MICHAEL Murphy was the “single biggest issue” Roscommon faced during Kevin McStay’s three years at the helm and feels the Donegal ace was the closest thing to a “one-man team” he’s seen in Gaelic football.
McStay walked away from the Rossies post at the end of 2018 after three fruitful years in charge - having also been joint-manager with Fergal O'Donnell in 2015 - which yielded a Connacht title, promotion to Division One and reaching the inaugural Super 8s.
Having suffered a heavy loss to Tyrone in their Super 8s opener, Roscommon faced the ominous prospect of trying to contain Murphy at Hyde Park a week later.
McStay’s men were resolute in the opening half before Murphy produced a spell-binding display in a roving full-forward role.
Read More: 'We won, we lost, we lived' - Kevin McStay brings to book his Roscommon years
“He’s just a phenomenal player,” McStay said of the big Glenswilly man.
“He was a one-man team. We very rarely came up against one-man teams, and I’ve a lot of respect for [Odhran] MacNiallais and [Ryan] McHugh and all their players. But Murphy can kick frees from 50 yards, he can catch ball above people, he can throw you out of the way and kick it over the bar.
“He became almost a one-man team. He was by far the best player we faced during that period. He was nearly unmarkable.”
Murphy hit three brilliant points from play between the 28th and 34th minutes and rounded off a super performance with a 0-9 total that ended Roscommon's interest in the 2018 All-Ireland series.
McStay added: “What could you do with him, the size of him? And he had the cuteness and a fair amount of mobility as well, massive power, cop on and know-how.
“Dublin were a team. You couldn’t really prepare to play Dublin by looking at individuals. It was pointless. Kerry weren’t at the top when we were involved with Roscommon. Likewise, Tyrone.
“Okay, one or two Tyrone players you would keep an eye on, but again they were the sum of their parts as well. But Murphy stands out.
“He was the single biggest issue we had to face. The only hope you had with Michael Murphy is if he had a bad pre-season and was in bad shape!”
A couple of 50-50 calls went against Roscommon that afternoon with McStay’s annoyance bubbling over when he threw a ball that inadvertently hit linesman Niall Cullen on the back of the head as the teams went off the field for half-time.
McStay was hit with a three-month suspension.
“Things were really tight and then there were two really stupid calls by the referee, in my view, coming up to half-time where Murphy just charged into one of our players – it should have been a free out, but he banged it over the bar when we should have got a free at the other end to bring it back to two going in at half-time and the referee gives it against us. That’s what caused all the frustration.”
