Why Murnin is no longer Geezer's best

Andrew Murnin: "He looks like a young rioter from the ‘70s." Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

"HE looks like a young rioter from the ‘70s."

Back in 2009, Andrew Murnin had just picked up the Player of the Match award in the All-Ireland Minor final against Mayo and with his big mop of hair flowing down over his eyes, Sunday Game pundit Joe Brolly was transported back to a time when punk rock dominated the airwaves, Dr Marten boots prevailed and angry men took out their frustrations with bricks and petrol bombs on street corners in the north.

The ‘young rioter’ had brought quality to a Croke Park final severely lacking in it, and in doing so the Orchard County won only their second-ever minor title, and the first since 1949.

The undoubted headline act of Paul McShane's side that season was the inside trio of Gavin McParland, Robbie Tasker and Eugene McVerry, but it was the half-forward line where Kieran McGeeney would successfully mine for gold.

Rory Grugan, the man to Murnin's right that day, quickly jumped into senior inter-county football. Armagh managers tried and failed to get Murnin to do likewise. When Paddy O’Rourke called, Murnin was sitting in the departures lounge ahead of a lads’ holiday in the sun.

McGeeney – with a little help from a man who had a big impact on Murnin's career – managed to chisel through that rock though and in 2015 he became the 12th – and final – player from that minor team to join the senior set-up.

That it was McGeeney's first year is fitting. Murnin's time mirrors his manager's. Fleeting moments of brilliance but ultimately frustration. On Sunday, both will try and revise that script as Armagh attempt to win provincial honours for the first time in 15 years when they meet Derry.

A hidden superstar, Murnin's abilities have been kept under wraps - outside the county at least - by a string of career-stalling hamstring injuries. Last year the country sat up and took notice as the Orchard County went on a memorable run to the All-Ireland quarter-final. This year, he has been Armagh's star.

"He had the ankle iced after coming off in the Down game there in the Ulster semi so I really hope he’ll be okay for the game," McShane said of his former minor player. His involvement will be crucial to Armagh's trophy ambitions.

"His leap" - ask any of his coaches what stands out about the player and those are generally the first two words they reach for.

Not only blessed with serious hang-time, Murnin has an unorthodox style and an ability to grab or punch the ball at its highest point, severely limiting dispossession opportunities.

Down know this more than most. In 2019 in Newry, he sublimely punched home the game-winning goal in extra-time to earn McGeeney's first Ulster Championship win at the fifth attempt.

Last month, he rose above their goalkeeper Niall Kane and Ryan McEvoy to punch home the first of Armagh's four goals to book their first Ulster final spot under Geezer's watch.

The irony is that Murnin himself very well could have been aligned to the Mourne County. His grandfather Andy won an All-Ireland Junior title with Down in 1946 and his father Andy Joe played with Down club Clonduff before moving to Lurgan and linking up with Éire Óg where he won an Armagh Junior title in 1985.

Murnin would emulate his father by winning the same competition with St Paul's in 2014. In what was probably the most memorable individual performance by one of the club's players, he moved himself from full-forward to midfield to full-back and starred all over the pitch in a three-point win against Grange.

As well as Down, Murnin has links with Sunday's opponents Derry. His mother Briege is of Ballinderry stock and her son grew up idolising Oakleaf legend Anthony Tohill. A signed O’Neill's ball by the big Swatragh man proved a prized possession.

In the end, Armagh gained and McShane was one of the key beneficiaries.

"That leap of his, we played Fermanagh in a challenge game one Wednesday night. He was playing full-forward and he had that tremendous leap. He went up for a ball that night and before he hit the ground he had it in the net. The full-back was still in the air and it was just a ‘wow’ moment."

McGeeney needed those talents. Go-betweens weren't his thing – you were either in or you were out – but this was a special case so he picked up the phone to former Armagh team-mate Shane McConville.

McConville had been teaching – an adjective he disputes - Murnin how to catch a ball at Taghnevan Community Centre ever since the player's next door neighbour Jimmy Doyle took him to the club as a youngster.

He was in charge the night Murnin took himself everywhere in that Armagh IFC final ("one of my greatest managerial achievements was not interfering") and two years later he guided Maghery, with current Armagh starters Aidan Forker and Ben Crealey prominent, to their first-ever Armagh SFC crown.

"Everything about him is natural and self-taught, he’d teach you," McConville stated. "We’ve been watching that child jump like that since he was 12 years of age.

"I’ve watched him countless times rise for a ball, turn in mid-air and drop a ball onto an oncoming corner forward. Andrew Murnin's ability when that ball is in flight, seeing what is coming in front of him, to the left of him, to the right of him, as he rises is actually quite funny." McConville was on a site in Belfast when he took the call from McGeeney. Murnin – as staunch a club man as you could find – would have been more than content to finish out his days playing with St Paul's, but McConville begged him to show the nation what he was about.

For years he didn't do that. Or to be more accurate, he was unable to do that as constant hamstring tears saw any momentum stall. In 2016, he tore his hamstring four times in five months.

The statistic that he has featured in 25 of Armagh's 33 championship games since joining the panel is rather quite startling given how often his body has toyed with him.

In a post-Covid world, the injury Gods have been more favourable. Few players deserve a break more.

"Thank God, thank God," McConville continued. "When he does finish, everyone will know Andy Murnin because it would have been an absolute footballing shame if he had continued with those injuries.

"People are seeing nationally now what we’ve known around Lurgan for a long time now.

"People in Kerry and Galway and everywhere else can say now they saw Andy playing, and what a player."

St Paul's will be below his name in the match programme on Sunday, but he’ll be playing for the whole of Lurgan. A town often acting as the butt of the joke, opposition fans refer to them as the ‘Buckfast Brigade’ given their fondness for the tonic wine often dubbed ‘Lurgan Champagne.’ Pride resonates now though.

It's an area of intense GAA rivalry – a petri dish of club conflict. Lurgan and its surrounding areas had a population of 38,000 in the last census with just over 60% identifying as catholic.

Inside the span of the town and its fringes, there are 10 clubs including Aghagallon who operate in Antrim and the St Michael's, Magheralin club in Down.

For too long, they felt that the county team was mostly the preserve of south Armagh – but this weekend Murnin, Conor Turbitt (Clann Eireann), Shane McPartlan and Stefan Campbell (both Clan na Gael) will have key roles to play.

It's the St Paul's man who could hold the key to Anglo Celt glory though, just as he did at Croke Park 14 years ago.

McShane remembers watching him after that All-Ireland Minor success in 2009. He took his Player of the Match award, wrapped it in a towel and hid it in his bag. His match jersey should have been as cherished a memento as that Anthony Tohill signed ball, but Murnin sought out St Paul's underage coach Joe Fitzsimmons and gave him it as a sign of gratitude.

"That coach was really taken aback but that's Andy, that's the character you were dealing with," said McShane.

Andrew Murnin has never fitted the profile of a ‘70s rioter. Instead he's quiet, unassuming and happy to stay out of the spotlight. Agreeing to just two feature interviews since his debut is testament to that. If he keeps playing the way he has been – and if the injury gods remain fair and just – he will have no say in the matter though. The spotlight will shine brightly on him.

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