Andrew Murnin – A leap of faith

By Niall McCoy

IT’S September 20, 2009 and RTÉ’s live feed on All-Ireland final day returns to The Sunday Game studio after the Armagh minors have won the Tom Markham Cup with a 0-10 to 0-7 win over Mayo at Croke Park.

There is one name on the pundits’ lips – Andrew Murnin.

Colm O’Rourke: “They probably had the best player on the pitch in Andrew Murnin.”

Joe Brolly: “He was terribly influential, he did his role to a tee. Mayo had no-one to kick the ball to because he kept getting back in front of his own goal. He won so many breaking balls.”

It’s high praise for the St Paul’s youngster but in true Brolly fashion, he signs off with a show-stopper.

“He’s from Lurgan, he looks like a young rioter from the ‘70s with the hair and all.”

Murnin laughs when recalling the comment. Typical Brolly.

“It didn’t annoy me all,” Murnin said. “I, and my family, took it in good spirits. Joe is an entertainer and he does make you laugh.

“There was no malice at all, and I certainly didn’t take any. In fact he was very accurate! It’s a pity nobody told me before I went on TV.”

Looks can be deceiving, of course. Murnin, far from a lad who’d stand on a street corner causing agro, would do anything for the quiet life. This interview has been granted simply because the journalist has worn him down with repeated requests. It’s easier to swat a fly than to let it buzz around your head continually.

“It’s just my personality, I’d probably be an introvert,” said the 28-year-old.

“I’d say this is only my second interview and the other was for a friend that I grew up with (Michael Corry). I like to keep to myself.”

It’s now 11 years since Murnin ruled Croke Park to secure the Orchard county’s first All-Ireland Minor title since 1949.

Jack Bratton and Brendan O’Neill, who had helped Armagh to minor success against Kerry 71 years ago, spoke to the players in 2009 before their match with Mayo.

The ‘40s was a period Murnin had already heard plenty of stories about, and if it were not for his father moving to Lurgan, he most likely would not have been sitting there listening to those Orchard greats.

His grandfather Andy was a Clonduff man, and even had a brief spell with the now defunct Cabra Harps. A teak-tough defender, he played a starring role as Down held off Warwickshire to claim the 1946 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship.

Andrew’s father Andy Joe was – and is – a big Down fan, although he has been somewhat converted by his son’s success. He too had pulled on the famous yellow jersey of the Hilltown side, but transferred to Éire Óg and captained them to the 1985 Armagh Junior title from full-back.

It’s not just the Mourne county who have been left wondering what could have been. His mother Briege comes from Derry stock and the full-forward grew up idolizing one player more than most – Anthony Tohill.

“My mother is from Ballinderry,” said Murnin. “Growing up we would have gone to a lot of Derry matches, even as opposed to Armagh matches.

“I became obsessed by Anthony Tohill and he was by far my favourite player and always will be. I have an O’Neill’s ball in the bottom of the wardrobe signed by him.

“I always wanted to play midfield because of him. Even at u-10, I was played at no.10 or no.11 and I was nearly huffing because I wanted to play at no.8.

“At the minute I’m only really fit to play full-forward but in an ideal world I’d like to play a bit of both, forwards and midfield, for Armagh.

“I had played midfield for the Armagh minors and then at MacRory, Mattie McGleenan (St Patrick’s, Armagh manager) decided to stick me in full-forward because we had two big fellas who could do a job around the middle. That was my first taste of playing there really.

“I’ve always wanted to be fit enough to play midfield for Armagh if I was needed, but I’m probably not there at the minute.”

Regrets extend to club level too with Éire Óg surely left somewhat traumatized that he didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps.

The Lurgan area and its suburbs are swamped with GAA clubs. If you took the town centre as a base and branched out a couple of miles in each direction you would uncover 10 different clubs with Aghagallon (Antrim) and St Michael’s, Magheralin (Down) ensuring a multi-county catchment.

That has led to the town acting as a petri dish of club rivalry and neighbourly disputes.

Murnin grew up in Taghnevan though, and that is very much St Paul’s country.

“It was my next-door neighbor Jimmy Boyle who got me involved,” he said.

“He just called in one day and told me that there was training for the u-6s or the u-8s or whatever it was.

“He took me down. I live a stone’s throw away from the pitch so we walked over. After that there was no other club.

“It is mad. You take even Éire Óg, the Clans (Clan na Gael) and ourselves you could throw a net over us. The Peter’s and Clann Eireann are the same.

“When we were growing up there were always rivalries, especially for those who went to school in Lurgan.

“I went to St Pat’s in Armagh so I missed some of that, but it would have been a bit heated for those going to same schools after playing each other the night before.”

Murnin was a household name on the schools’ stage thanks to that All-Ireland Minor success. He felt a good run at the MacRory title was on the cards in his final year before Caolan Mooney put on the after-burners in their quarter-final tie with St Colman’s in February 2010.

The hangover from that wasn’t enough to dampen the memory of 2009 though when Paul McShane’s side went all the way in the Minor Championship. Given that they defeated Tyrone, Monaghan, Down, Kildare, Kerry and Mayo en-route – it was a well-earned success.

“There was a lot of hard work went into it. We were training nearly a year before it,” Murnin said of the season.

“We split up into north, south and mid and we were running the lakes and doing running at Keady High School.

“From the start of the year I knew we were onto a good thing.

“Our full-forward line was outrageous, Gavin McParland, Eugene McVerry and Robbie Tasker. They were probably the three best individual forwards in Ireland at that level then ,and they just happened to be on the same team.

“We didn’t lose a game that year. We drew with Monaghan in the first league match. We were down by one and Eugene kicked one from the corner flag and from then on nobody really got near us.

“Armagh were tweeting out the highlights of the All-Ireland recently so I sat and watched a couple of games. I thought we had played a lot better football than we actually did. It’s frustrating to watch yourself play and see the mistakes you’re making.

“I remember scoring a point into Hill 16 in the final. I’ll not forget that in a hurry. A lot of it was a blur though. Looking back it’s the same. I can’t remember too much on the field after winning it.

“It was great working with Paul (McShane), Kieran (Robinson) and Maco Hughes. They each brought something different to the table and Paul was the cherry on top.

“He’s such a nice man to work with but he is very nice away from football too. I’d meet him at matches and have good craic with him.”

That Armagh minor side was seen as the best to come out of the county since the one that reached the 1992 All-Ireland final, maybe even better than that particular vintage.

As well as McParland, Tasker and McVerry, players like Rory Grugan, James Donnelly, Declan McKenna and James Morgan were being lined up as possible senior stars. Murnin was milling around the top of the list.

The step-up rate was good with 12 of that Orchard panel pulling on the senior jersey in some shape or form.

Perhaps surprisingly, Murnin would complete the dozen as he didn’t make his Armagh debut until March 2015 as they tanked Limerick in a Division Three clash.

Only four of the 12 remain despite that squad being prime age now; Murnin, Grugan, Morgan and Niall Rowland. That’s a low retention rate given the talent that squad possession, but Murnin doesn’t think there is any worrying reason for the fall off.

“A lot of the fellas have had a chance,” he said. “Maybe they didn’t take it, or luck and injuries cost them.

“The likes of Peter Carragher there, he had awful runs with injuries. Eugene moved to Dublin and travelling up and down was tough and he had injuries too. Others maybe didn’t develop but the majority did play and did get a chance. It’s hard to go from being an 18 year old to being a senior inter-county player.”

The reason it took Murnin so long to get involved was down to a number of reasons – and timing was amongst them.

Take Paddy O’Rourke for example. The Down legend was keen to get Murnin involved in the summer of 2010 but when the player answered his call, he was sitting in the airport ready to head to Gran Canaria on a lads’ holiday. It would have been one damn good sell to make him swap the sambucas on the beach for the shuttle runs in Callanbridge.

O’Rourke never managed to get him into the panel, nor did Paul Grimley who in 2018 described Murnin as one of the top five targetmen in the country.

In the end it was current boss Kieran McGeeney who finally managed to get him on board.

“It was and it wasn’t,” was the player’s response when asked was county football a driving ambition once he left the minor grade.

“It was more a longer term thing, I wasn’t dying to get back to it. A lot of work had gone into the minor run and to be a 17 or 18-year-old player and having given that much commitment, my feeling was that I needed a bit of breathing room.”

The following year Murnin spent the summer with the Armagh club in Boston delaying his county debut further.

“Armagh have folded since but it was a brilliant experience, I would recommend it to any young fella.

“I was out there about 10 weeks. I went out with one of mates from the Tones, James Lavery. We just saw the message on the Queen’s GAA page, emailed away and worked it from there.

“I remember talking to Shane McConville about how he used to travel out. They’d go on a Thursday and then home on a Monday. They’d play out there and come home and work during the week.

“I’d say for every young lad to experience it but I suppose if people are going out every summer, maybe leaving their club in the lurch every year, I can see why people would get annoyed. Once or twice is different. Go see the world.”

McConville is perhaps the person who has had the biggest influence on Murnin’s GAA career. The former Armagh player has managed him at St Paul’s whilst also holding down the role of chairman.

“It’s funny when you think of influences, I remember Shane teaching me how to catch a ball in Taghnevan Community Centre when I was u-10 or u-8.

“Shane was coaching at senior level when he was still a senior player, he was coaching that young.

“Every game, it could be an u-14 game away anywhere and he’d be standing at the fence watching.

“He’s won an Intermediate title with St Paul’s, we all saw what he did with Maghery with their Senior title.

“He could only add to what we have in Armagh as a coach. I don’t know how much appetite he would have for it but if county coaching is something he wanted I’d back him all the way.”

It is clear that Murnin holds him in the highest regard, so it was no surprise that McGeeney asked his former teammate to help to try and convince the player to join the county squad five years ago.

“’Geezer’ rang me and said that they were having a meeting and asked me to attend,” the player continued.

“He talked to me individually after it and asked if I wanted to be a part of the squad.

“By that stage I had gotten the fire back to play at that level. We had just won the championship with the club and you’re sitting thinking that the club is now back to senior, we’re probably not going to challenge for that championship, so what’s the next step?

“Fairly intense would have been my first impression of Kieran but then you get to know him and you realise it’s not intensity, it’s more passion. He just cares so much about Armagh.

“Inspiring is probably the right word to describe him.

“You hear fellas at the club and you hear fellas talking and they are asking is he the man and I really don’t know where they get it from. I’d back him every day of the week

“He takes a lot of the blame for things that are the players’ fault. He gives you a game-plan and next thing we go out, play 10 minutes and we forget it and lose.

“After those games he’s in the media taking the blame when 99 percent of the time it lies with us. I just find him an inspirational person to work with.”

The respect goes both ways obviously because Murnin’s county career has been blighted by a series of injuries, most notably continuous hamstring issues. Many managers would have cut their losses.

It has led to extended periods on the sidelines, cameo roles and most frustratingly of all, the seemingly inability to get a good run of games strung together.

Indeed, it is somewhat surprising that the St Paul’s man has been involved in 17 of Armagh’s 22 championship games since he joined the squad – 15 of those as a starter.

Some of the five missed really grate on him though.

In 2017 the player started five games in a row against Down, Fermanagh, Westmeath, Tipperary and Kildare as the Orchard county went on a promising run.

He was flying until a hamstring injury forced him off midway through the second half of the win over the Lilywhites.

That ruled him out of an All-Ireland quarter-final clash with Tyrone. Given how one-sided the contest was, his presence wouldn’t have changed too much but that still didn’t make it any easier.

Then there was last year’s one-point Qualifier loss to Mayo in Castlebar.

At the start of the campaign, Murnin had a match-winning contribution off the bench against Down as his instinctive punched goal earned the first Ulster win of the McGeeney era.

He came off the bench in the drawn Ulster semi-final with Cavan and started the replay loss and the Qualifier win over Monaghan.

Then a bit of déjà vu. Just like Kildare in 2017, a hamstring problem forced him off midway through the second half against the Oriel county and ruled him out of the following week’s big clash. If he had been fit, it’s almost certain that Armagh would have found a way past Mayo.

Twice in three years injury had forced him to miss Armagh’s last game of the season – but it was the year-ender between that probably shows why McGeeney is keeping the faith and why Murnin keeps absorbing and responding to the the cruel twists of injury fate.

Portlaoise was the venue as the Orchard county met Roscommon for a spot in the 2018 ‘Super Eights.’

On a day when both teams deserved enormous credit for delivering a thriller in sweltering conditions, Murnin delivered one of the best championship halves of football from an Armagh player in a number of years as he hit four points from play. Unfortunately another hamstring injury meant that he had to come off in the crucial final few minutes.

It was an incredible 35 minutes’ football, and the fact that it was captured on TV gave the country a glimpse into what this man was capable of. McGeeney obviously agrees.

Murnin also points to the work of physio Shea McAleer who works out of the Kingsbridge Hospital in Belfast. He has worked closely with the Armagh players and Murnin is indebted to his ability to get him back on track after every setback.

“I’m not going to lie, I’m same as every man and I have quit a dozen times over the past four or five years,” he said.

“It would be different if I was injured, working so hard to get back and then the manager doesn’t really fancy you. Kieran has had a lot of faith in me. If I have been fit for a week, if I have been fit for a day, he’ll more or less ask me if I’m good to go. He knows I’ll be honest with him.

“In 2016 I ended up taking the year out after the league because I tore my hamstring four times in the space of five months.

“It was recommended that I take a year out and to be honest I was a bit relieved to get a break from it.

“But then you come back and the fire is there again. Then another injury comes and you think that is it, but then something happens and you’re back wanting it again.

“In 2017 I pulled the hamstring against Kildare and missed the All-Ireland quarter-final and I just said ‘right, I can’t go out like that.’

“In 2018 I pulled my hamstring against Roscommon and because we were close to the ‘Super Eights’ I was thinking ‘okay, we’ll go again.’

“Even last year with my knee injury, and then I pulled my hamstring against Monaghan and missed the Mayo match, it is very hard to keep justifying the work and effort when you don’t get the rewards.

“There have been moments that have helped though.

“Those 10 minutes against Down last year will go down, well so far anyway, as the highlight of my career just in terms of the amount of work that went into getting me fit to play 10 minutes.

“To get the reward that time, that was something you can feed off whenever you do get injured again, like in the Monaghan match. You’d do it all again for moments like that.”

Those moments keep Murnin’s spirits up, as does what he has seen in the changing room, especially over the last 18 months.

Armagh looked a good bet for promotion from Division Two before the coronavirus halted plans, but he believes that good days lie ahead for McGeeney’s men.

“Everything is there at the minute, the talent is certainly there.

“The management group is there to get us there (into the top eight), I think we are very close.

“The only danger is that we nearly beat Roscommon, we nearly beat Mayo, we don’t want to be known as nearly men.

“Once we get to Division One and realise that we can mix it with the best, then hopefully we will be in a real position to push on.”

To see Murnin lining out at full-forward against the likes of Dublin and Kerry, getting a run injury free, would bring great joy to the people of Taghnevan.

They are very proud of their county man. How could they not be? When they defeated Grange in the 2014 Intermediate final, Murnin produced a performance for the ages as he took himself from full-forward to midfield to full-back at various stages of the game. Maybe his father and grandfather did have an influence after all.

Their subsequent Ulster loss to Fermanagh’s Derrylin despite being raging-hot favourites still causes his nightmares. He is a St Paul’s man and extremely proud of it.

They, more than most, know that Andrew Murnin is a superstar who just needs to get the breaks with injuries. Most in Armagh know it too, and hopefully over the next few years the whole of Ireland will realise it as well.

n.mccoy@gaeliclife.com

What his managers say…

Paul McShane (Murnin’s Armagh minor manager)

I was just looking through some of the matches from the minor days during lockdown there.

Andy’s ability to leap in the air was just unbelievable for an 18-year-old. There was a match we played against Kildare at Breffni Park, the All-Ireland quarter-final, and his leap for a kick-out in the first half was incredible.

He just took it out of the clouds and the reaction of the crowd was brilliant. I actually re-winded it a few times to get the buzz of it again.

It took me back to when we played Fermanagh in a challenge and he was corner-forward. A high ball he won again, and he had the ability to turn in the air and the ball was in the net as the full-back was still coming down.

He got on an awful lot of ball for us at minors and he had tremendous stamina to get across the pitch.

We saw that in the final especially against Mayo. He got up and down and for a young fella to do that at Croke Park, well he was more like a seasoned campaigner.

He’s such a nice lad too. He won the trophy for Man of the Match in the final, put it in the bag, threw a towel over it and away he went.

Shane McConville (Murnin’s St Paul’s manager)

It would be simple to talk about his attributes, his leap and how he hangs in the air. It was remarkable because he was doing that at u-10 and u-12.

I always remember one time we were playing Culloville and I was speaking to Alan O’Neill after it. He said to me ‘Shane, you have a lad playing Corn na nÓg in the college in Armagh, Andrew Murnin.’ He looked at me and said ‘I’ve never seen the like of him’ and it turns out he was a fair good judge.

He absolutely loves St Paul’s, he loves his club. He is another Barry O’Hagan, he just wants to see St Paul’s do as well as they possibly can.

Because he has been so unlucky with injuries it has been a bit of a standing joke in Taghnevan, people would ask ‘is Andy playing today?’

You have no idea what it meant when the answer was ‘yes’. To me as a manager, the players, the changing room, the fact that he was playing was amazing.

In 2014 when we one the Intermediate Championship, he played the whole year.

I remember a reporter coming to me after the final against Grange and he asked me what was the difference and I said there was an obvious answer to that, Andrew Murnin.

He said that my handling of him, and how I moved him about the field was perfect. I had to stop him and say don’t write that because what Andrew Murnin did with 20 minutes to go, he did it through his own mind and it had nothing to do with me.

Anthony McGrath (Murnin’s Queen’s manager)

Character wise, Andrew’s laidback, quiet but an absolute performer with an abundance of steel.

He’s easily one of the bets raw talents I’ve ever seen on a Gaelic pitch, and that’s a massive thing to say about anyone.

He has brilliant ball skills, tremendous vision and he has those things that all top players tend to have – an ability to read the game and great awareness, which gives him that time on the ball to make good decisions.

One thing he has that other players don’t tend to have is a massive ability to fight; he is very, very brave. I saw Andrew put his head in where you wouldn’t put your boot and I loved that about him.

I remember years ago playing for Queen’s against UCD in a Ryan Cup match and I was marking Trevor Giles.

He caught a massive high ball and as he was coming down, he shimmied on the way down and spun as he came to the ground and got away from a bunch of players.

I’d never saw it done before or after until I saw Andrew do exactly the same for the Queen’s freshers. He has an amazing hanging leap.