Michael Murphy is an incredible footballer. There is perhaps nobody else in Gaelic football who has been more consistent over the last decade, and he is often singled out as the most impactful player in the country.

Donegal have seemingly move up a level in 2019, and much of that has been down to the form of Murphy. He was exemplary in their run to yet another Ulster title, and carried that into the opening Super 8 fixture against Meath.

His personal tally in that one was 0-3, but he affected the game in a number of different ways. Meath put up a fierce challenge for much of the match, and it could have been a different result were Murphy not on the pitch.

That is certainly the view of one member of the Meath backroom team. Speaking on the We Are Meath podcast, Meath coach Colm Nally said Donegal are as close to a one-man team as he has seen in the GAA.

This is new territory for ourselves. We've been going relatively easy in training because we kind of expected this. But the point we've made was that the likes of Donegal and Tyrone are training for the Super 8s where we were training to get into the Super 8s. We've probably come over our peak slightly, whereas they're kind of just reaching their peak. But in saying that, like I'm not saying Donegal are a one-man team but they're the closest team I've ever seen to a one-man team. Michael Murphy was getting scores, then he was in the middle catch the balls and then at the end he was clearing the ball off the line. So I mean if you put him in our team, I think you'd see a different result.


As good as Murphy is, calling Donegal a one-man team is a big call. They have a number of quality operators, many of whom make a comparable impact to the Glenswilly man.

Still, you'd rather have him in your team that playing against you.