{"id":517411,"date":"2026-06-25T08:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517411\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T08:31:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:31:20","slug":"spillane-hails-michael-murphy-as-the-incredible-hulk-of-donegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517411\/","title":{"rendered":"Spillane hails Michael Murphy as \u2018The Incredible Hulk\u2019 of Donegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pat Spillane has hailed Michael Murphy as \u2018The Incredible Hulk\u2019 of Donegal but described him as a \u2018quiet, unassuming gentle giant\u2019 off the field.<\/p>\n

The Glenswilly clubman (36) came out of retirement last year and helped his county to an Ulster SFC, an All-Ireland final, and was nominated for Footballer of the Year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, after last Sunday\u2019s extra-time defeat to Dublin in Croke Park, Spillane \u2018could not imagine\u2019 Murphy returning for Donegal next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Murphy has been a legend of the game and has been one of the greatest players of the modern era,\u201d he told the Indo GAA<\/a> podcast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been an inspiration on and off the field. He drives standards, he\u2019s a leader but, unfortunately, time and tide waits for no man and I could not imagine him being back next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, the Kerry legend jumped to Murphy\u2019s defence after he was booed by Kingdom \u2018supporters\u2019 in Killarney.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s when you\u2019re hated by all the opposition supporters, in a funny, perverse, sort of way, that\u2019s praise and that\u2019s the realisation of how important a player he is,\u201d Spillane added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael, off the field, is such a quiet, unassuming gentle giant that became, when he put on that Donegal jersey and got on the field, The Incredible Hulk. Michael Murphy, when he went on that playing field, was transformed into… a guy who wanted to battle and who was winning at all costs and a guy who played on the edge, and sometimes strayed beyond it. But, by God, that’s what great players, great sportsplayers and great achievers do. He\u2019s an amazing, amazing man, a great man.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fellow Indo GAA podcaster, and former Monaghan great Dick Clerkin, said he had the pleasure of playing against Murphy when he made his debut in an All-Ireland qualifier in Ballybofey in 2008.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I remember Michael\u2019s debut in a 2008 qualifier up in Ballybofey; and we beat them that time. But he was as formidable then as he is now,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing words like \u2018warrior and workhorse\u2019 is unfitting for him. He is Donegal\u2019s best player. Going back to the League Final (against Kerry), that was Michael Murphy – he played on the edge and that\u2019s what made him great. He would not have achieved, and Donegal would not have achieved, without him bringing that to his game. The way I played the game, I appreciated and respected him for that as much as I respected him for the brilliance he had as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, like Spillane, Clerkin also feels now is the time for Murphy to finally hang up the boots, again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think now is the time to do it (retire) as we’ll not talk about it in the depths of winter like we will now. He should be remembered for the great player that he is, and was, and I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll still line out for his club Glenswilly and still be winning county titles with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clerkin admitted he \u2018didn\u2019t reach the heights\u2019 of either Murphy or Spillane during his long career with Monaghan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I did have the privilege of playing against some of the greatest who have played the game. If I was to pick the best 15 that I have ever played against, Michael Murphy would certainly be on it,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat Spillane has hailed Michael Murphy as \u2018The Incredible Hulk\u2019 of Donegal but described him as a \u2018quiet,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-517411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}