‘They’re just ordinary fellas’ — Murray
Selector, John Murray, has every confidence that St. Brigid's will perform against Maigh Cuilinn in Sunday's Connacht club senior football final at King and Moffatt Dr. Hyde Park. Picture: Gerard O'Loughlin
For John Murray, it has always been about the players.
Since becoming part of Benny O’Brien’s management in 2020, helping to guide a young Brigid’s team with a few experienced heads to county championship glory during Covid, he has watched this current group of players develop into a side equipped with boundless potential.
Murray took a short sabbatical in 2022 and 2024, but being part of Jerome Stack’s management in 2023 before teaming up with Anthony Cunningham this season has given him a unique insight into what makes this group tick.
What’s striking is that there are no egos, just a panel of players always willing to soak up information like a sponge to make themselves, and their team, better.
“Here’s the one constant — players win matches. Managements come and go. I’ve been around sport a long time. I believe in players. As you’re developing and going along, you’ll see players growing.
“If you listen to players, they keep you a bit youthful. You have to adapt as the players come along,” he revealed ahead of Sunday’s Connacht final against Maigh Cuilinn.
The rate of development has been steady. Of course, there have been setbacks along the way but, crucially in Murray’s eyes, Brigid’s are able to unleash one or two players every year that stand out from the crowd to improve the side.
“Eoghan Derwin would have been bouncing around the panel in 2020. This year, he has been making the team. You do see players developing. Players like Ben O’Carroll and Ruaidhrí Fallon are developing into different players, as are Brian Stack, Eddie Nolan, Paul McGrath and Shane Cunnane.
“All of a sudden, you have Conor Hand and Bobby Nugent. They look like really good forwards, and you can see how eager they are to become, I would say, main players on the team.
“That’s the biggest thing that I would have seen, that the older, more experienced lads allow the younger lads to take the limelight and take the lead. At the end of the day, they’re all after the one common goal. That’s the development I’ve seen,” he explained.
It obviously helps when the panel is laden with players who take so much pride in representing their parish, and are conscious that the delight and satisfaction associated with the bulk of their performances get the locals buzzing.
“They’re just ordinary fellas. You could see them playing a game of paddle in Athlone, in groups of six, eight or ten. You might meet them in the gym. They’re just unassuming.
“They’re not trying to be anyone else, they’re not looking to be anyone else, which is a big thing. There’s just a genuineness to them — they believe in their club, they believe in the area they live in. Most importantly, they believe in their families and friends.
“I see them afterwards with young people around the club. You won’t see them anywhere shouting from the rooftops about themselves. You won’t see them talking about themselves, which I think is the key.
“In general, we’re really blessed in Ireland with really good sportspeople. They don’t think too much about themselves. They just think about the sport they’re involved in.
“When you’re playing sport at the level the lads are, you have to be level-headed. They’re educated through their trades, their college or through their jobs. We have some brilliant players on our panel, and some of them haven’t even played yet,” highlighted Murray.
With Maigh Cuilinn burning the midnight oil trying to stop the Brigid’s juggernaut, Murray knows that current form suggests that the Roscommon champions are on a pedestal to be taken off. He rates Sunday’s opponents highly, but there’s a burgeoning confidence that the South Roscommon men will embrace the challenge, especially in the Hyde.
“Both teams are going to the Hyde on Sunday, and only one of us is going to come away with the cup. We’re going there to win and Maigh Cuilinn are going there to win.
“They have a track record as well, to be fair to them. They’ve been the big team in Galway this decade.
“They were very good to us two years ago. I met the late Don Connellan a few times before we played Corofin (in the 2023 Connacht final) and I couldn’t speak highly enough about him. Now, two years on, both clubs are facing one another.
“It will be intriguing, but we have a group here that are very tenacious to succeed. You have to take these opportunities. The Maigh Cuilinn lads will be the very same.
“It will probably come down to someone we haven’t seen yet doing the most unbelievable thing. But I’d be confident that we’ll turn up on the day,” he concluded.
