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Mighty Murray - the proudest Roy
6.30 pm Friday 4th June 2010
KEVIN Murray suspected it was time to give the game away when he found himself scrapping with a bloke chasing bragging rights for roughing up a Brownlow medallist. "It was the last game of the year in Super Rules," Murray said this week. "This bloke came to mind me at half-forward and said, 'I'll give you effing Brownlow, I'll knock your effing teeth out'.
"I said, 'Listen mate, I haven't got any, but let's get on with it'. As we were rolling around on the ground, I thought to myself, 'That's enough'. I'd had enough."
Murray was 52 at the time.
What an extraordinary career. Unique, really. The career of a legend, a status formalised at the Australian football Hall of Fame function in Melbourne last night.
Murray, who turns 72 this month, is a football treasure.
He started in the VFL with Fitzroy at 16 and played the game continuously at various levels into his 50s.
He finished open competition at 48 with Maribyrnong Park in B grade of the Essendon District league before moving to the 35-and-overs in Super Rules.
Like Terry Daniher of more recent times, he had an insatiable appetite for the game, for team, for competition, regardless of the level.
Surely his on-field contribution to football is unrivalled.
He played 407 games for Fitzroy, Victoria, East Perth and Western Australia in 20 seasons, winning a place in the AFL Team of the (20th) Century and a Brownlow Medal.
Yet, it was his selection as captain of Fitzroy's Team of the Century - ahead of Haydn Bunton - that sits as his proudest achievement.
"That stood out above everything," he said. "There was Bunton, (Alan) Ruthven, 'Butch' Gale, Garry Wilson, (John) Murphy, (Paul) Roos. It was the highest honour you could ever wish to have.
"I'm really proud of the Brownlow, too, but it's an individual thing."
Read the full article by Mike Sheahan at the Herald-Sun here
