By Cian O'Connell

A fortnight after winning an AIB All-Ireland Club Intermediate title with Rathmore, Paul Murphy was back in Allianz Football League action for Kerry.

Murphy, who made his senior inter-county debut in 2014, remains eager to make an impact for the Kingdom. Switching focus from club to county so quickly wasn't an issue for Murphy, who simply wanted to deliver in the Kerry jersey for Jack O'Connor's team.

"It felt great, we’d a few great days celebrating," Murphy says about Rathmore's triumph.

"I’d been speaking to Jack before that final and I told him that I’d be in on the Thursday. From my point of view I’d got a break from training in November/December between being away for work and being on honeymoon and things, so I wasn’t overly concerned about having been constantly training for 12 months or anything like that."

Murphy, who had made a significant impact in some matches as a substitute in 2022, simply wanted to earn a starting place.

"I got a bit of a break there, and from a personal point of view I was keen to try to get back in to stake a claim, and get a starting jersey in the league maybe - to try to nail down a starting position," he adds.

"For the most part it was fine, towards the end of the league alright I felt a bit tired, found it a little bit of a slog, but maybe that’s because we weren’t playing particularly well.

"We’d four away trips, a lot of mileage covered in the league, which contributes to that as well. I was happy enough to get straight back in, and get back into the routine of training with Kerry and stuff like that at that point."

So when Murphy wasn't starting every match during a successful 2022 campaign did that prove to be a demanding spell? "It probably was frustrating, but I mean you can’t be selfish about it is what I’m trying to say," Murphy replies.

"If someone who isn’t starting is moping around the place, being negative about things, that brings down the energy of the group.

"You’re less likely to get back in. If I’m a manager looking at somebody who has got that attitude around the place I don’t think he’s going to be high up in my thoughts to get a starting jersey back or be brought on.

"Whatever frustration might be there from a personal point of view you try to channel it into training well.

"You’ll probably be marking a starting forward in training, so try challenge him well, get him ready for the weekend and by doing that you’re enhancing your own chances as well.

"If you’re training well, whatever your motivation for training well or training hard, that will probably help you then."

It is an approach that has served Murphy well throughout the past decade.

In high stakes matches Kerry have shown an ability to stay cool under serious pressure. Derry summoned a defiant display at the penultimate stage, but Kerry found a way.

"1-11 at half-time, that’s a lot to be conceding in a half of football, so we wouldn’t have been happy with that," Murphy recalls. "I suppose we might have been happy with the fact there was only three in it, which to be fair, Derry had played most of the football and done most of the running in that first half, so we hung in there, which was a positive for us.

"We didn’t change anything dramatically tactically, we probably just upped the intensity in the second half. Half-time gives you that opportunity to re-set and up the ante on things if you have to."

Kerry's industry and clinical finishing late on was a vital factor. "The second half then, yeah, we’d be happy with what we conceded," he adds. "I’d be a bit of a man for law of averages.

"A lot of their shots, they were great scores in the first half, and they were going over. I thought it was a bit like Galway in the All Ireland final last year, I just felt in the Galway game last year their scoring efficiency can’t keep up, it’ll have to drop and, fortunately for us, Derry’s dropped a little bit.

"They were getting chances, but maybe they were under more pressure and they didn't take it. That’s a positive for us that they were kicking under more pressure and their efficiency dropped as a result."

Now another Dublin versus Kerry Championship encounter is on the agenda. Last year's Semi-Final triumph over Dublin injected Kerry with belief. "Whatever way you look at it - that was a huge victory for us as a group," Murphy remarks.

"Particularly from the 2019 game, you’ve a lot of guys involved still from those finals, so for us to have beaten them in a Championship game in Croke Park, that was a big moment for us as a group, and to win a close game in Croke Park similarly was a big sort of step in our development as a group and we did that that day and we did it in the final after.

"We know we can beat Dublin in a Championship game in Croke Park, last time we played them we beat them so that’s a real source of confidence for us going into the next day as well."