Michael Murphy retirement ends glorious epoch in Donegal football

Last June, as the Donegal players slouched off the pitch following their abject loss to Armagh in Clones, it had the definitive feel of the end of an era.

It certainly does now.

Five months later, Michael Murphy, unquestionably Donegal's greatest modern footballer, announced his retirement at the age of 33, saying that he felt he "no longer had the energy and capacity to reach the performance levels to give my best to Donegal."

For 15 years, beginning in the doldrums and rising to unimagined heights, Murphy bestrode the inter-county scene like a colossus, recognised as one of the great forwards of the game from his teenage years onwards.

A player of magnificent, selfless versatility, Murphy operated in several different guises across a glittering career - ruthless inside-forward, bustling midfield ball-winner, visionary link player. Dynamic, cerebral, elegant.

The modern history of Donegal football famously began in late 2010 when Jim McGuinness sat the players down in a hotel and asked them why they were only ranked 19th in the country. Aside from anything else, it was certainly the most consequential set of county power rankings ever committed to print.

Murphy's own inter-county career pre-dated McGuinness by a few seasons - virtual antiquity in Donegal terms - beginning in 2007 under the regime of Brian McIver.

In a testament to his longevity, the text message informing him of his first county call-up was received on a Nokia (as he told Donegal Live's Alan Foley last night).

While the county continued to bob along irrelevantly in mid-table for a couple of years, Murphy established himself as an outlier in an otherwise grim environment.

Still only 19, he was already nailed down as Donegal's leading score-getter in the 2008