarly substantial dumbbells of expectation. In Dublin's post-Fenton, post-McCarthy time of need, the old sheen of invincibility a distant memory, facing Tyrone without Con would represent the pulping of confidence. If, as many have feared all week, O'Callaghan's ongoing hamstring issues – he sat out last week's workman like victory over Cork - sideline or restrict him tonight, many of Sky Blue disposition would be inclined to saddle up the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and have them gallop across Hill 16 just ahead of throw-in. It is that stark. Even while clearly hobbled, Con contributed five invaluable points, a game-altering spearhead as Dessie Farrell's side kept their season alive in a tense taking down of Derry a fortnight ago. James McCarthy, for the first time in 15 summers of absurdly high achievement looking on from outside the white lines, spoke for a county under siege from its misgivings: 'Every Dublin fan is praying Con is going to be fit.' Aaron Kernan, the Armagh player turned pundit went further, believing the result hinges on whether O'Callaghan can handle 70 minutes against opponents who number Donegal among their summer of 2025 victims. 'He makes that big of a difference to Dublin. Not just his skillset. It's his presence, calmness, the composure and then the ability to put scores on the board whenever he's under pressure.' Among the little known facts about Dublin's paramount power is that he is a serious student of the game of cricket. Con, then, would appreciate the American writer Wright Thompson's evocative portrayal of the celebrated Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar towards the end of his innings as a titan of the game. 'His artistry he now holds as a part of himself, like a chamber of his heart.' In truth, it is Clifford, as balletic and elegant and beautifully balanced as he is cold-eyed and predatory, who is immediately summoned to mind as the Tendulkar of an Irish summer. O'Callaghan is more about explosive power (though Clifford, too, is a physical beast comfortable seeking his own ball), razor-edged conviction and carnivorous intent, qualities which elevate the three-time All-Star to the highest rank of forwards to have played the game. One verbal-portrait tracing Erling Haaland's assault on the Premier League single season scoring record fits O'Callaghan as snugly as Dublin's Sky Blue number 14 shirt. 'A footballer who expresses power, edge and certainty more clearly than any at being lethal.' Scarcely out of his teens in 2017 yet already equipped with the precise GPS coordinates of Tyrone and Mayo's jugular vein, he devoured both those opponents, his early goals the launchpad from which Dublin and his own career blasted into orbit. There was the two-goal 2019 afternoon when he did everything bar place a crown of thorns on Mayo's tormented leader, Lee Keegan; later, the conjuring from nowhere of a devastating 2020 All-Ireland final goal. Lethal at being lethal. The heavyweight ordnance of King Con's artillery fire can be weighed by the statistic which announces him as the only player in 130 years of competition to have scored a hat-trick of goals against Kerry. That 3-4 in a 2024 league game an illustration of why he has become so vital to the big city psyche. Remembering his freshman years of unforgettable alchemy, it is sobering to think that if Dublin lose tonight, Con - to many still a youthful figure, a boy prince of Croke Park – will not play another championship match before celebrating his 30th birthday. O'Callaghan (29) and Clifford (26) are often compared and contrasted. Much as Messi and Ronaldo, like Federer and Nadal, pushed each other to even wilder feats of jaw-dropping achievement, so these GAA bluebloods have, perhaps, propelled each other to high-water marks of invention and flair and murderous intent. Because Dublin under Jim Gavin and in Farrell's early years enjoyed perhaps the greatest accumulation of talent the game has known, their reliance on the Cuala forward was not as acute as Kerry's dependency on Clifford. How could it be when they had gamechangers and generals in such glorious abundance? Fenton, McCarthy, Mannion, Connolly, Brogan, Rock, Macauley, Flynn, McCaffrey, McManamon, McMahon and his own indestructible clubmate (and Clifford's 2023 All-Ireland final nemesis), Mick Fitzsimons, amounted to virtually a dressing-room packed with alpha males. From the cast of towering attacking talents from those days of plenty, only the inestimable Ciaran Kilkenny, who turns 32 in nine days time but who gave one of the performances of the summer in Galway, remains alongside Con. O'Callaghan's presence has become as soothing and settling and vital for Dublin as Clifford's has long been for Kerry. His absence – as in the five point group stage loss to Armagh, when the Sky Blues fired 18 wides – sets off a shrill chorus of alarm bells. This weekend – assuming O'Callaghan plays, perhaps even more so if he doesn't – might illustrate which of the two is the weapon that brings summer sovereignty more sharply into focus. Who is the more expert at turning a key in the lock of hope? Who, in the high summer of 2025, is football's Alpha and Omega.
