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  1. #1
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    Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    http://www.theage.com.au/afl/some-ju...27-gilnkn.html

    Bob stayed. Others left; some were pushed, others were poached. One just couldn't live in the kennel any more and made a Giant move.
    But Bob didn't, Bob stayed. Ever so briefly Bob thought about going when Collingwood asked if he would like to come and play, because all good dogs like it when someone scratches them on the belly. But Bob is a loyal dog, and a smart one, he knows rewards come to dogs that learn to sit and stay.
    The rewards could come sooner than Bob thought. In fact Bob doubted they would come at all, figuring that staying might cost him a chance to play finals but uncomfortable with the idea he could be anywhere else.
    Bob became captain because his club needed him to. Bob became captain because he should and because he was the best one for the job. And because, well, he was that kind of Dog. He was the dog that embodied the best of the Dogs.
    That's why he stayed and why it was right that he stayed and why right now the best thing for the game would be for Bob to play finals again and win.

    Maybe there are years left yet for Bob to taste the sort of success he has never known and thought he never would. He has a contract next year but a spring still in his wiry step that says next year might not be his last. His once creaking body is newly elastic and so he remains – with some deft osteopathic help – as quick now as when he walked in from Warragul.


    The Dogs are now only a game off the top four – farcical to consider in the darkest moments at the end of last season – and set to play finals. The highest Bob's generation of Dogs could reach was a preliminary final but with the speed the wheel has turned already for the Dogs it is not unrealistic to think that within Bob Murphy's final two seasons the Dogs could go beyond that. That would be the romance football needs. When Brian Lake won a Norm Smith medal at Hawthorn it was a feel-good story: recycled player achieves dream. But that warm tale would be a limerick compared to Bob and the Premiership Dogs.
    Lenny Hayes was in Bob's position. He could have gone, but he chose to stay. He didn't get the success for staying, but he did get the satisfaction. He does not criticise those who left the club as some were wilfully pushed and for others it was right to go. But like Nick Riewoldt and even Leigh Montagna there needed to be room left in the change rooms for those who carry the story of the club, not just the game plan.
    Those Saints, like Bob Murphy and Matthew Boyd and Dan Giansiracusa, were reminders that list management could not be a purely economic rationalist endeavour. Someone needs to embody what you are.
    "You spend so long at a club you become part of the fabric of the place, you build relationships and you want to do well not only for your own satisfaction. No one is more that sort of player than Bob Murphy. He buys into what the club is about, it comes through in his articles. I loved his articles," Hayes said. "He loves the old school element of football and you would love to see that rewarded. The wheel has turned fairly quickly at the Bulldogs, I think even Bob said he didn't expect it to turn so quickly.
    "He looks like he is getting better, he is playing as well as he has ever played. It's like a new lease of life for him."
    For Hayes the reward in the Dogs' wheel turning so quickly is not only seeing Bob be given this chance at success but that his team be rewarded for the way they play. "I love the way they attack off half-back with Bob and Johannisen and Easton Wood, they are good to watch."
    Bob the Premiership Dog. That is a story even Bob thought would not be written but now it is one football would love to read. Maybe not this year, but maybe next year or the one after, for he is still a spritely dog. And he knows how to stay.





  2. Thanks Bulldog4life, bornadog, N/A thanked for this post
  3. #2
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Thanks NB.

    Yep beat Collingwood and they're back on the wagon.
    But then again, I'm an Internet poster and Bevo is a premiership coach so draw your own conclusions.

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  5. #3
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    I love that article. Great reading.
    [B][COLOR="#0000CD"]Our club was born in blood and boots, not in AFL focus groups.[/COLOR][/B]

  6. #4
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Man I am so sick of the way these articles about Murph are written - like spot the dog stories.
    Once was fine but that's enough, please.
    You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. ― Epicurus

  7. #5
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Quote Originally Posted by Ghost Dog View Post
    Man I am so sick of the way these articles about Murph are written - like spot the dog stories.
    Once was fine but that's enough, please.
    You are correct in the articles getting a bit repetitive GD, but I did enjoy this one and I'm just finally enjoying the positivity that we have lacked in the press for so long.
    It's better to die on our feet than live on our knees.

  8. #6
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    As this is the same journalist who wrote the 'dogs are irrelevant' story last year, I'm just enjoying the 360 degree turnaround in how our club is being viewed.

    I still feel horror at the thought that even for the tiniest of seconds, Bob could have contemplated an offer from the Pies. We've suffered some blows over the years, but that is one I don't think we could have recovered from.
    www.bulldogtragician.com A blog about being a lifelong fan of the Dogs and our quixotic attempt to replicate 1954. AND WE DID
    Author of "The Mighty West: the Bulldogs journey from daydream believers to premiership heroes"
    Twitter @bulldogstragic

  9. Likes BornInDroopSt'54 liked this post
  10. #7
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    I enjoyed the article BUT....
    We are headed for success... and the media and social discourse will swallow us and write our story. We must be sure who we are and where we come from.
    I do not trust anybody but a Bulldog supporter to say a word about us and the day we win the flag will be our day alone. It will be the day that only Bulldogs have kept alive our hopes of sixty-one (61) years or more, despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, despite Neil Sachse, Tom Alvin, Carlton's cheating, Essendon's cheating, Collingwood's poaching, Ted Whitten and my brother dying without seeing a premiership, despite the open heart surgery of '97, the mighty efforts of Chris Grant's and Brad Johnson's careers being not enough, the pain of epic unrewarded hope, Ian Collins, the lack of support from the VFL/AFL, ravaging by the expansion teams' recruiting, our own ineptitude, the lack of cudos given to us in football conversations since primary school and only you fellow Bulldogs know what I am talking about in these 61 years.
    When we win the flag, the rest of the football world will need to earn my audience and my words because they have not lived Bulldog like we do, through every Hawthorn dominance and every uneven playing field.
    Footscray Football Republic.

  11. #8
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Quote Originally Posted by BornInDroopSt'54 View Post
    I enjoyed the article BUT....
    We are headed for success... and the media and social discourse will swallow us and write our story. We must be sure who we are and where we come from.
    I do not trust anybody but a Bulldog supporter to say a word about us and the day we win the flag will be our day alone. It will be the day that only Bulldogs have kept alive our hopes of sixty-one (61) years or more, despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, despite Neil Sachse, Tom Alvin, Carlton's cheating, Essendon's cheating, Collingwood's poaching, Ted Whitten and my brother dying without seeing a premiership, despite the open heart surgery of '97, the mighty efforts of Chris Grant's and Brad Johnson's careers being not enough, the pain of epic unrewarded hope, Ian Collins, the lack of support from the VFL/AFL, ravaging by the expansion teams' recruiting, our own ineptitude, the lack of cudos given to us in football conversations since primary school and only you fellow Bulldogs know what I am talking about in these 61 years.
    When we win the flag, the rest of the football world will need to earn my audience and my words because they have not lived Bulldog like we do, through every Hawthorn dominance and every uneven playing field.
    Beautiful.

  12. #9
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Quote Originally Posted by The bulldog tragician View Post
    As this is the same journalist who wrote the 'dogs are irrelevant' story last year, I'm just enjoying the 360 degree turnaround in how our club is being viewed.

    I still feel horror at the thought that even for the tiniest of seconds, Bob could have contemplated an offer from the Pies. We've suffered some blows over the years, but that is one I don't think we could have recovered from.
    Sorry to be picky but.....doing a 360 means you've ended up in exactly the same place.
    I thought I was wrong once but I was mistaken.

  13. #10
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Quote Originally Posted by always right View Post
    Sorry to be picky but.....doing a 360 means you've ended up in exactly the same place.

    I was going to point that out too but I wasn't certain I was right. I knew it was right but just had this nagging doubt.
    Have you been reading those Roddy Doyle books again, Dougal!?


    I have, yeah Ted, you big gobshite

  14. #11
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Quote Originally Posted by always right View Post
    Sorry to be picky but.....doing a 360 means you've ended up in exactly the same place.
    No, the Tragician was talking about 360 degrees on a Mobius Strip.
    Officially on the Bus-wagon

  15. #12
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Quote Originally Posted by F'scary View Post
    No, the Tragician was talking about 360 degrees on a Mobius Strip.
    My tech school maths teacher used to tell a joke about the mobius strip, but its a bit long and never ends.
    It's better to die on our feet than live on our knees.

  16. #13
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    Quote Originally Posted by BornInDroopSt'54 View Post
    I enjoyed the article BUT....
    We are headed for success... and the media and social discourse will swallow us and write our story. We must be sure who we are and where we come from.
    I do not trust anybody but a Bulldog supporter to say a word about us and the day we win the flag will be our day alone. It will be the day that only Bulldogs have kept alive our hopes of sixty-one (61) years or more, despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, despite Neil Sachse, Tom Alvin, Carlton's cheating, Essendon's cheating, Collingwood's poaching, Ted Whitten and my brother dying without seeing a premiership, despite the open heart surgery of '97, the mighty efforts of Chris Grant's and Brad Johnson's careers being not enough, the pain of epic unrewarded hope, Ian Collins, the lack of support from the VFL/AFL, ravaging by the expansion teams' recruiting, our own ineptitude, the lack of cudos given to us in football conversations since primary school and only you fellow Bulldogs know what I am talking about in these 61 years.
    When we win the flag, the rest of the football world will need to earn my audience and my words because they have not lived Bulldog like we do, through every Hawthorn dominance and every uneven playing field.
    I just ran laps of the house screaming "come on you dishlickers! Get the !$&£ in!"

  17. #14
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    Re: Some Jumped, others were pushed, but rewards beckon for the dogs who remain

    #getin!

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