Tough Tackling Brendan Murray A Vital Part Of The Meath Backline Around The Middle 70's 1970 was a significant year in the life of Ashbourne man Brendan Murray. He left school that summer, played minor football for Meath and started work with Texaco Ireland Ltd. His playing days are over but he is still with Texaco and has been part of their growing success story over the last 25 years. For the first 10 of these his career in Texaco went hand in hand with his stint as a Meath Senior footballer and, for another five years, with Westmeath when his work took him to Athlone. His inter-county career co-incided with the emergence of one of the greatest sides ever assembled, the Dublin team 1974-78, and so he and Meath spent most of the decade in the shadows of that all conquering outfit. It was a Meath team which would probably have won Leinster titles at least in any other decade and in fact was good enough to run Dublin to two points in the Leinster finals of '76 and '77. In all, they lost four finals in that decade, All-Ireland champions Offaly beating them in '73 and Dublin in '74 as well as '76 and '77. The only consolation came in 1975 when they outscored Dublin, the newly-crowned All-Ireland champions, in the National League final by four points. Brendan also won a county Junior medal with his club Donaghmore in 1971 and a Westmeath Senior medal with Moate in 1983. He is still heavily involved in football, training the Walterstown Senior team in Meath. A sales representative with Texaco, he began work in the company's terminal down at the North Wall, Dublin and was there until 1979 when he transferred to Athlone. In '84 he went to Limerick as a sales rep and returned to Dublin in '88 where he is now based, though living in Walterstown. He covers 23 Texaco service stations in the Dublin/Wicklow/Wexford/Laois/Kildare area and says the company has an excellent reputation among motorists for the quality of its petrol and diesel products. "We give a 100% guarantee or your money back if you're no happy with a service you get on a Texaco forecourt. We pride ourselves in customer care and in the training we give our retailers and their forecourt and shop staff. We try to give what the customer wants when he or she comes in". Texaco also have their own loyalty scheme called "Superclub" which is tied with Superquinn. There are a lot of companies involved with Superclub. "So you can save for your gift and you don't just have to buy at Texaco or Superquinn you can go to other companies as well and spend your money and get your points so you have more companies to work from. We feel it's a very attractive loyalty scheme." A shopping outlet is now an integral part of most service stations where the motorist can buy his household goods and get his car refuelled all in the one stop. It's an important part of company strategy because it's the kind of service the customer wants nowadays, says Brendan. "He wants to be able to stop on the way home, get his pint of milk or his paper and get whatever he wants. Its convenience really". Now 43, Brendan Murray first played for Meath Seinors in 1971 at the age of 19. Offaly were the powerhouse in Leinster at the time, winning consecutive All-Ireland titles in '71 and '72. They disposed quite easily of Meath in the 1973 Leinster final but were a spent force by 1974. But, with Offaly out of the way, it was a surprise Dublin team that filled the vacuum that year, beating Meath by five points in the provincial final. Kevin Moran has often said that they received their toughest games from Meath during that era but, were they a physical as the games between them during the mid to late 80's? "Well, every Meath/Dublin game is tough, and I suppose it was just as hard in my day only you didn't realise it. It probably looked tougher when I was playing. It's just passion and rivalry and the media build up a bit of that I suppose, but the players - I mean Meath and Dublin were the top teams at the time and somebody had to come out on top and I suppose at the end of the day Meath just came at that time and Dublin have turned the tables since". Brendan played both at centre half back and corner back for Meath alongside such talented players and big names as Jack Quinn, Pat Reynolds, Joe Cassells, Ken Rennicks, Matt Kerrigan, Mick Ryan, Ollie O'Brein and Cormac Rowe. Colm O'Rourke was a link with that generation having played in his first Leinster final in 1976. It was a team perhaps that should have won a provincial title. "Well I suppose we were a bit unfortunate. We felt ourselves we should have won one but we were up against a very good Dublin team. I mean, they proved it. They won a couple of All-Irelands and were one of the best teams of all time. We were a bit unlucky to meet them, I suppose." Meath came out of Division Two to win the National League in '75, beating Kerry, who went on to win the All-Ireland that year, in the quarter-final and Mayo in the semi. Brendan was left corner back that season and marked the redoubtable John McCarty in the final against Dublin. McCarty was a big powerful corner forward and a handful for any defender. Brendan also had a few 'running battles' with Bobby Doyle and marked Tony Hanahoe on a number of occasions also. "Good players, Bobby Doyle had a bit of a reputation for whatever but I never found him that way, he was a good player. He was a runner, and hard to run with, and could both make space for others and score from far out". But Tony Hanahoe was hardest to mark, for Brendan anyway, simply because he left his position and wandered all over. "I marked him in '74 at centre half back but I didn't play centre half back. I was of under the Hogan Stand or under the Cusack Stand or somewhere. That was Dublin's play at the time they just opened up the middle. They developed a running game, possession football, and that was it". They caught most football teams by surprise that year with their fitness, their running and their movement. If Tony Hanahoe was the fulcrum for their attack then Jimmy Keaveney was the focus, a one-man scoring machine to whom they tried to get as much ball as possible. If they did, says Brendan, then the points and goals inevitable flowed, If they didn't they won the frees which Jimmy would convert with almost robotic consistency. Brendan finished his inter-county career with Meath in 1979 when Texaco transferred him to Athlone and in 1980, began a five year stint with neighbouring Westmeath, his father's county, Moate was Murray's club in Westmeath and the former Donaghmore star was a big hit with the 'Lilywhites', finishing at the age of 32 in Centenary Year, 1984. He took a strong interest in his personal fitness during his county years and was pretty disciplined about the Saturday nights before county games. That was more or less taken for granted for most county players now but the amateur approach was still very much alive in the '70's and early '80's and many's a county man took to the field on a Sunday having been less than monastic the night before. "It got to the stage you just couldn't do it. Well, I couldn't do it anyway. Personally I wouldn't be able to perform the next day if I had been out the night before and that was it." Brendan finished out his playing career with Walterstown whom he now trains. Former county colleague Par Reynolds is team manager. It's still quite a commitment, taking up two nights a week plus Sunday's. He tries to incorporate a fair bit of ballwork into his training sessions as opposed to the grind of laps and boring stamina work. "I'd be a ball man yeah, because when you go out on a Sunday that's what you have to work with. You can have the best runners in the world but if they can't catch a ball it's no good. A lot of guys are no fitter probably then they used to be - this thing of running laps of a field, there's no joy in that, you have to vary it as best as you can. It doesn't always work because if you're at it a few years the lads get used to you anyway and it's very difficult to keep changing it but the ball is the important thing". He also coaches Walterstown under 8's, Under 10's, Under 12's on Saturday mornings from April to September. Married to Navan woman Aileen they have three children, Jenny (15), Eavan (12) and Patrick (nearly 9!). Patrick is a mad Manchester United and Meath fan with Tommy Dowd and Andy Cole his particular favourites. Andrei Kanchelskis was also an idol - until he moved to Everton! - but Patrick can relax where Tommy is concerned: Joe Royle has not expressed an interest, not so far anyway! Brendan himself is not a particular soccer fan although he enjoys a good match on the television. "Young lad's nowadays have much more choice. My own young lad, for example, plays rugby as well with Navan on Saturday mornings during the wintertime and Gaelic with Walterstown Under 10's during the summer. I think the GAA are up against it, they have a battle on their hands to try and keep young lads playing the game. You have soccer and Gaelic and rugby trying to compete." And how is the GAA responding to the challenge? "Well, I mean, a young lad will always kick a ball, it doesn't matter what shape it is, if it's a rugby ball or a soccer ball or a Gaelic ball, he's going to get out and play whatever his friends are doing and that's the way it's going to be. It's up to the clubs to get out there and get them playing but I think things have improved a lot. I never wore a jersey until I was Under 14 but they have Under 8's and Under 10's and Under 12's now and it's come a long way. They realise that they have to do it because the soccer and rugby clubs are doing it and if they didn't, they were going to lose out. So it's a bit of a competition and there's nothing wrong with that." Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 24th November, 1995 Tweet

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