Club After a glittering underage career that yielded four minor championship medals in five years, Dunphy was still eligible for the minor team when he was added to the Mooncoin junior team in 1961. A huge 4–11 to 2–2 defeat of
Coon gave him a
championship medal in that grade. By 1965 Dunphy was a key fixture on the Mooncoin senior team that qualified for the decider for the first time in a decade. Reigning champions
Bennettsbridge provided the opposition, however, a narrow 2–8 to 1–8 victory gave Dunphy a
Kilkenny Senior Hurling Championship medal.
Inter-county Dunphy first played for Kilkenny in 1961 when he had the honour of captaining the team. A huge 4–12 to 0–7 defeat of
Dublin gave him his first
Leinster medal. The subsequent All-Ireland decider pitted
Tipperary against Kilkenny. A 3–13 to 0–15 victory gave Dunphy an
All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship medal, while he also had the honour of lifting the Irish Press Cup. In 1962 Dunphy was captain of the minor team once again. A narrow 5–7 to 5–4 defeat of
Wexford gave him a second successive Leinster medal. For the second successive year Tipperary provided the opposition in the subsequent All-Ireland final. Goals were key as a 3–6 to 0–9 victory gave Dunphy his second All-Ireland medal. He remains the only player to captain back-to-back All-Ireland-winning teams. Dunphy first joined the Kilkenny senior team in late 1964 during the
Oireachtas Tournament. He was a regular during the subsequent
National Hurling League campaign and made his senior championship debut on 27 June 1965 in a 1–20 to 3–8 Leinster semi-final defeat of Dublin. In 1966 Dunphy collected his first silverware with the Kilkenny senior team. An aggregate 10–15 to 2–15 defeat of
New York in the league decider gave him a
National Hurling League medal. Dunphy later won a
Leinster medal following a 1–15 to 2–6 defeat of reigning provincial champions Wexford. The subsequent All-Ireland final on 4 September 1966 pitted Kilkenny against
Cork for the first time in nineteen years. Kilkenny were the red hot favourites, however, a hat-trick of goals by
Colm Sheehan gave Cork a merited 3–9 to 1–10 victory.
Inter-provincial Dunphy was added to the
Leinster inter-provincial team in 1965. He was an unused substitute as Leinster beat arch rivals
Munster by 3–11 to 0–9. ==Coaching career==