Simon Murphy has hit the ground running in Clonakilty

BY SEÁN HOLLAND

SIMON Murphy has hit the ground running with Clonakilty’s senior football team.

The former Dublin minor and U20 footballer moved to Clon in January, and as well as throwing his lot in with the local GAA club, Murphy and his girlfriend Tara have set up West Cork Running Club, an initiative open to all ages and abilities.

The big move, swapping city life for West Cork, is one they’re enjoying, and Murphy is bringing a taste of Dublin football to Clonakilty. The former St Judes player has slotted straight in.

‘It's a similar-enough set up in terms of the professionalism at the top level of the club game,’ Murphy says, comparing the standards in Dublin to Cork.

‘Martin O'Brien here in Clon is a great coach and the selectors know their stuff. In Dublin, there’s a big focus on attacking football; it's very attack-minded, very fast-paced. I found that it was similar enough to here.’

Now ingrained into the team and the community, Murphy has bought into Division 2 table-topper’s aims and goals for the season with a keen eye on toppling the Munster and county champions Castlehaven later in the summer.

Clonakilty's Simon Murphy is a new addition to the team this season.

‘Our focus is to get promotion back up to Division 1; it’s been going well so far, we're unbeaten in the league, so hopefully we keep that going. Then we’ll be all guns blazing for championship, playing Castlehaven in the first game in July,’ Murphy said, and he has already crossed paths with Castlehaven, but it wasn’t the most conventional of introductions.

As well as playing, Murphy referees, too. That’s a strong tradition of refereeing in his family back home in Dublin and it’s a job Murphy enjoys – and that’s where he came across a current Castlehaven footballer.

‘I refereed a few of the Cahalanes before up in Dublin in a hurling friendly between St Finbarr’s and Kilmacud Crokes. In that game, I actually had to send off Jack! He’ll get some shock when he sees me on the pitch in July,’ Murphy quipped.

While the Sacred Heart Secondary School teacher found his feet quickly in Clon, Murphy and his girlfriend Tara, from Mayo, decided that setting up West Cork Running Club would be a great way to get to know more people.

‘Since we moved to Clonakilty, it was easy for me to make friends through the football, but my girlfriend was finding it a bit tough, not really knowing many people here,’ he explained.

‘We looked to see if there was a social running club already set up here and there really wasn't. This is a good opportunity to set up a club for the community and all of West Cork. It was something I could hold myself to, coming from an athletic background and studying as a PE teacher.’

It’s so far, so good for the club, as there has been an encouraging uptake from the local community even though the initiative is in its early stages.

‘We had our launch event and our first run two weeks ago. It will be a continuous thing going forward,’ Murphy explained.

‘We meet up every weekend and then every Wednesday morning. So far it's been on Sundays, and we’d meet at 10.30am. Then on a Wednesday morning it would be early at around 7am. We start at the Wazi-Woo café in Clon and head out the town for about two and a half kilometres and back again.

‘We've had pretty good numbers so far, about 45 people came to our first run on a Sunday. It’s a bit of craic and a good positive thing to be at. People seem to be investing in it and seem to be very positive about it,’ Murphy explained.

‘Anyone can take part. Any age, any ability can do it. Walking or running. There's people that walk at the weekend and then there are people that run. It makes it easier for people to do it in a group rather than going out on their own training. Usually, we’d just grab a coffee after and chat away. It's like a nice social club also for people. It's basically helping people to get active, getting your daily steps in and meeting new people.’