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  1. #1
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    Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    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:

    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

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  3. #2
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    Well done Bob ...soooo sorry I won't be there (New York) Sincerely hope we have a great win and do you proud xxxx

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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    I for one hope he plays on. Bob in a forward pocket would be pretty handy

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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    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.
    The curse is dead.

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  7. #5
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    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.
    "Footscray people are incredible people; so humble. I'm just so happy - ecstatic"

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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    Love him

  9. #7
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    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.

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  11. #8
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    I'm nervous. Look what happened last time we started one of these threads!

  12. #9
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    Congrats Bob. You have been staunch and steadfast and a star to boot. Lovr watching you play. Legend.
    http://journals.worldnomads.com/merantau
    "It's not about the destination - it's about the trip."

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  14. #10
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    Quote Originally Posted by SonofScray View Post
    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.
    Dour defender
    But then again, I'm an Internet poster and Bevo is a premiership coach so draw your own conclusions.

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  16. #11
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    Quote Originally Posted by SonofScray View Post
    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'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 1eyedog View Post
    Dour defender
    Borderline psychotic half back flanker with a mad stare.
    Have you been reading those Roddy Doyle books again, Dougal!?


    I have, yeah Ted, you big gobshite

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  18. #12
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    The People's Poet.

  19. #13
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    I love Murph. That is all.
    [B][COLOR="#0000CD"]Our club was born in blood and boots, not in AFL focus groups.[/COLOR][/B]

  20. #14
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    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.




    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.




    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.
    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

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  22. #15
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    Re: Bob Murphy 300th Game - Congratulations from WOOF

    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.

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