By Cian O’Connell

Thurles, tradition, and traffic on a chaotic Saturday early August afternoon is still remembered 19 years later. A gripping finish featuring a couple of late Dublin goals nearly pinched victory.

Then, though, Maurice Fitzgerald added another splendid moment to his stuffed account when swerving a delicious sideline kick into the Town End. Parity prevailed. Kerry had absorbed the lessons for the replay.

Another Dublin hard luck story was added to the collection. At the time Johnny Magee was beginning to establish himself as a key performer for Dublin.

When it is put to the Kilmacud Crokes stalwart that no other player bar Fitzgerald had the poise to supply such a brushstroke in the circumstances Magee accepts that assertion instantly.

“The welcoming committee was probably the worst thing we did, to welcome Maurice the way we did. Probably it was a bit naive on part of a few of us, we were very young. The worst thing to do was to rile up Maurice Fitz coming in off the bench.

“Under the pressure - and he had Tommy Carr in his ear kicking the ball - the genius to be able to stick it over the bar from that distance.

“That is what the quality of Maurice Fitz is, even though he wasn't on the pitch that long the quality and genius of the guy - you were 99 per cent sure he was going to stick it over even from there. There was a sense that we left it behind us, but we have fantastic memories.”

That is what remains in Magee’s mind: the sheer madness and electricity of it all. “I think the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern came into the dressing room, whether it was the drawn match or the replay,” Magee laughs.

“People were coming out of the woodwork, mates of mine I hadn't seen in years were outside the dressing room to greet me. It was definitely a surreal atmosphere.

“You had different stories from the build up. My own family getting down to the match, cars being abandoned on the way down, people pulling into local pubs.”

The bluebloods of Gaelic Football, Dublin and Kerry, hadn’t clashed in the Championship for 16 years. So the trip to Tipp dripped with expectation and emotion.

“When we played in Croke Park we'd always come in down by Fairview Park and in by Meaghers and those pubs,” Magee adds.

“You'd see the fans outside the pubs sporadically in groups, but pulling into Thurles for the first time for the first match, none of us had seen anything like it.

“You had fellas on that bus with All Ireland medals and tears in grown mens eyes from the atmosphere. The town had erupted, it was a sea of blue, it was just crazy.

“The match hadn't even started and the hairs on the back of your neck were standing. It was great to be apart of it, fantastic stories came from that and the occasion itself.”

**

Vinnie Murphy’s second act on the inter-county stage meant he was back, installed as the darling of the Hill.

It hurt Murphy to the core when his first instalment as a Dublin senior footballer came to an end in 1996. Being left out of the Dublin panel was a significant blow. Life can be funny, though, and his sporting rehabilitation took place far behind so called enemy lines.

“I think it is well documented that when I went down to Kerry at 25 or 26 things hadn't gone well in relation to my career,” Murphy admits.

“I was part of the Leinster Council Coaching team that started out in '93, three one year contracts.

“That finished in '96. Not only did I find myself out of work I also found myself off the county panel at 26 when I should have been coming into my prime. It was a make or break decision to see where I was going to go and what I was going to do.

“I was looking basically to try to get over to the States to get some work for the summer and get money together. That is how the Kerry thing started.”

Enter Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston. “When I was over there in the early 90s Bomber Liston had played over there so I was trying to get in contact with him.

“Through the jigs and the reels it was decided that if I was prepared to go to New York to play football and work would I not come to Kerry to work and play football.

“It sounds mad, but when you put it logically like that Kerry was a four hour drive, New York was a seven hour trip. That made more sense to do that.”

So Murphy packed up and headed down south. Living in Tralee, surrounded by decorated legends and their promising sons in the Kerins O'Rahilly's club, Murphy’s love affair with football was rekindled.

Eventually Murphy returned home, but he would meet Tralee folk again. Sooner than Murphy thought too.

**

“There was a massive buzz about it,” Magee recalls. “I had played in a couple of Leinster finals against Meath, but the sense of occasion against your old rivals, and the fact that it was down in Thurles added something.

“It had been a long time since Dublin travelled to play a Championship match outside of the province. There was a huge sense of occasion, you'd swear it was an All Ireland final, the demand for tickets, the talk of Dubs travelling to Thurles.

“It is such a fantastic venue, the history associated with fantastic Munster finals and Munster matches throughout the years, it is definitely something I was looking forward to.”

Uncertainty existed in the capital. So many stalwarts from the All Ireland winning campaign in 1995 were departing the scene.

New players started to emerge. “There was a huge transition in that squad,” Magee reflects. “You had the team that won it in '95 had come off the back of '91 when Down beat them in the final, '92 Donegal beat them, '93 Derry beat them in a semi-final, '94 Down beat them, and then they won against Tyrone in '95.

“Over time that team were on the road an awful lot, getting to the latter stages of the All Ireland and Leagues. So they had a lot of miles on the clock. I came in during the back end of '96. I was the minor captain in '96 and then I made my debut in the O'Byrne Cup against Wexford.

“I came into the League and Championship panel after that. You had fellas that had been playing for years going then. In that period from '95 to 2002 the likes of Charlie Redmond and Mick Deegan were gone and there was a huge transition.

“I suppose when that team was successful, and the difference with compared to under Jim (Gavin) was that Jim was always introducing younger players.”

Winning habits were being passed on in the Gavin years. Magee reckons Dublin were a prized scalp or two away from making a real mark at the turn of the millennium.

“We were unlucky in a sense, but there was too much of a gap between the younger lads and the older lads,” is Magee’s assessment.

“We hadn't that bulk of 25 or 26 year olds who had gained experience. We were unlucky, people would say that was a poor Dublin team, but in my opinion we were probably a bit naive and missed out on a couple of more Leinster titles and the opportunity to beat Kerry that time.

“The Kildare match in 2000 was tough to take, we should have won. We were six or seven points up the second day, then conceded two goals in the space of a minute. Peadar Andrews and I were in the half back line with Paul Curran, Peadar and myself were only 21 years of age, Collie Moran was only 20 years of age. That is hindsight, but we definitely came close.”

When Murphy plundered a goal against Kerry cutting the deficit from seven to four in the dying embers Dublin began to rock.

Darren Homan fisted a second major which gave Dublin a lead towards the end. Fitzgerald responded. Kerry won the replay, Dublin were left wondering again about what might have been.

“It was a strange one because we had two clearcut goal opportunities,” Magee says. "Dessie (Farrell) had an open goal and he hit the post, Collie Moran had something similar.

“We had a lot of possession, but we wasted it. Then we got goals from Vinnie and Darren Homan. It was a bit more traditional then, fortuitous with the long ball in for Darren's anyway.

“There were stages where we should have capitalised on the stuff we had, we should have been at least six or seven points up at one stage with the two clearcut goal opportunities. That came at a stage in the first half, but the quality of Kerry, they just pulled away from us.

“It was the never say die attitude that we had what brought us back into that game. We didn't give up which was the main thing. It was unbelievable, the experience going into Thurles square that day. It was out of this world.”

**

Murphy had one final moment when his skill and desire counted. Jason Sherlock crafted the opening and Murphy supplied the neat finish.

The Killinan End was the Hill on tour and fittingly the celebrations were furious. Returning to the Dublin fold brought satisfaction and joy.

Dublin supporters remained an adoring audience. “At the time it embarrassed me a small bit because I knew I wasn't the player I was six, seven, eight, 10 years ago,” Murphy states.

“I think I played my best football in Kerry. When I came back I was 30 years of age. I was one of those where the fitness levels wouldn't ever have been fantastic, the game had moved on from the early 90s because a lot more athletic players were now playing the game.

“So when I came back the biggest advantage I had over people was size and strength. I tried to use that to my advantage when I came back. I got two years when I came back and that sort of put a cap on it for me. All the wondering would I, or could, or should I? play again, that sort of said yes.

“To get the adulation from the Dublin supporters was an even bigger surprise for me. It was hugely important to me that I was welcomed back in and sort of seen as one of their own, which I am. That was fantastic.”

When Dublin’s challenge was eventually fended off by Kerry a week later Murphy was waiting to board the team bus when greeted by a familiar face.

Declan Quill was showing signs of promise in the Kerry set-up; Murphy had coached him with Kerins O’Rahilly’s.

“I met him after we got beaten in 2001 at the bus, we shared a big embrace,” Murphy vividly remembers.

“I had a lot of grá for Declan as he was growing up, I thought he was going to be one of the great footballers. Injury and other things came in the way against that, it wasn't to be, so that was a shame for Declan because he was an absolutely fabulous footballer underage.

“That is a gas thing, you'd be teammates. Declan worked in the club bar, I'd have frequented that for lunches and obviously nights out. He was one of the barmen, I struck up a great relationship with him at that age.

“We would have went training together, stuff like that. I'd have had a great grá for him, I still do now. The funny thing was a couple of the Narries (O’Rahilly’s supporters) afterwards said they didn't know who to cheer for.

“They told me you came on the Kerry supporters were booing, the Dublin supporters were cheering, but they were cheering too.

“People were looking at them. The next thing Declan comes on they were cheering again and people turned to them saying they didn't know where they were from. A bit of banter like that. It has always been the way between Dublin and Kerry fans.”

The respect between Murphy and Quill captured the beauty and importance of sport, how lives become intertwined. Murphy benefited from the stint in Tralee, O’Rahilly’s were helped by him too.

That was only one small subplot as Semple Stadium provided the backdrop for a couple of unforgettable footballing days in the enduring Dublin and Kerry tale.