MICHAEL Murphy has insisted that even if Donegal were to lose to Louth in Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final, it wouldn’t be a ‘disaster’.
The 2012 All-Ireland winning captain rejected the suggestion that losing to a county contesting its first ever quarter-final would undo their season’s progress.
Murphy said the reality is that Donegal’s success this year has exceeded expectations with Jim McGuinness securing promotion back to Division One and an Ulster title.
It’s been a thrilling return to form and the expectation is that Donegal will overcome Louth on Sunday to secure a first semi-final place since 2014.
But BoyleSports ambassador Murphy said it is important to place Donegal’s season in context and to acknowledge how far they’ve already come.
“I still think it would look quite strong,” said Murphy when asked how Donegal’s season would stack up in the event of defeat.
“There is no doubt Donegal wanted to get back playing Division One football and you could see throughout the League they were gung ho for that.
“The team selection was the strongest side out every single day and they were trying to build momentum towards that.
“But the Ulster draw, I don’t think even the most optimistic of Donegal fans, which I am, like, I think you could maybe foresee one shock, but playing Derry who were in their pomp, to be competitive that day was maybe the most positive way a Donegal fan could look towards it.
“To see how it has transpired since, I think they’ve exceeded expectations. Listen, they are going into the Louth game in form and as favourites probably to win that game, based on what they have done and the body of evidence they have created so far this year.
“But if they were to come away with a defeat, that’s going to be because of a really strong Louth performance. The way Donegal are playing at the moment, they are difficult to beat and if Louth do manage to beat them it will be because they’ve made a really good stab at it.
“I don’t think that would mean a disaster of a season in any way.”
The Glenswilly man said that chants of ‘All-Ireland contenders’ after the Ulster triumph and the subsequent win over Tyrone stopped after the group loss to Cork.
But he’s still been surprised by how quickly they’ve matured and progressed under McGuinness.
“I was expecting it to come in year two,” he said of cohesive performances and winning runs. “I thought this year they would mainly get up to scratch but I didn’t think the level of team performance would be here for them just yet. So that’s definitely come a lot quicker.”
The form of players like Ryan McHugh, Patrick McBrearty and Peadar Mogan has helped as has Oisin Gallen’s excellence in attack.
“If only I could do some of the things that he can do,” said Murphy of the injury plagued Gallen. “I mean, it’s scary some of the things we would have seen in training.
“We’ve seen glimpses of it. We seen a really strong glimpse of it in the first-half of the Ulster final where what I was talking about, what we were seeing in training and what we were seeing in the club championship for the last four or five years, just scoring and kicking on sight from all angles, came out.
“And not in a blase kind of way because he practices it and he can do it in a really consistent way.
“The big one for Oisin, and I’m sure he’ll say it, and I think for us all, was could he string together seven to 10 games in a row, back-to-back, and build his body up to withstand that and now that he has that, I hope his body is at a strong level to keep showing up and maintaining that.”
Murphy was speaking as news broke of the passing of Micheal O Muircheartaigh. Murphy first met him as a child when the broadcaster helped him to get into Croke Park for a private tour.
“He must have had a chat at reception and brought us into pitchside,” said Murphy. “That’s the strongest memory I have of him, he was GAA through and through. It’s hard to believe that we’re saying ‘was’ when talking about him.”
