Shane Murphy Answers the Loughtec Questionnaire

Wednesday 06.05.2020

1. Earliest GAA memory.

Rock winning County and Ulster championship in 2007, older brother being a member of the panel had me at every training and match there was

2. Was your family a traditional GAA family? 

Daddy being a Cookstown man, older brother playing for the Rock I had plenty of GAA around me, living right next to the pitch made it easy to get up and practice, attending lots of county games from a young age with cousins was big factor too, always loved getting to anything GAA from no age

3. Sibling involvement or success?

Older brother Paul won club county and Ulster medals in 07 with the Rock further moving on to Australia to win win numerous Championships and later picked up an All- Star so always looked up to him.

4. School participation and/or success.

Was very lucky to be a member of the Holy Trinity team that won Ulster and All- Ireland titles in 2018, being the Captain was extra special with a highly skilled bunch

5. Club/ County role models that you looked up to as a youth

Having club player highly involved with the county set up give you a real role model proving that when you work hard with the club you will achieve at the highest level, Ciaran Gourley showed that and I have always looked up to that, within the Club having had some success I always looked up to my brother as he always had an influential role in the success, but another stand out club player was Martin Mccreesh, skill levels were outstanding, his awareness, passing, shooting was all outstanding and could use both feet at ease.

6. Other sports that you played or had an interest in.

Played soccer from a young age and really enjoyed it but knew Gaelic was the more important one for me, finished the soccer at 16/17

7. Most difficult opponent you have faced in club football and why?

First year of senior football last year was great to be tested with some top class footballers, played Aghaloo twice and had very tough battles with both the McGlone brothers, then had a test against Brocagh, Ciaran Donnelly was hard to keep an eye on

8. Best player you have ever seen play Gaelic football 

Peter Canavan was different level, but cant remember much of actually seeing him as I was young at the time, but Colm Cooper is probably the best I have seen in recent years, always has a huge influence one the Game

9. Are you a fan of the recent rule changes? 

Personally I am a fan of the rule changes, if you can get every player on the team on the same wave length with the right tactics, the inside mark could really win you a game, Tyrone showed this in the League.

10. One suggestion that you think might improve the game.

With some games now being very defensive I would like to see that once over your own 45 you can’t go back towards your goalie

11. Are you a fan of academies/development squads?

Coming through the Tyrone Acedemy I think that these development squads or academies are very important, the work that goes on is outstanding and it gets young lads playing at high levels at a young age, great work being done in Tyrone by the likes of Ryan Daly, always had great sessions under him

12. Your own involvement around the club.

With our club being very close community everyone plays their part, was recently Involved with coaching a great u16 team with a few other young lads, great to be involved and help push the youth through

13. How important is the GAA in your community?

I see the GAA as our community, the Rock is a small area and everyone around it is involved with the club in some way, the new Community hub in the Rock was built on a community working together for each other

14. Favourite county jersey (not Tyrone) 

Cork GAA 1920 Commemoration Top

15. Are you a fan of penalties to decide the outcome of championship games?

Having been put out of and Ulster semi final due to this it’s a strong No from me, especially seeing the final wasnt for 2/3 weeks after our game, plenty of time for a replay, but if the next game is closely followed it may be acceptable