Gaelic Games

Murphy says Kilkenny should target a return to National Football League

Former hurling All Star part of county’s junior football squad that claimed All-Ireland junior title at Croke Park

Paul Murphy lifts the trophy after Kilkenny's victory over New York in the All-Ireland junior football final at Croke Park. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Paul Murphy lifts the trophy after Kilkenny's victory over New York in the All-Ireland junior football final at Croke Park. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Paul Keane
Mon Jul 11 2022 - 16:16

Kilkenny great Paul Murphy reckons the next step for the county’s All-Ireland-winning footballers is to rejoin the National League.

Four-time hurling All-Star Murphy was part of the Cats football team that won the junior title at Croke Park on Sunday.

It means he now holds All-Ireland medals in the junior, intermediate and senior grades, the latter two won with the county’s hurlers.

The junior championship was restructured this year to allow for mainly overseas participants to contest the All-Ireland series over a weekend, Kilkenny beating London on Friday and New York on Sunday to claim the honours.

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The county withdrew from the National League in 2012 after four consecutive campaigns without a win.

“Realistically Kilkenny would be in a position to enter back into Division 4 either next year or the year after if we managed to get the players out of the woodwork in Kilkenny and were able to create the white space on the calendar for those lads to train with Kilkenny,” said full-back Murphy.

“At the moment, it’s very tough because a lot of the players are training five times a week, three days with their club hurlers and then two days with Kilkenny.

“In fairness to the Kilkenny footballers, they’re realistic about it, they don’t dog us when we come into training, they know we’re training three days a week already so I think for this to build going forward, first of all, the space has to be created for Kilkenny footballers to be able to train with Kilkenny football.

“Then Kilkenny as a whole has to look to step back into Division Four and just get competitive. It’s the only way, jump back into the water. You’re going to be beaten by a good few teams but you might take a scalp in two or three years, you just have to get back into it. I think more players would get involved if there was a Division Four opportunity there.”

Four-time All-Ireland hurling medalist Murphy quit Brian Cody’s small ball panel at the start of 2021.

He was joined in the footballers’ defence last weekend by Ciaran Wallace who played for Kilkenny in this year’s National Hurling League.

In attack, Mick Kenny scored 1-4 in both Friday’s semi-final and the final while Mick Malone hit London for 2-3.

“Mick Malone and Mick Kenny, the calibre of scores they got in that semi-final the other night was exceptional,” said Murphy.

“We know there’s a few players in our dressing-room that would push hard in lots of Tailteann Cup teams, lots of Division Four, Three and Two teams even, they’re big powerful players.

“It’s important for us to have them but for those players themselves they want to play at a higher level. That’s what we have to do in Kilkenny, try to get back up into those grades.”

Murphy said he thought his days of playing at Croke Park were over and praised the GAA for promoting the junior football competition as they have.

“If you pick up a hurl in Kilkenny there’s a fair chance you’re going to get to Croke Park at some stage but not necessarily if you pick up a football,” he said. “I think it had been something like 100 years since a Kilkenny had been playing in Croke Park.”