This article is from page 101 of the 2007-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 101 JPG
AT THE start of the year, Michael Browne and Mike Murphy sat down for a chat. Murphy was captain for the year but nobody would have known where the road was going to lead.
The two came up with a strategy that has served Tulla well and high- lights the approach they’ve taken to the season. Murphy would act as one of the prime ball winners for the Tulla forwards, he’d put his body into whatever fight for possession that presented itself and even if he only moved the sliotar three yards in the direction of the Tulla goal, that would be enough.
That Al Pacino speech in Any Giv- en Sunday, the one about inches has been thrown about for most of this new century — and taken on board particularly by the Cork hurlers – but Tulla and Murphy have personified that system this year.
TMENo aioe meee de
In the end, they didn’t get the Mun-
ster championship that they craved since taking down Crusheen in the county final, but the season has been the greatest in living memory in Tulla.
After the game on Sunday, the disappointment in Murphy’s face is obvious but it shows just how far the club has come over the course of the season.
“The way that wind was blowing,’ he says “it didn’t have any advantage for either team. It was so strong out there that it just carried the ball.”
Even as he’s talking, the cold is still seeping into him, his teeth are rat- tling and his body is shivering. It was that kind of day.
“Tn the first half, the wind was blow- ing for them but it didn’t seem to be a great help. We knew coming down here that we’d be up against a strong team and that’s how it was. The goal gave them a bit of a cushion and on a day like today, that could always swing things in one direction.”
Right to the end, Tulla didn’t die and they hung on still within touch-
ing distance.
“We did have chances even late on. They just wouldn’t go over for us and even at the end, when Andy Quinn dropped the 65 into the danger area for us, we still could have snatched a win.
“But it just wasn’t going to be our day. The bottom line is that it’s been a great season for us. To come out and win a county championship was a dream come true. It would have been fantastic to have come down here and won a Munster title for Tul- la, but it didn’t happen. We’ve got the county to keep us going through the winter.”
Not just that. While the disappoint- ment of the Munster final might have been there on Sunday, it’s sure not to linger.
Last week, Murphy became a fa- ther. A boy.
“Another Tulla hurler on the way,’ somebody reminded him on Sunday. Because of the year just finished, he’ll be part of a club with a whole new set of ambitions.