Michael Murphy was the last to leave the Donegal dressing room after their qualifier loss to Armagh in Clones last June and says he knew there and then that it was his final game for the county.
The 2012 All-Ireland winning captain didn't travel home on the team bus that evening, instead hopping in the car with his father for a journey back. A further indication that he was halfway out the door.
"I just knew, I knew that time was up," Murphy told RTÉ Sport this week.
"I stayed in the dressing room afterwards and was the last to leave. Very much the last to leave - I stayed and stayed and stayed.
"The whole decision probably was cemented there, and again you are waiting for that potential turnaround from it, but it wasn't there."
On his impulsive decision to alter his post-match travel arrangements, Murphy said it was something that came over him at the time.
"It’s a funny one. Probably the location too. I would have gone to Clones years ago in the same car with the same two people to watch Donegal as a fan. Would have left there in tears crying many a time, disappointed.
"I don’t know if something came over me but I met the father outside and normally I’d give him the bag to bring home or that type of thing but that time I was bringing it home myself. I threw it in the boot and went home with him.
"That just further cemented my decision. I shared my first drive up there with him and I’ll probably share my last drive with him, that kind of way. Listen, I asked myself 'why did I do that?'
"Was it a selfish thing to leave the team that time? Potentially, but that was the decision I came to at that time. It probably further underlined that this was my first step towards detaching."
Murphy's inter-county retirement, at the age of 32, came as a slight surprise due to the timing, the news dropping in mid-November.
He insists that it had nothing to do with Donegal's unusually protracted search for a new manager, which finally concluded with the appointment of Paddy Carr, and his head coach Aidan O'Rourke, in late October.
Murphy says the managerial situation had no impact on his decision and that he wouldn't have returned for 2023 even if Jim McGuinness had been coaxed back to the hot-seat.
"I need to stress that. No matter who was managing Donegal, I wouldn't have been playing. It wouldn't have mattered a jot to me.
"And likewise the appointment of Paddy Carr. In other years, if I was there, I'd be fully behind it.
"People looking at that from the outside may see that as part of the reasoning for that delay, but it wasn't.
"I was delaying the thing myself. I had the decision more or less made in Clones. Timing wise, you're looking when was the right time to decide on something like that.
"For me to give Paddy Carr what was required this year, I knew the level it was and I just knew, myself, in my heart that I wasn't going to be able to give it to them.
"It's a difficult thing to say after all those years but that's essentially where it's at. I'm content with that now, no doubt going to watch the boys. I'll be there as a Donegal supporter, I started as a Donegal supporter."
"I need to stress that. No matter who was managing Donegal, I wouldn't have been playing.
He said he had discussed his imminent retirement with Carr on a few occasions prior to the announcement, the pair stalling initially to see if he had a late change of heart.
"We spoke about it; we thrashed it out. What I’m telling you all here now is what I told him. I’m not hiding anything in terms of what I said. We spoke about it a number of times. I just said, 'my decision is made'.
"We discussed it a couple of times to see if that would change but I knew it wouldn’t. I’m also conscious of the fact that he’s a new manager coming into a team in Donegal where you’re living, a part of, been captain of, so I wanted to be respectful.
"It was important for him to come in and this not be lingering any longer. He was only really in the role – they were only coming back training that week when I was mentioning it.
"Yeah, he was totally respectful around it when I gave him the heads up."
On his retirement, Murphy was hailed as the greatest Donegal footballer in history, captaining them to fully half of their Ulster and All-Ireland triumphs - five and one, respectively. Typing 'Michael Murphy' and 'Anglo-Celt' into the Sportsfile photography agency archive yields an impressive 32 results.
Though only 32 himself, Murphy amassed a 15-year senior inter-county career, first breaking into the Donegal senior set-up as a 17-year old in 2007.
Did the length of his career and elevated status within the Donegal set-up contribute in any way to his mildly premature departure?
"I've probably had my own levels that I felt I needed to get to every day and in fairness all of the managers that I’ve had - every single one of them from Brian McIver to John Joe (Doherty) to Jim (McGuinness) and Rory (Gallagher) and Declan (Bonner) would have held me to them too, never mind if you were captain or seen as a leader.
"You were kept to those standards as much as you possibly could, and I kept myself to them.
"Was the pressure there? The pressure was there for anybody to perform, but now sitting here I don’t think it was any huge energy zapper more than anything else. It was a role that needed to be taken and filled and pushed on, and that’s where it was at."
Though the 2010s will likely be recalled as a glittering one in the history of Donegal football, the second half of Murphy's career was characterised by frustration at their failure to add to the 2012 All-Ireland success and their persistent habit of fizzling out in time for the All-Ireland series.
While they won back-to-back Ulster titles in 2018 and '19, they stumbled at the Super 8 stage and subsequently suffered a shock provincial final defeat to Cavan in the Covid campaign of 2020. Remarkably, the landmark 2014 victory over Dublin was their most recent appearance in the last-four.
"There's regret over every year," says Murphy, of Donegal's recent past. "There's regret over five Ulsters (final losses). There's regret over this year gone past. Over every year that went past.
"2014 (All-Ireland final) is a big one, definitely. It stands out. And the Ulsters, a couple of them, that we didn't... in each of them, and not taking credit away from any of the winners of them games, that's important... but there were times when we didn't just perform.
"We couldn't say that we performed 8 or 9 out of 10 and came up short. In comparison to where we had performed them games, we were up at that level and we dropped on them given days to 6 or 7. And we were still close, were still within a kick of a ball."
It was immediately speculated that Murphy might slot into a managerial or coaching role with the Donegal set-up.
The player himself, while gung-ho for it in his mid-20s, is less certain of his appetite to head for that direction now.
"I'd be very fortunate to have close relationships with all of those managers and saw the levels that they had put into it and what is probably required in terms of outside life, to get that right to be able to give 100 per cent.
"You need to have so many ducks in a row. I would have a bit more of a question mark around it now than I would have had maybe four or five years ago.
"But there’s no doubt I’ll try and stay involved and keep the eye in about something and if it comes, it comes but I don’t think it’s as concrete now as it would have been maybe in my mid-20s."
For now, Murphy's role will be confined to that of pundit, having been unveiled as part of GAAGO's football analysis team for the upcoming season.
He was immediately asked for his analysts' take on Donegal. His departure has furthered the narrative that Donegal, drifting gradually from the summit of the championship in recent years, are in for a period of transition and rebuilding.
"Ah listen, what is transition, like? Does transition give you grace and allow you time to build? I don't think so.
"I think this year our boys are well capable. They're in Division 1, they're well capable of competing there, they're well capable of competing in Ulster. Yeah, there's a famine thereafter in terms of getting to the latter stages of the All-Ireland series.
"But I've no doubt the ability is definitely there. I definitely wouldn't be putting the label of transition on it. I think they're well capable of going and doing it. That's not putting pressure on them or anything. That's just where I see it."
