Footballer Blake Murphy happy to play in the States as a build up to this year's championship with his club St Vincent's

THERE is an old saying, 'when one door closes, another one opens,' and that is the story of former Cork minor, U20 and senior inter-county football star Blake Murphy.

Blake made the very difficult decision to step away from the Cork senior panel a couple of months ago because he was frustrated with his lack of playing time, however, two weeks after his decision he got some offers to travel to America to go play for a six-week period before coming back to play for his club, St Vincent's in the county intermediate A football championship. 

After thinking over the many offers he received to play Stateside he decided to play for the Sean Treacy’s club that are based in San Francisco. 

He left last Saturday and he will play in the Western Division with his new teammates and returns to Cork on July 23rd where he hopes he will be able to line out for Vincent's against Mitchelstown in Rathcormac on July 26th.

Murphy is looking forward to the new experience and challenges that will come his way playing in a different country, however, he can’t wait to get started and meet his new teammates.

“This is a great opportunity for me personally, to get the chance to play with a different club from a different country,” Blake said.

“A couple of months ago I made the very difficult decision to step away from the Cork senior panel.

"I thought I was going well in the McGrath Cup and scored 1-6 in the Teddy McCarthy Memorial game. 

"However, I was getting very little game time in the league and was getting very frustrated. 

"I’m not throwing my toys out of the pram, as I know all the lads are putting in serious training and make so many sacrifices, but I play different sports as well and everything was suffering.

“When I was on the panel I gave up playing basketball and missed out on a National Cup medal with UCC Blue Demons. 

"I also play some soccer with Castleview in the Munster Senior League and played some of the last games of this season for them.

“I’m not closing the door on my inter-county career yet, as I just need to take some time to reset and when or if I feel that I want another crack at playing at that level again I will definitely make myself available. 

"However, for now I just want to concentrate on my club football and hurling championships and then I plan to play in the men’s Super League with Demons next season.

“I don’t have any gripe with the Cork management team or any of the players with the Cork senior team and I hope they will have a very successful campaign this year."

It will be a very busy couple of months for Blake, as he only arrived in San Francisco last Sunday and he will start training with his new teammates on Monday. 

Before he traveled to the states, he had to insure all his paperwork was in order and he praised his club St Vincent's for all their help getting everything sorted out with officials from Croke Park and the officials from Sean Treacy’s GAA Club.

“When I stepped away from the senior panel my spirits were very low, however, two weeks later I received a couple of phone calls from different clubs in America interested in me playing football with them over the summer. 

"I weighed up everything and decided the Sean Treacy’s GAA Club in San Francisco would be perfect for me. 

"I have done my research on their championship and the standard is very high and competitive. 

"They have a number of Irish players from different counties on their panel and have some excellent players that live in and around San Francisco.

“I will be away for the best part of six or seven weeks and will be training every day, so when I return I should be very sharp and ready for my club’s intermediate A championship game against Mitchelstown three days later.

“St Vincent’s are managed again this year by my father John-Paul, and Keith Ricken and we just finished the League campaign, so we are going very well. 

"We have a great bunch of lads on the panel to be fair, which has a nice mix of experience and younger players. 

"There’s a great buzz in training as the young lads are full of enthusiasm and energy.

"It’s funny as I’m mentioning the young players and I’m only 24 years old myself. 

"Our aim this year is get promoted to the Premier Intermediate Division and with the young lads we were waiting to come through for the last few years, like Ben Long, Brendan Hornibrook, and many more, they definitely don’t look out of place in our squad.

“We are in an very difficult group in the championship this year, as we play Mitchelstown, Glanworth and Ballinora, so we will have to be at our best to qualify to the next rounds.” 

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