Kilkenny goalie Eoin Murphy: ‘You don’t approach a game not wanting to win it’

Eoin Murphy does not believe the roaming goalie will become as prominent a feature in hurling as it has evolved to in football over recent years.

And while Murphy, who plays outfield with his club Glenmore, is more than comfortable carrying the ball forward, the Kilkenny goalkeeper believes the dynamics of hurling curtail the potential of a No 1 replicating the level of adventure now regularly demonstrated by several of his football counterparts.

“It has evolved, you are pretty much an extra back, but I don’t think it will go to the extent of football because the ball can just move so much quicker, so you don’t want to be caught off guard off your line,” says Murphy.

“But you are pretty much an additional back and if the backs are in possession and getting bottled up, you have to come out and be shown as another option there.

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“Teams have become so physically strong and good in the tackle now that forwards are just as good in the tackle as the backs. But look, I enjoy that side of it because I play outfield with the club and probably have a bit more comfort on the ball.”

The 2023 All Star goalkeeper took a keen interest in the two experimental rules trialled during the Higher Education Freshers Division One Hurling League late last year: the first in relation to redefining a legitimate handpass and the second instructing that all puckouts had to travel beyond the 45-metre line.

As reported in The Irish Times last week, one of the main outcomes of the trial was a stickpass-to-handpass ratio of 8:0 – for every handpass there were eight stickpasses. On the puckout experiment, of 483 restarts analysed, 98 per cent cleared that threshold. In the 2023 All-Ireland SHC, 29 per cent of puckouts went short inside the 45-metre line.

“I thought the short puckout one was a funny one because you’ll have a team there who will just drag everyone behind the ball, so how do you set up to puck into that? It’s next to impossible,” says Murphy.

“And they’ll pretty much play zonal and if you try and drill it anywhere at all, they are going to get to it, so that’s a difficult one.

“The handpass is such a difficult one because if you have a player who is in a tackle and on the ground, how in the name of God is he going to switch his hands pretty much on his knees or on his back?

“It’s next to impossible and if you have a decision in the last couple of minutes in an All-Ireland final, or whatever it is, and that rule has been brought in, the referee is doing his job and he’ll be lambasted for blowing the whistle because of that.”

Kilkenny travel to Walsh Park on Sunday having collected five points from their four games so far – victories over Cork and Offaly, a draw with Wexford and a defeat to Clare. Derek Lyng’s side are already assured of top-tier hurling in next season’s newly structured league but there is still a Division One semi-final place to play for this weekend. Kilkenny lost last year’s league decider to Limerick.

The Division One league final is scheduled for the weekend of April 6th-7th, with the provincial hurling championships throwing in two weeks later.

“I’m a huge fan of the split season,” adds Murphy. “But probably not a huge fan of such a short break between league and championship because you’re in such a hard block of training now.

“Look, it is relatively easy for me because I’m not doing the same volume running out the field as lads are in matches. It’s just a block of training that you’re in now that’s really your pre-season and it’s quite tough on the guys.

“I think every team is sort of involved in that so I’m not just saying it’s the approach we’re taking. It’s a delicate one for the strength and conditioning teams to manage.”

[ Trial of experimental hurling handpass rule shows big switch to use of stick instead ]

The structure of the league has come in for plenty of criticism in recent years as the lack of jeopardy created a situation where certain matches played out more like benign challenge games than blood-and-thunder competitive clashes.

It is hoped the new format for 2025 will reinvigorate the league but, while acknowledging teams are not always playing at full pelt, Murphy says that even within the current structure no player leaves a dressing room without the ambition of returning with a victory.

“You don’t approach a game not wanting to win it - I know that’s not what you’re asking but absolutely you want to win it because you don’t want to be giving a team any sort of advantage over you if you’re going to be meeting them later in the year.

“You base it off your performance level, if things are a little bit soft maybe throughout the game then that’s where you’re questioning things.

“Obviously, you do want to win because it’s a national competition. No disrespect to it whatsoever, but I do think teams, certainly in the last couple of years, are taking a more delicate approach to it just because that window after the league is so small.”

– Eoin Murphy was speaking at the announcement of John West’s ninth year sponsoring Féile. In 2023, some 402 teams, comprising 9,000 players, competed in the tournament, which has been in existence since 1971

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