Michael Murphy branded Donegal's gripping Ulster final triumph over Armagh as "brilliant" as he savoured his first provincial medal since making his comeback.
The veteran talisman earned the Man of the Match award as Donegal edged out the reigning All-Ireland champions by a 2-23 to 0-28 scoreline in Clones on Saturday evening, weighing in with three points in an all-action display.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport's Siobhan Madigan, the 2012 All-Ireland winner admitted that reliving days like these was "without a doubt" one of the motivating factors in coming back into the inter-county fold.
FT: Armagh 0-28 Donegal 2-23
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 10, 2025
Michael Murphy is awarded man of the match in the Ulster SFC final: 'There were times we were in, and times we were out.'
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"Ulster is always our bread and butter, it's always our thing, for so many years we could never win them," he said.
"It's just brilliant to get back in again and just the heart and the desire of them lads out there today, the people in Donegal in general.
"There were times when we were in (the game), we were out and we were back in and back out, but it's just great that we got out on the right side of it there today."
While Donegal came out on top on the day, Murphy was still mindful of the fact that Armagh will remain live contenders for the All-Ireland as the rest of the summer pans out.
"Listen, Armagh are an absolute incredible side, they're an absolute credit. They're All-Ireland champions, they've been in Ulster finals the last number of years.
"They're a brilliant side. It's not the last we're going to see of them this year."
Indeed, the fact that Armagh lost last year's Ulster final before roaring back to win Sam Maguire, was on the mind of the Orchard county goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty.
"Look, if you said to us last year that we'd get beaten in an Ulster final and win the big one, you'd take your arm off so we're not going to look a whole pile past what happened the last couple of hours," he said.
"We'll just take a break tonight and maybe look at it tomorrow morning and evaluate it and then to try and take a bounce off it the best we can."
And Rafferty was taking a philosophical view of a third Ulster final defeat in a row for Kieran McGeeney's men.
"Fine margins. Football, life, sport is all based down on fine margins. We had our luck of the green I suppose at the end of last summer, so you can't really put that kind of stuff down. There'll be a lot of mini moments that caused it so we'll just have to try and find an answer then."
Watch the Leinster Football Championship final, Meath v Louth, on Sunday from 3.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
