He's one of three members of the most successful club team in the land to have lifted Sam Maguire as an All Ireland-winning captain. Billy Morgan and Dinny Allen are the others. Murphy's year came in 1953 . . . Billy and Dinny had their turn on the carousel in 1973 and '89.

Billy will pound the tramlines of Croke Park today;

Dinny will bellow encouragement from the stand; Jas, who played for Cork against Kerry in the 1947 Munster final will be the only Nemo man hoping that Billy and Dinny go home disappointed.

All because, despite being domiciled in Cork for over 60 years, he's still Kerry. A Strand Road, Tralee man.

"I can go back to Kerry and it's as if I never left all those years ago, " says Jas. "Kerry never forget their footballers.

If you wore that jersey you can go down any time and you'll be one of their own - always. They'll remember you for that jersey."

Jas Murphy is just one example to show how football lines between Kerry and Cork have intertwined down the years. A Corkman, Brother Murrary in Tralee CBS, first taught him how to kick ball, while after being posted to Cork City as a garda in the mid-1940s he joined the St Nics club.

Jas first came to the attention of the Cork selectors in 1947 . . . Cork were the Munster and All Ireland champions from 1945, Kerry took both their titles in 1946. The following year's Munster final in old Athletic Grounds was the deciding rubber.

"That game is often recalled, " says Jas, "and I'll certainly never forget it. I was marking Frank O'Keeffe, a school friend of mine from Tralee. There was a huge prize that year, because the All Ireland final was going to New York. We [Cork] were going well and were awarded a penalty by referee Simon Deignan, but before Jim Aherne got to take it, Joe Keohane stood down on the ball and drove it into the mud. Jim kicked it and it trickled into Dan O'Keeffe's hands.

"Kerry were on their way to New York, we went home. I don't think Cork were too happy with the way I played that day. They lost faith and trust in me . . . they thought I wasn't giving my best. In 1949 Micheal O Ruairc asked me to declare for Kerry."

Jim and John Cronin from Miltown-Castlemaine also played in that 1947 Munster final. Jim was full-forward on the Cork team that beat Cavan in the 1945 All Ireland final, but it wasn't until John returned to the Kerry fold that All Irelands came his way.

Jas Murphy and John Cronin led the Kerry exodus out of Cork in the late '40s . . .Mixie Palmer from Sneem, Tom Moriarty from Brandon and Ned Roche from Knocknagoshel, who were all given their inter-county starts in Cork followed in the early '50s.

Palmer had the most colourful Cork career of all . . .when studying medicine in UCC he was selected for the county minor team, while football also made him the richest kid on campus.

"I must have played for 15 clubs in Cork, " he says, "because you'd get a couple of quid for lining out with each club. If your team won and you played well, you'd get a fiver. Back then, there was a lot of money gambled on games in west Cork, even junior games. So clubs were always willing to bring in outside players."

Palmer's life as an illegal football mercenary eventually earned him a 12-month suspension. It was a fate also suffered by Ned Roche and Tom Moriarty. A photograph of Roche playing rugby 12 years before was used by the Cork County Board to banish him to the sidelines, while Moriarty also fell foul of Rebel county authorities for making up the numbers in an interfirm rugby game in Tipperary.

When the Cork blockade against Roche and Moriarty ended, the Kerry selectors didn't delay in sending out the call.

In 1953, Kerry had gone seven years without winning an All Ireland . . . worse still Cork had humiliated them by 0-11 to 0-2 in the 1952 Munster final at the Athletic Grounds.

"The Killarney Races were on the week before the '52 final, " says Mixie Palmer, "and some of the team, myself included, spent a few days racing. The night before the Munster final, about six of us decided we'd go to Glenbeigh.

We stayed in Evans' Hotel, had a few pints and the next morning when we woke, the owner of the hotel had to drive us to Cork for the game. I slept the whole way there and when I got on the field, I was knackered after 20 minutes.

We were hammered and it would have been worse but for Paddy Bawn and Marcus O'Neill."

It was different the following year, with many of Kerry's former Cork contingent in the van. Jas Murphy at right-fullback, Ned Roche at full-back, John Cronin at centre-back and Mixie Palmer at left-halfback. Tom Moriarty's turn came in 1955. Kerry beat Cork by four points in the 1953 Munster final and went on to win the All Ireland.

"You could say Cork helped us win that All Ireland, " says Jas, "because all of us played our football in Cork and learned a lot there. We were still Kerrymen though, despite having great memories of the football we played in Cork."

They weren't the only ones. Dick Fitzgerald, the grandfather of Kerry football, picked up much about the game when playing with the famous Nils Desperandum club in Cork City at the turn of the 20th century, while Dingle's Batt O'Connor also learned his trade with the Nils before going home to win his All Ireland in 1909.

Keel's Tom Prendergast was a football nomad who played for Cork en route to winning his All Irelands with Kerry in 1969 and '70, while John Egan credits Brother McCarthy for his football education at Carrignavar Secondary School in Cork.

The road hasn't always been one way though . . . Dinny Long, an All Ireland winner with Cork in 1973, is a legend on Rock Street in Tralee, having helped Austin Stacks land the All Ireland club title in 1977.

Blurred lines and crossed paths. Stories from the crossroads of Kerry/Cork history.