Oisin Gallen potential is ‘scary’ says Donegal legend Michael Murphy 

Michael Murphy has paid Oisin Gallen the ultimate compliment insisting that Donegal’s fame-haired attacker is unique and capable of things even he couldn’t do. 

Donegal take on Louth on Sunday in the All-Ireland quarter-finals and their former talisman is in no doubt that Gallen’s potential is yet to reach its ceiling. 

The 2012 All-Ireland winning captain has been impressed with how the MacCumhaills man has faced up to a rotten spate of injuries and, as a result, has built his body up in a way that now enhances his natural ability even further. 

“If only I could do some of the things that he can do,” said Murphy. “I mean, it’s scary some of the things we would have seen in training.

“We’ve seen glimpses of it. We seen a really strong glimpse of it in the first-half of the Ulster final where what I was talking about, what we were seeing in training and what we were seeing in the club championship for the last four or five years, just scoring and kicking on sight from all angles, came out.

“And not in a blase kind of way because he practices it and he can do it in a really consistent way.

“The big one for Oisin, and I’m sure he’ll say it, and I think for us all, was could he string together seven to 10 games in a row, back-to-back, and build his body up to withstand that and now that he has that, I hope his body is at a strong level to keep showing up and maintaining that.”

Donegal are hotly tipped to advance to the last four at HQ at the weekend but regardless of what happens, even the unthinkable, Murphy insists Donegal have reclaimed some serious ground in 2024. 

“I still think it would look quite strong,” said Murphy when asked how Donegal’s season would stack up in the event of a seismic slip-up against the Wee County.

“There is no doubt Donegal wanted to get back playing Division One football and you could see throughout the League they were gung ho for that.

“The team selection was the strongest side out every single day and they were trying to build momentum towards that.

“But the Ulster draw, I don’t think even the most optimistic of Donegal fans, which I am, like, I think you could maybe foresee one shock, but playing Derry who were in their pomp, to be competitive that day was maybe the most positive way a Donegal fan could look towards it.

“To see how it has transpired since, I think they’ve exceeded expectations. 

“Listen, they are going into the Louth game in form and as favourites probably to win that game, based on what they have done and the body of evidence they have created so far this year.

“But if they were to come away with a defeat, that’s going to be because of a really strong Louth performance. 

“The way Donegal are playing at the moment, they are difficult to beat and if Louth do manage to beat them it will be because they’ve made a really good stab at it.

“I don’t think that would mean a disaster of a season in any way.”

Murphy resisted the temptation to reverse his own retirement decision when Jim McGuinness came back on board late last year. And while he’s never doubted the talent of the group he once led, the accelerated improvement made in such a short space of time has raised even his eyebrows.  

“I was expecting it to come in year two,” he said on Donegal’s return to the summit in Ulster and their march back to Jones Road and the last eight in the All-Ireland series. 

“I thought this year they would mainly get up to scratch but I didn’t think the level of team performance would be here for them just yet. So that’s definitely come a lot quicker.”

Murphy says Donegal’s inability to build on their previous provincial triumphs, the ones in between McGuinness’ departure and his shock return, was difficult to fathom. 

Under Declan Bonner, they looked like they’d built up big heads of steam in both 2018 and 2019 but just couldn’t carry that momentum over into the business end of the season. Murphy admits they are failures that still sting. 

The cold, hard fact is that Donegal hasn’t reached the last four in the race for Sam Maguire in a decade. 

McGuinness was the man at the helm then and the hope now, this time around, is that the Glenties native can again be the one that gets them over the line when it really counts. 

“In the latter stages of my own career, we couldn’t get over that hoodoo even when we did win a few Ulsters.

“For a team that’s been around Division 1 and competing in Ulster finals for quite a bit of that period of time, to not be getting to that last-four level was something we were conscious of as a team. I know I certainly was as a player.

“You were really trying to think of yourself as being up and around those circles, so that’s going to be a challenge. I’m sure it’s something this team is thinking about too.

“A lot of the lads would be from the early part of that generation so that’s a huge thing too and I’m sure that’ll be playing on minds going into the weekend.”