Ulster Club IFC – Murphy can’t keep up with Galbally success

Galbally’s Sean Murphy has barely had time to digest the magnitude of the Tyrone club’s achievements this year.

Last weekend the Pearses captured the league title, completing their domestic double after they beat Pomeroy in the c final.

And their league trophy was achieved while at the same time preparing for their Ulster Club Championship run.

John Moylan’s team beat Grange in the preliminary round in the third week of October, and then saw off Laragh United in the quarter-final a fortnight ago, and Murphy and his team mates are now trying to get focused on their Ulster club semi-final against St Naul’s.

“I have had barely any time to think about football because I have been so busy.”

The reason why Murphy has not had time to catch is breath is that he is a full time coach. He has his own private gym in which he starts work at 6 am. He also works for the Ulster Council, travelling around schools teaching the fundamentals.

His catchment is Antrim, most around Belfast, but when he is finished those classes he races back up the road to do some more private gym sessions.

That coaching background puts him in a good place to assess the situation in Galbally and why they have been so successful.

One analysis is the boost of having strong underage players coming into the team.

“Their age group has stuck together coming through. They won a lot of titles at underage level.

“Kevin Kelly deserves a lot of credit for the work that he has put in.

“If you win at underage it will carry you through.

“They have all developed.”

Murphy said that the current crop is different to the team that he was involved in a few years ago. Only himself, Fergal Garrity and Aidan Carberry remain from his year group.

While they have enjoyed success this year, Murphy said that the foundations of this year’s campaign were laid during the mistakes of the previous campaign.

“We are not going to get carried away.

“I thought we were unlucky to get relegated last year.

“We left it late. We got off to a bad start in division one and changed our manager. It didn’t work out (with the manager).

“We changed manager and then started picking up points. We weren’t able to stay up but that gave us good momentum.”

Murphy said that the team knew they had a strong panel, and potential.

Aidan McCarron came onto the management team, that is led by John Moylan and also included Kevin Kelly.

“I have not seen commitment like it. Players committed to training three times a week at the start of the year.

“When we started picking up wins the boys knew the potential was there.”

Galbally targetted a good start in the league, which they got.

They knew that the summer break would be long, as Tyrone would go far in the Championship. Then when the league and championship returned they had put the ground work in place. They carried on where they left off, and had a fantastic run in the Tyrone championship.

So finishing off their league run last weekend was important.

“We were still worried about the league. We didn’t want to go easy on the league. We put a lot of effort into securing that title.

“It was difficult switching from league and Ulster championship. We were out every other week.

“The management deserve great credit for how they managed that. They focused on recovery.

“We showed up at training and they told us what to do.”

And now they can focus all their efforts on the Ulster Club championship.

“The Ulster Club championship has been exciting to play in,” Murphy said. “It is our first experience. It is exciting but I have not had time to think about it as I have been so busy.

“It is going to be a difficult semi-final. St Naul’s will go in thinking that they have nothing to lose.

“We don’t know much about them. But we will go out and enjoy it.”

r.scott@gaeliclife.com