Brian Murphy (hurler, born 1982)

For other people named Brian Murphy, see Brian Murphy (disambiguation).

Brian Murphy

Personal information
Irish name	Briain Ó Murchú
Sport	Hurling
Position	Left corner-back
Born	(1982-07-21) 21 July 1982 Rathcormac, County Cork
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Occupation	GAA Games Promotion Officer
Club(s)
Years	Club
2000-present	Bride Rovers
Club Titles
Cork titles	0
Inter-county(ies)
Years	County	Apps (scores)
2004-present	Cork	28 (0-1)
Inter-county titles
Munster titles	3 (1 as sub)
All Irelands	2
NHL	0
All Stars	1

Brian Murphy (born 21 July 1982 in Rathcormac, County Cork) is an Irish sportsperson. He plays hurling with his local club Bride Rovers and has been a member of the Cork senior inter-county team since 2004.

Biography

Brian Murphy was born in Rathcormac, County Cork in 1982. He was educated at the local national school and subsequently attended the nearby St. Colman's College, a famous hurling nursery in Fermoy. It was here that his hurling talents first came to the fore. Murphy won a Harty Cup title in 2001 before later lining out in the subsequent All-Ireland colleges' final. Gort Community School provided the opposition, however, St. Colman's recorded a narrow 2-10 to 2-7 victory giving Murphy a coveted All-Ireland colleges' winners' medal.

Murphy later studied a finance course at the Cork Institute of Technology. It was here that he further developed his hurling career by becoming a key member of the college senior hurling team. In 2003 CIT reached the final of the inter-varsities Fitzgibbon Cup series of games. Waterford Institute of Technology provided the opposition on that occasion and it was the Déise that recorded a 0-13 to 0-7 victory.

Following his graduation Murphy worked as a financial adviser. In 2009 he was appointed to the full-time position of Games Promotion Officer with the Cork County Board.

Playing career

Club

Murphy plays his club hurling with his local club called Bride Rovers and has enjoyed much success. In 2003 he helped his club to take the county intermediate championship title following a ten-point victory over Inniscarra. Bride Rovers later represented Cork in the provincial series of games and even reached the final, where they defeated Kilruane MacDonagh's of Tipperary. It gave Murphy a coveted Munster club winners' medal at intermediate level. Bride Rovers subsequently lined out in the county senior championship.

In 2008 the club even reached the final, with Sarsfield's providing the opposition. A narrow 2-14 to 2-13 defeat, however, resulted in Murphy ending up on the losing side on that occasion.

Inter-county

Murphy first came to prominence on inter-county scene as a member of the Cork minoir hurling team in 2000. That year he won a coveted Munster winners' medal in that grade following a 2-19 to 1-10 trouncing of Lmerick. Cork later qualified for the All-Ireland final with Galway providing the opposition. An exciting hour of huring followed, however, Murphy's side were defeated by 2-19 to 4-10.

Three years later in 2003 Murphy was a key member of the Cork intermediate team. He won a Munster title that year following a 2-12 to 0-11 defeat of Waterford. Cork later reached the All-Ireland final with age-old rivals Kilkenny lining out against them. An exciting game of hurling ensued, however, at the final whistle both sides were still level. A period of extra-time finally produced a winner, as Cork secured a narrow 1-21 to 0-23 victory. The win gave Murphy a coveted All-Ireland winners' medal in the intermediate grade.

It was on this team that Murphy came to the attention of the Cork senior hurling team selectors. He joined that team in 2003 and was a non-playing substitute as Cork defeated Waterford to take the Munster title but eventually lost the All-Ireland title to Kilkenny.

Murphy made his senior championship debut for Cork in 2004 in a Munster quarter-final defeat of Kerry. Cork subsequently reached the Munster final once again and, for the second consecutive year, Waterford provided the opposition. In what many consider to be the greatest provincial championship decider of them all, both sides fought tooth-and-nail for the full seventy minutes. Unfortunately for Murphy Cork lost the game by just a single point on a score line of 3-16 to 1-21. Although Cork surrendered their provincial crown they were still in with a chance of landing the All-Ireland title. After maneuvering through the qualifiers Cork reached a second consecutive All-Ireland final and, once again, Kilkenny provided the opposition. This game took on a life of its own for a number of reasons. Chief among these was the fact that Kilkenny were attempting to capture a third All-Ireland in-a-row and go one ahead of Cork in the All-Ireland roll of honour. The game was expected to be another classic; however, a damp day put an end to this. The first-half was a low-scoring affair and provided little excitement for fans. The second-half saw Cork completely take over. For the last twenty-three minutes Cork scored nine unanswered points and went on to win the game by 0-17 to 0-9. It was Murphy's first All-Ireland winners' medal. He was subsequently presented with the Vodafone Young Hurler of the Year title.

In 2005 Cork were on form again. That year Cork won back the provincial crown with a 1-16 to 1-12 victory over fierce provincial rivals Tipperary. It was Ó Murphy's first Munster winners’ medal on the field of play as Cork went on the march for glory once again. In the All-Ireland semi-final against Clare their championship campaign was nearly derailed when they fell behind by seven points at the start of the second-half. A huge performance by Cork turned this deficit around and Ó Murphy's side eventually went on to win the game by 0-16 to 0-15. While it was expected that Cork and Kilkenny would do battle again in a third consecutive All-Ireland final Galway were the surprise winners of the second semi-final. It was the first meeting of Cork and Galway in an All-Ireland final since 1990 and even more daunting was the fact that men from the west had never beaten Cork in a championship decider. Once again neither side broke away into a considerable lead, however, Galway failed to score for the last ten minutes and at the final whistle Cork were ahead by 1-21 to 1-16. For the second year in-a-row Cork were the All-Ireland champions and Murphy picked up a second All-Ireland winners' medal.

2006 saw Cork turn their attentions to a first three-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles since 1978. The team’s championship campaign got off to a good start with a 0-20 to 0-14 defeat of Clare in the opening round of the Munster championship. The subsequent provincial decider saw Cork take on Tipp for the second consecutive year. Once again Cork’s stalwarts stood up and contributed greatly to Cork’s 2-11 to 1-11 victory over their old rivals, giving Murphy a second consecutive Munster title. Subsequent one-point victories over Limerick and Waterford saw Cork qualify for their fourth consecutive All-Ireland final and for the third time Kilkenny were the opponents. Like previous encounters neither side took a considerable lead, however, Kilkenny had a vital goal from Aidan Fogarty. Cork were in arrears coming into the final few minutes, however, Ben O'Connor goaled for Cork. It was too little too late as ‘the Cats’ denied ‘the Rebels’ the three-in-a-row on a score line of 1-16 to 1-13. Murphy, however, was later honoured with a coveted All-Star award.

The 2007 and 2008 championship seasons saw Murphy's side fail to repeat the success of the previous four years. Cork failed to even reach a provincial or All-Ireland final in either of those two campaigns. Following the defeat by Kilkenny in 2008 manager Gerald McCarthy's two-year contract came to an end. He was later re-appointed for a further two-year term by the Cork County Board, in spite of the majority of the players not wanting him to stay on. The players on the 2008 panel then refused to play or train under McCarthy. (see 2008-2009 Cork players strike). McCarthy accordingly began the 2009 National League camapign with a new squad, none of whom had been able to make the previous year's panel. After months of pressure McCarthy eventually stepped down from as manager.

Just over a month later in April 2009 Murphy, who some had speculated had been against the strike, announced his retirement from inter-county hurling at the age of 26. He reversed his decision shortly afterwards and rejoined the Cork panel in time of their All-Ireland qualifiers defeat by Galway.

Honours

Bride Rovers

• Munster Intermediate Club Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (1): 2003
• Cork Senior Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (0):
  • Runner-up (1): 2008
• Cork Intermediate Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (1): 2003

Cork

• All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (2): 2004, 2005
  • Runner-up (2): 2003 (sub), 2006
• Munster Senior Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (3): 2003 (sub), 2005, 2006
  • Runner-up (1): 2004
• All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (0):
  • Runner-up (1): 2000
• Munster Minor Hurling Championship:
  • Winner (1): 2000

References

Achievements
Preceded by Setanta Ó hAilpín (Cork)	Vodafone Young Hurler of the Year 2004	Succeeded by David Collins (Galway)