Clanmaurice coach Eddie Murphy is in awe at players' mentality

“It was a drawn game heading into injury time and whoever got the next puck-out was going to be crucial, so, thank God, Amy O’Sullivan ended up winning it. 

"I think it was Aoife Behan who came forward with the ball. If St Brigid’s had won that one, it could have been curtains. It was that close and, thank God, the girls showed great character. That’s why we are champions. 

"It was so frenetic on the line, there were so many things happening, but to get those last two scores from Patrice Diggin when your backs are to the wall, it was incredible. It was something similar to the Shannon Rovers game last year when they went a point ahead and Patrice equalised with the last free, an iconic score. 

"The same thing this time and she put those two points over and God, ‘twas such a relief to win that one. St. Brigid’s put up a great challenge, which we knew they would, the same as Ballinora before them.” 

One of the great sporting stories,  Clanmaurice with never more than 21 players, have now won seven Munster Junior tittles including five in a row from 2017 to 2021, one All-Ireland Junior (2019), runners up in 2017 and 2021, three Munster Intermediate titles in a row and an All-Ireland Intermediate in 2023. 

Little wonder than that Murphy believes that Clanmaurice are one of the great sporting stories and very few know the obstacles they have to overcome.

“You look at all these teams, they have their own club grounds, they have massive panels, there’s plenty money behind them. I’ve said it before publicly and I’ll say it again, in Clanmaurice, there’s so many no’s in their lives between no pitch, no underage, no Kerry competitions, no real finance behind the club…. you are jumping obstacles all the time.” 

Murphy continued: “We play teams who travel in massive busses, they are all videoing the matches. We don’t have that. The girls don’t even have showers after training in this weather, no grub. It’s very spartan, very frugal, everything that we do, but I think it works. I know it sounds paradoxical, but it works because of this perennial chip on their shoulder almost, the whole world against us kind of feeling.” 

Murphy has never seen such a bond in very few if any male teams he has coached.

“It's hard to quantify. There’s a will to win that’s almost an obsession - the girls are never beaten. They fight to the bitter end. They hook, they block, they chase, they get their hands dirty, they can hurl. They can do it all and they are a very hard team to beat because of all those elements. There is so many things that they have to put up with but that’s battle-hardened them.” 

Clanmaurice returning to Croke Park this weekend for the All-Ireland Club intermediate final against Galway's Ahascragh/Caltra is a real achievement according to Murphy, who was almost in tears as he recalled the journey that the club has been on. 

“To be going back to Croke Park is some achievement with 21 players. We won the All-Ireland last year with just 17!! Never done before nor will it be done in the future. We started training back at the start of September. We have no county championship, no league campaign with the club, so we were going in cold into the Moneygall game (the first round of Munster). 

"We got over that one – that was a tough week with the controversy over the football and with Abbeydorney playing as well. We were without Caoimhe Spillane, an outstanding player, understandably she had to play with Abbeydorney, totally understand that, but we got through it.

“Ballinora was a tough game, Ballinora fancied their chances of going far towards winning an All Ireland. They had won the junior and the intermediate and now senior."

"They are all good teams, all these games are going to go down to the wire, including Sunday week. They are all tough games. I would never have the arrogance to say that we are going to win. It’s not that. But if we play well, we are in with a good chance and that’s the most I’d ever say because it’s tough. 

“Ahascragh Caltra have three of the Galway senior football panel, Aoife Ní Cheallaigh, Emma Reaney, and Molly Mulryan," said Murphy.

"They are a dual club and a very good club. They’ll take a lot of beating. They are a strong physical side. Sarah Noone is their star player; she played both camogie and football for Galway.  Aoife Ní Cheallaigh is a very good corner back, really good. She’d be similar to Caoimhe Spillane, that type of player. Molly Mulryan broke her jaw about seven weeks ago and she came on against Eglish in their semi-final that tells you about her reserves.

“They’ll be very hard to beat. They are very, very dogged, they’ll cluster tackle you all the time. They have a very good defence. We’re under no illusions. We’ve been preparing well and look, I always say not to worry that much about the opposition. Sure, you want to have basic knowledge about them, but it’s more important to have my own team right. That’s the main thing. I’ll put it like this, we respect all our opponents, but we won’t fear anyone. You can’t go out there afraid of anyone," Murphy, the son of the great Willie 'Long Puck' Murphy, winner of five All-Ireland medals with Cork, concluded.