DONEGAL have to station Michael Murphy in the square or else their Championship campaign could come to a premature end against Armagh on Sunday, says former county star Rory Kavanagh.
The conversation around where 32-year-old Murphy is best deployed has amped up since Donegal’s Ulster final defeat to Derry, when the Glenswilly man struggled to match the energy and athleticism of the influential Brendan Rogers out the field.
With a make-or-break All-Ireland qualifier against the rejuvenated Orchard in Clones on Sunday – seven weeks after Donegal got the better of their Ulster rivals in Ballybofey – both management teams will have tactical dilemmas to tease out.
But Kavanagh feels the days of the talismanic Murphy running the show from deep could be coming to an end.
“Rogers and Derry exposed a little bit of where he’s at now in his career, if you’re being brutally honest,” said the St Eunan’s, Letterkenny boss, a 2012 All-Ireland winner alongside Murphy.
“Rogers got up and kicked three scores, he was always putting Murphy on the back foot, running at him on every single occasion.
“It was crying out for him just to be brought inside to the full-forward line for a spell, to neutalise that running threat, but it just never happened. As a result, Murphy almost played as a sweeper for the full game… it was just inviting them on.
“We need to make sure we have the other guys doing those duties and carrying the responsibility Murphy was taking on his shoulders the last day.
“If that means putting him in for more prolonged spells, and playing a more direct game at times, then so be it. You have to play to the man’s strengths, start feeding it in early because he’s still formidable if you deliver quality ball inside to him.
“There’s probably nobody else in Ireland you’d want underneath a high ball.”
And Kavanagh believes what transpired against Derry could force an attacking rethink heading to St Tiernach’s Park on Sunday, even though Donegal were such convincing winners against Armagh less than two months ago.
“The biggest thing that hurt us was we went out without asking a real question - to my mind, Derry were still there for the taking, but we were almost afraid of losing the game.
“It summed it up in that last passage of play in normal time when we didn’t go for it, we were happy to keep possession. That was wrong.
“In the second half, when we were getting Shaun Patton’s kick-outs away to that middle sector, we were transitioning really well – but there was only Paddy McBrearty up there. If Michael Murphy is in there, it’s a different ball game.
“We have to start giving the man more direct ball, start feeding it in early, because if he’s in the same sort of a role, I see it being a very long day for him and Donegal.”
Kavanagh feels that, the style in which Armagh play, they will give Donegal opportunities to capitalise up top – although he also believes the introduction of veteran Neil McGee to the Tir Chonaill full-back line could be a wise move against such a potent attack.
“I don’t know how fit Neil McGee’s going to be, but I think they need to shake up the full-back line a bit. [Brendan] McCole did pretty well on [Shane] McGuigan, Odhran McFadden-Ferry did very well on Ethan Doherty, [Peadar] Mogan played well.
“You could look at [Stephen] McMenamin, he’s possibly struggling for form this year. If Neil McGee was fit, I would bring him in, but he hasn’t played much football this year.”