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Congratulations Bob, an inspirational Captain and individual who is a credit to the Club. Lost two seasons with knee reco's but has fought back each time.
I haven't seen any other career highlights vids but this one is up to 3 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoQBSjmCk8U
Well done Bob ...soooo sorry I won't be there (New York) Sincerely hope we have a great win and do you proud xxxx
I for one hope he plays on. Bob in a forward pocket would be pretty handy
On ya Bob. I've been proud to wear your number 2 on my back since Granty retired.
More than a great player, a great human.
Should be there on Saturday afternoon traditional footy time at home. Congratulations Bob on your 300th. He has been a great player for our footy club.
Love him
Another great performer over 300 games in our colours, we've been so lucky to have some absolute stars come through our club and carve out long careers on the back of their skill and durability. Bob is one of my all time favourite Bulldogs.
In footy there are certain archetypes. Professionalism has homogenised the set a little but you've got:
Bear In The Square
Fat Full Forward
Clubman
Silk
Tiprat forward Pocket
Big Dumb Shit
Cult Hero
Meat Axe
Thinker
Barracker
I think Bob has actualised across a few of these, the ones that reflect positively on a footballer anyway. A terrific clubman, reflective thinker, clearly a fan's man and just loves the game. He understands his role and the privilege of representing the people who never get the chance to live a childhood dream of playing for the Scray. That pretty much makes him my favourite player ever. And the Silk aspect. The Robbie Flower comparisons ring true.
The right man, for the right time and a real beacon for the elements of footy that aren't just kicks and handballs. We are lucky that he is shaping the narrative as we shift from old pre flag that wagged Footscray, to new world domination Footscray.
I'm nervous. Look what happened last time we started one of these threads!
Congrats Bob. You have been staunch and steadfast and a star to boot. Lovr watching you play. Legend.
Dour defenderQuote:
Originally Posted by SonofScray
I've always thought there was more of a touch of Doug Hawkins myself. Strong overhead, elusive, good off both feet. I could imagine Bob camped on the outer wing and the tactic for kick outs would be kick it long to him every time.Quote:
Originally Posted by SonofScray
Borderline psychotic half back flanker with a mad stare.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1eyedog
The People's Poet.
I love Murph. That is all.
300 games is child's play for Western Bulldog hero Bob Murphy
Bob Murphy is 34, a father of three and about to play his 300th game, but every now and then "checks in" with his 12-year-old self. The secret to his longevity, he says, might be that he can still feel like a tingle the "child-like joy" of playing footy every week. "Take the games out of it," he said. "To still be a kid, still playing the game you love, is pretty special."
AFL footy, he says, is accountable like few other endeavours. "Hungry teams, hungry opponents, hungry media", week after week, make it so. "It's a hard game, unrelenting, a lot of pressure, internally, externally," he says. "But I've tried to look at it all through the lens of how I was when I was 12. How fortunate I would have felt at that age (to think that I would) still be playing. Kids from Warragul didn't think like that." It must help that when he looks in the mirror, that kid - with some grey flecks - still grins back.
On Saturday, he will wear that sentiment, literally. His input into a jumper to mark the occasion was to insist that it had a collar, wide and red. "That was my memory of watching footy as a kid in the 90s," he says. "Abletts and Careys and Beveridges ... " With this, he shot a sideways smirk at coach Luke Beveridge, clubs three, games 118. Their mutual admiration is unaffected.
http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam...2507751901.jpg
Few if any footballers can have inspired such universal affection as Murphy. At the Bulldogs, he was already a favourite before he took it upon himself to "blaze a new trail" - Beveridge's words - from the club's existential crisis at the end of 2014. The next year, he was all-Australian captain, as a half-back flanker. Beveridge, newly arrived, watched all this and saw that Murphy was a "unique man".
Farther afield, Beveridge surmises that what people like about Murphy is the sense of a real person, "emotional, empathetic, spiritual". Murphy somehow manages to project that footy and the Dogs are his life and that he has another life as well. Asked about the saintly acclamation, Murphy becomes a little abashed. "It's better than the alternative," he says.
But, notes Beveridge, no-one floats through 18 years of AFL footy beaming benignly from a fluffy cloud. "There is a grunt to him that you don't see," Beveridge says. "There is that 'put on the war paint' attitude on game day that most of you don't see. His teammates do. We do. I'm sure he'll put on the war paint again this week."
Murphy is the last of his draft year still to be playing AFL. This is the last thing he would have expected in 1999. "I was pretty happy just to pick up the training shorts and singlet," he says. He dreads the archival images of his spindly 17-year-old self now starting to proliferate. Luck, friends and a "mighty club" have borne him through the years since, he says.
http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam...2507751901.jpg
But mere happenstance is only part of it. Every decent career is underpinned by self-belief, though some wear it more lightly than others. "I was a pretty cocky kid," admits Murphy. "It probably helped. It's been chipped away a little bit. (But) I've always had the belief that I could do it."
There were dark days and setbacks, including an ACL in 2006 and another early last year. That left him at not just a cross road, but a spaghetti junction. He knew that if he had played in the Dogs' premiership last year, he would have retired, and wondered if he should anyway.
In the end, he played on not for the 300-game milestone, nor for another flag with him in playing a position other than talisman - though he admits it sits there, as a "daydream" - but for Beveridge, the jumper and the team. The 12-year-old wanted one more go and was out there already, bouncing the ball.
It is early, but he has been pleasantly surprised. When returning from a knee in 2007, it felt to him as though the rules had changed, the game was so alien. He would be forgiven for thinking that now, but that would be to do with the changing rules. Instead, he has picked up the tempo again seamlessly.
He is treating whatever happens now as "bonus time".
Beveridge likes to employ themes in his coaching. He was asked if this would be "Bob week" at the Bulldogs and would answer by saying some themes do not need elaboration, which was just as well, because before he could say a word, Murphy interjected: "If you say yes, I'll spew!"
The ingenuous 12-year-old Murphy had just checked in with the beloved 34-year-old.
The last of my 'first generation' of Bulldogs players, Bob has been playing for the Bulldogs for as long as I can remember following them.
When he went down last year, I was devastated thinking that I wouldn't get to see him play again. Once again, I'm shattered that I won't be there for his 300th on Saturday.
He epitomises the football club to me, and makes me very proud to support the club. We couldn't have a better leader with our young list.
Couldn't have said it better myself.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewP6
Congratulations Bob!
My favourite Bulldog player ever.
There is a little bit of Bob in all of us and more importantly a little bit of all of us in Bob.
There aren't too many players from opposition clubs that, I'm not going to say are "universally adored" as much as Bob is, but maybe admired is a more suitable word. Personally, I don't have a lot of adoration or admiration for players at other clubs. If anyone came close it would have been Jonno Brown, however without bias I would suggest that Bob has him covered. Bob, while he is a larrikin like Browny, also displays that touch of vulnerability that endears him to footy fans of all creeds.
Bob understands and has never forgotten, just how lucky he is to be able to play this game. Of course it's never luck alone that gets you on to an AFL list. Courage, skill and determination are just a few of the necessary attributes one must have to get to the stage where you are just even considered to be drafted. Bob has these in spades, along with humility and passion. As a collective, we understand how lucky we are that he is ours. We are his muse, He is our inspiration.
Saturday is going to be a special moment in the History of our footy club. The FFC has a proud list of 300 gamers including the great EJ, Hawkins, Grant, West, Smith and Johnson, the latter 5 I was lucky enough to have seen their entire careers. All true champions of not just our club but also the game. There is no doubt that when the sun sets on Bob's career he will sit comfortably alongside those champions. Maybe he will sit cross legged on the floor, footy in his lap and with his sense of humility, also be armed with an autograph book and a pen.
Congratulations Bob.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9wCtdJVYAAHS5K.jpg:large
Great Jumper with the collar - as requested by Bob
We have been really blessed to have Bob in the red white and blue. A really talented, versatile player with sublime skills. I love it when he takes the game on. He is still the best ball user we have. He is a really strong and determined character. I can only imagine what it takes to overcome serious knee injury twice.
I am dreaming big ... I don't have to say anymore; you all know what I mean.
He is the Bulldog spirit we have come to better understand over the last 12 months. Congrats Bob on game 300 from one of your millions of admirers!
Bulldog shop has lots of merchandise to commerate Bob's 300th.
eg:
http://shop.westernbulldogs.com.au/p...shirt-2000.jpg
Fan’s perspective: Captain. Our Captain - To read all other blog entries written by Bulldog Tragician, visit http://www.bulldogtragician.com/
Some players can’t be imagined playing for any other club but ours. It’s not just the fact that the horrendous brown and gold Hawthorn colours, or the stark severity of the black and white stripes, would play havoc with his pale Irish complexion.
Bob Murphy, surely, could only ever have belonged, ever truly been at home, in our club.
He gets its uniqueness. In his slight but resilient frame, he somehow embodies it.
Many claim to have been there to witness his debut in the year 2000 at Princes Park, when a spindly teenager wearing number 22 (Bob has joked - well, I think he was joking - that he had barely gone through puberty) kicked a crucial last-gasp goal.
I was definitely there. It was the last time that I ever stood in the outer to watch a footy match. The era of suburban footy grounds was coming to an end; the Dogs had moved digs that very year, to a stadium then called ‘Colonial.’
On the day of Bob’s debut we were in a position that he would come to know too well over the years: dangerous, ‘backs-to-the-wall’ territory, clinging to the chance of a finals spot after occupying a top four spot for the past three years. There’d been a host of injuries, meaning that the frail-looking 18-year-old got the call up. It was a stirring, unexpected, brave and gallant performance by our team in defying the might of premiership aspirants Carlton. When the baby-faced teenager ran in to slot a match-saving goal with the wobbliest – let’s be honest, ugliest - of kicks, there was little sign of the superb skills that we would come to cherish.
Bob played in the next two matches; he might have thought footy was pretty cruisy, as these two were also wins. In fact, I only realised recently that Bob featured in another of our more famous home-and-away wins just two weeks later. Bob was in fact the youngest player on the ground when we took on the Bombers’ great team of 2000, who were aiming to make history by completing an undefeated season.
To the delight of every fan of the red, white and blue, the Dogs were the ones to deny our unloved rivals from the posh side of the Maribyrnong. A Bombers’ victory was famously short-circuited by Terry Wallace’s implementation of the uber forward press, some manic tackling by Tony Liberatore, and an elegant left-foot goal in the last two minutes by our champ Chris Grant.
I have no memory of Bob that day at all, though. I don’t know where he was when a wild brawl broke out at half time (hopefully safely bundled down in the rooms away from the mayhem); it was so heated that the ever-smiling Brad Johnson (who’d been KO-ed by john Barnes) was seen to mouth obscenities at our red and black opposition. Even in retrospect I quake at the thought of Bob, the fresh-faced recruit who couldn’t have weighed more than 70 kg, taking the field opposed to hulking brutes like Dean Solomon, Damien Hardwick and the Johnsons, in a team coached by the perennially nasty Kevin Sheedy.
Surprisingly enough, Bob has never actually played for four points at our spiritual home, the Western/Whitten Oval. Yet somehow he has absorbed its history, has tuned into a long-ago past, has a spiritual connection to our history in all its fierce pride and frequent sorrow. You feel he remembers intuitively the smells and sounds of that ground , where we played for more than 100 years, where the locals gathered, raucous, hopeful and stoic under the Olympic tyres scoreboard. A place where it was always blowing ice, rain and sleet, where opposition clubs somehow feared to play, dreading that fickle tricky wind, no matter where the boys in red, white and blue were on the ladder.
It’s also surprising to realise that Bob didn’t play a final until 2008. He didn’t make the cut for the 2000 finals team that was bundled out with depressing efficiency by Brisbane at the Gabba; we didn’t play finals again until 2006.
But in that barnstorming year Bob was an unlikely but magnificent centre half forward. Not for him the muscular brute force of a power forward in the style of Carey or Jonathan Brown - our Bob was all about feather-light footsteps, nimble movements, the sensing of an opportunity or a chink of space that no others could see. And yet with the finals in sight, Bob crashed to the deck at the MCG beneath the force of a massive Sav Rocca tackle, his knee buckling, his season over. And so he wasn’t out on the field when an effervescent team ran amok against Collingwood in the first final at the MCG that year.
But he was there for those three preliminary final heartaches in 2008-2010. And he was there, slowly slipping towards the ‘veteran’ category, when hard times came in the years that followed, when the premiership dream felt further away than ever, when drubbings and thrashings were more common than wins, when our club was dismissed as ‘irrelevant’.
I always felt Bob realised, as no other did, the poignancy of our fabled wait for premiership success. He made us realise, though, that wait has an even tougher aspect for the players, as we saw him edge further into the ranks of the unrewarded, that painful list in which our club has sadly been over-represented: players who had played the most games without ever seeing a flag.
For us, the fans, even through decades of non-achievement, there is always a next year, always a new group of players on which to pin our hopes. It’s a blessing and sometimes a curse: we can still front up for a new season and think, hope, pray, the new season will be different.
But the players’ time - their opportunity for glory - is short. As our club fell into another of those sadly familiar troughs in 2011-2014, Bob’s grief for his missed opportunities was evident. A melancholy note recurred in his articles, in his TV appearances. He began to write about what it would be like when that longed-for day, when the Dogs somehow triumphed, would come. It was heartbreaking, cruel, as he began to concede that he could now only imagine himself now as a joyful but wistful spectator among the celebrating crowd, not as one who’d brought that day home by deeds on the field.
When our club hit a nadir at the end of 2014, it seemed so inevitable, so natural, that Bob would step up to be captain that we wondered why it hadn’t happened before. He was re-born on the field, a natural in our thrilling, adventurous game style, revelling in the sense of freedom and endless possibility that our new coach introduced. Bob gave us so many of the brilliant memories of the wonderfully unexpected and exciting 2015 season. I will never forget a breathtaking, audacious 50 metre kick across the ground which landed, ever so gently, on the chest of Easton Wood running at full tilt. Bob’s celebrated side-step - the lightness with which he ran across the turf - returned. And when he announced, after we defeated Sydney on a wet track in a thrilling victory, that it was ‘the best win, ever’, his face wreathed with smiles, we shared his joy, knew that it was sweeter because he’d almost lost sight of the dream: the premiership dream, that was now rekindled, so close you could touch it.
Bob’s injury in round three last year was like a sledge hammer to us all. The injury itself happened in slow motion, the ball spiralling to the Hawks’ forward line in the dying seconds of the match, Bob shifting his weight in the most innocuous of ways, his knee somehow moving at an awkward angle.
In the crowd we fell silent, appalled, suddenly not caring for the result of the match. Only sharing Bob’s anguish, that the footy gods could be so unspeakably cruel.
Joy and sorrow – they’re never far apart in footy. Bob was alongside and a part of his – our- extraordinary 2016 team and its epic deeds every step of the way. His rollercoaster of emotions matched that of the fans, as he too celebrated with tears when we smashed our preliminary final hoodoo out of the park. The unbelievable roar as Bevo called him up to the premiership dais; the hugs from his team-mates who loved him as they pushed him forward to share the accolades; the sight of him in the circle of team-mates as they sang our song on that precious day in 2016 - we know and understand the preciousness of those emotions and their poignancy for him.
On Saturday Bob Murphy plays his 300th game.
Thousands like myself, who’ve never even exchanged a word with him but love him all the same, will rise to our feet, tears in our eyes, to try and show him what he means to us, though words will never really be adequate. We’ll hope for signs of that Bob Murphy whimsy, the semi-humorous look on his face that shows he knows it’s (kind of) only a game, or one of those moments where he moves as the great players do in another dimension of time and space. We’ll cheer extra loud whenever he goes near the ball (we hope it will be often).
We all know what Bob is playing for this year. We all know that his young team-mates, including the son of one of those who was beside him when the freckle-faced teenager ran out onto Princes Park all those years ago, will do everything in their power to make sure that dream comes true.
We hope he knows something else, whatever happens in 2017. That he was a reason, maybe even THE reason, that we’d got to that unforgettable day in 2016 at all. And we’d like to say thanks.
Lovely read. Thanks BAD and thanks BulldogTragician.
Hey Bob if you're reading. I wrote you something, and it's to the tune of 'Bradman' by Paul Kelly; I know you love Paul Kelly, but also you're as good as he was at footy. Anyway;
He was a boy
From Warragul
He'd only loved the game
His next door neighbour
Leave it to him
To fan the flame
The telephone posts
Next to his house
They were scarcely big enough
Bob, and his brother
They went in the court
And they called their bluff
They were never quite wide enough
He was more than just a forward
He put them all to shame
He was more than just a back man
He could hold
Any game
In the palm
Of his hand
So then the call came down
The boy from Warra hit the draft
At pick ten, to Footscray
Was where he'd hone his craft
Like tony Campbell
He fit it like a glove
When he kicked that goal against Carlton
It hit the crowd like love
That they'd never fall out of
He was more than just a forward
He put them all to shame
He was more than just a back man
He could hold
Any game
In the palm
Of his hand
So the boy
He's established, it's for sure
Then he runs out on the ground
His arm emblazoned with "no war"
An eleven year old
Looked at him
And said that's my favourite
Even though why he wasn't sure
Then he does his knee
He might be finished
He gets over it
And finally
Displaces Kieran McGuinness
The eleven year old wonders
Does still have it
3 Brownlow votes later
He wonders why he ever doubted it
And he never forgot it
He was more than just a forward
He put them all to shame
He was more than just a back man
He could hold
Any game
In the palm
Of his hand
Then shocktober happens
Only for us to somehow get through,
Bobs the captain,
But it was just to good to be true
A year later, and the boys are on the dias,
and everyone agrees,
It's too good to be true
But there's something missing
And it's bob
No one feels like they got theirs, until he gets his too
He was more than just a forward
He put them all to shame
He was more than just a back man
He could hold
Any game
In the palm
Of his hand
I'm not Gay, but.......
We've been incredibly blessed to have drafted Bob - I feel that sometimes his level as a player can be overlooked for the person he is....he's been a state rep and All Australian captain. He is supremely talented at both ends of the ground. He is still quick, agile & influential after two knees into his mid thirties!
But I get why the person is at times the focus - his influence on this football club has been profound. We don't get where we are today without his leadership.
Personally...as a 90's / alt country tragic, I've identified with Bob....probably more just looked up to him...I've been thankful that someone into that culture also represents my club.
I'm not Bobbed out. I want him to play for years yet - and on form he damn well should.
Congratulations Bob. I'm taking my 3 YO son to his first ever game and buying him a Bob jumper so he can tell people your 300th was the first ever game he went to.
More Bob love in this article:
Six degrees of Bob Murphy: Different views of a Western Bulldogs legend
Press release from Barkly street.
Bob Murphy's guard of honour will consist of:
Scott West, Irene Chatfield, Brad Johnson, Sue Alberti, John Schultz, Sigmund Freud, Doug Hawkins, Albert Einstein, The lady from reception who has worked there for 52 years, JFK, Simon Beasley, Mother and daughter from 'The year of the Dog', Stephen Hawking, Lally Bamblett, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Carl Jung, The Big Lebowski, Aker, William Shakespeare, Chris Grant, Ghandi, Robert De Niro, Phyllis Diller and Jesus
No Elvis??? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by HOSE B ROMERO
Congratulations Bob, every superlative written about your career and your achievement of 300 games are well deserved and totally appropriate. You have been and still are a magnificent leader of our Club and a role model for young players, for everything that is great about being a Western Bulldog. An All Australian Captain, a wonderful career with silky skills. You are a credit to this Club and to the AFL, enjoy every moment of your day on Saturday.
... and Elvis.
Congratulations Robbie.
Legend of our Club. You deserve every accolade that is bestowed to you this week. You never cease to amaze me on the field and off. Your leadership is what keeps us ticking.
From the very first day that we met when I was a volunteer at the club, you have made me feel as though I as special to you as any other fan that you know (my friends say stalker - lol). Whether we meet at a function, training, footy or just in the street, you always have time for me and give me a kiss and a cuddle. A laugh about our early morning likes on Instagram is always on the agenda.
Don't every change.
Tomorrow is one of those days that we all have been waiting for, no more than yourself. Well deserved my friend. I will be cheering for you like I always do but this time with a bit more pride.
Love those jumpers
BAD great form continues.
Loved the "murphandise", especially the jumper-the red collar is so retro cool, so in the euphoria after the game bought one. So glad the boys won on such an historic day for one of our fave sons. Thought the cardboard Bob heads were fun too. Congrats Bob!!
Great colour, RWB, A3 poster of Bob for his 300th contained in this article form The Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-new...22-gvqfgx.html
The poster URL: http://images.theage.com.au/file/201...Murphy_300.pdf
It's going straight to the pool room!
Tweeted the club last night to tell them to bring the collar back permanently. Looked fantastic.