Murphy still pinching himself

GAA: FOR ALL the familiarity and sense of déjà vu that marks the beginning of Kilkenny's All-Ireland winning homecoming there is at least something different about this one.

As a team they left their Dublin hotel yesterday morning with, believe it or not, 78 winning medals between them – and that’s just between the starting 15. Yet among them too was Paul Murphy, glowing and giddy, like a teenager who’d just had his first kiss. At 22, and still only playing intermediate hurling with his club Danesfort, Murphy – along with forward Colin Fennelly – had just won his first All-Ireland.

Whatever about Henry Shefflin and Tommy Walsh saying this one was the sweetest of their lot, Murphy certainly wasn’t exaggerating when he repeatedly described the feeling as “unbelievable”.

Murphy was one of the six Kilkenny defenders that effectively stole the show: JJ Delaney may have won the honour of RTÉ man of the match, but any of those numbered between two and seven could have won it as well, such was the intensity and consistency of their performances, which completely suffocated the life out of the Tipperary forwards.

Indeed rarely has the aftermath of an All-Ireland hurling final been more about defensive displays. It is a little ironic too, that after a summer somewhat defined by so-called negative tactics and the blanket defence, at least in football anyway, the hurling final will be long remembered as a masterpiece of cunning and majestic defending.

Murphy makes it all sound so simple, and perhaps it was, as all Kilkenny did was get back to their basics. “We know we’re capable of winning All-Irelands if we play our own game,” he said. “All Brian Cody asked us going out there was to be honest, leave nothing here in the dressingroom. Once you get out on the field give it 100 per cent, and that’s all we did.”

Easier said that done, however, but Kilkenny also got it tactically perfect: Jackie Tyrrell switching sides to deal with Lar Corbett; Noel Hickey mastering Eoin Kelly; and Tommy Walsh totally frustrating Patrick “Bonner” Maher. Limiting Tipperary’s starting six forwards to just three points from play says it all.

The result, the reward, meant sharing in All-Ireland glory with some of the players Murphy admits he once worshipped as a youngster: “To be hurling with them, winning an All-Ireland with them, is unbelievable. Like Tommy Walsh, I’ve watched him since I was a young fella. He won’t like me saying that, but I’ve watched him for years, and he keeps catching these balls he’s no right to be catching.

“But Tommy doesn’t believe that. Tommy has huge heart, he’ll never claim to be the fittest or strongest man but no one has a bigger heart than Tommy. He just believes he’s going to win and that’s it. When you see him doing everything it’s unbelievable and it takes the pressure off you.

“So to be a part of this team is something special. Because maybe some of them were last year wondering was the opportunity gone to win another one. This was my first one, and I’ve nothing to compare it against, so it’s just unbelievable. Thankfully it worked out for me the first year. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet, really.”

For Noel Hickey, 30 now and with his eighth winning medal freshly pocketed, Sunday was partly about amending the past: the Dunnamaggin farmer got the so-called roasting in last year’s final defeat to Tipperary, prompting suggestions his legs were gone. So, were they? “Well that’s what you’re telling us,” he says with a smile. “But any clips of last year’s All-Ireland I saw over the winter, you’d be embarrassed nearly, looking at it so, it was great to get back to winning ways.”

Will he be back hunting for All-Ireland number nine? “Hopefully anyway,” he says. “I won’t be picking the team so we’ll see.”