Jim McGuinness on Michael Murphy's 'incredibly high football IQ' as he welcomes former captain back

Donegal boss Jim McGuinness has spoken of his delight at welcoming Michael Murphy’s “incredibly high football IQ” back into his dressing room.

News of Murphy’s decision to resume his inter-county career after a two year hiatus emerged earlier this month and he looks set to be major asset to McGuinness, even at the age of 35, as the manager looks to build on an encouraging 2024 season as the Ulster title was reclaimed. McGuinness had tried to entice the Glenswilly man out of retirement when he returned to the job last year so the fact that he managed to do it this time came as something of a surprise.

“Delighted to have him back,” he told Donegal TV at the Donegal Association, London banquet. “Great, obviously in terms of what he brings on the pitch but off the pitch hopefully it’s going to be a very important part of 2025 and a person that I know very well and understand very well and an incredibly high football IQ so absolutely delighted that Michael has made that decision. Look forward to working with him next year.”

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As well as continuing to impress with his club while away from Donegal, Murphy kept his finger on the pulse as a pundit with GAAGO as well as sitting on Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee, whose rule changes will be voted on at Special Congress next Saturday.

Some of the rules, such as the new two-point scoring arc, would appear to chime with Murphy’s skillset and McGuinness said that “it will mean a major change if they do come in”.

“There’s not a coach in the country that’s not waiting hard to understand what we are actually going to be working with in terms of the rules next year because what gets in and what doesn’t get in will have a massive impact on how the game’s played, will have a massive impact on fitness levels, I would suggest and so if all the rules come in, for talking’s sake, it’ll dramatically change the physical nature of the game and make it much more transitional, which has been missing for the last number of years so everybody’s waiting now.

“Just a week to go. Some people are waiting on Santa, we’re waiting on the rules to see what’s going to happen and then as a coach, obviously all you can do is coach to the rules so we’re trying to understand them as quickly as possible and then get our head around how we can try and take advantage of them.”

McGuinness said that the ‘three up’ rule, which forces both teams to have at least three outfield players in one half of the field at all times could breathe new life into the centre-forward role.

“I think the three up rule does come in there’s the potential for a throwback, maybe 20 years of a throwback. You’re going to have players to play off further up the pitch that’s going to connect the play from defence to attack.

“I think we could see maybe a renaissance in No 11s as well, Michael Hegarty (former Donegal footballer), playing that role, where the ball is handed to that type of player and they make those threaded passes to the inside line, that type of thing.

“I think you could see that in the interprovincials over the course of a weekend, that the No 11 was becoming more important so all those bits and pieces are in the air at the moment and we’re all going wait now to see how it falls.”

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