He played hurling with his local club Sarsfields and was a member of the Cork senior inter-county team from 2003 until 2011.
Murphy announced his retirement from inter-county hurling in 2011 due to work commitments outside the Cork area.
After experiencing little success at minor level, Murphy was a key member of the 'Sars' under-21 team that reached the final of the county under-21 championship in 2003.
[1] Murphy first came to prominence on the inter-county scene as a member of the Cork minor hurling team when he was just sixteen years-old in 1999.
After manoeuvring through the qualifiers Cork reached a second consecutive All-Ireland final and, once again, Kilkenny provided the opposition.
[7] In 2005 Cork were on form again and the team won back the provincial crown that year with a 1–12 to 1–16 victory over Tipperary.
In the All-Ireland semi-final against Clare their championship campaign was nearly derailed when they fell behind by seven points at the start of the second-half.
While it was expected that Cork and Kilkenny would do battle again in a third consecutive All-Ireland final Galway were the surprise winners of the second semi-final.
Star forward Joe Deane was to the fore, scoring an impressive eight points and contributing greatly to Cork's 2–11 to 1–11 victory over their old rivals.
Subsequent victories over Limerick and Waterford saw Cork qualify for their fourth consecutive All-Ireland final and for the third time Kilkenny were the opponents.
In the end the Cork hurlers returned to duty, however, their first championship game resulted in a defeat by Tipperary and 'the Rebels' had to take their chances in the win-or-bust qualifiers.
He was later re-appointed for a further two-year term by the Cork County Board, in spite of the majority of the players not wanting him to stay on.
McCarthy accordingly began the 2009 National League campaign with a new squad, none of whom had been able to make the previous year's panel.
Following the resolution to these difficulties Cork were defeated by Tipperary on a score line of 1–19 to 0–19 in the opening round of the Munster campaign.
After a convincing win over Offaly the next assignment for Murphy's Cork team was a win-or-bust All-Ireland qualifier meeting with Galway.
[12] Murphy announced his retirement from inter-county hurling in 2011 due to work commitments outside the Cork area.
Leinster provided the opposition on that occasion, however, victory went to Munster by 1–21 to 2–14, giving Murphy a Railway Cup winners' medal.
On 14 November 2017, Murphy was ratified as a selector with the Cork senior team following John Meyler's earlier appointment as manager.
[18] Murphy's side won their second successive Munster final, where they defeated Clare on 1 July 2018 to win the title by 2-24 to 1-19.