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07-08-2017, 11:02 PM
#151
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Originally Posted by
Topdog
MBoyd announcing his retirement according to Mark Stevens
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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08-08-2017, 08:02 AM
#152
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
You can't begrudge Boydy giving it one last crack this year - the will to squeeze out every last bit is in his DNA and made him the player he is - but I still feel he had the perfect opportunity to retire on top of the world at the end of 2016 as a premiership winning All-Australian. 2017 was always going to be difficult for him to hold ground with the return of Murphy and natural development of other players.
Fingers crossed he can help Footscray go all the way and leave a lasting impression on the kids he's playing with down there in terms of footy IQ, mindset, and the ruthless work ethic required to make it at the top level.
Thanks Boydy, you are an absolutely undeniable Bulldogs legend.
Our 1954 premiership players are our heroes, and it has to be said that Charlie was their hero.
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08-08-2017, 09:33 AM
#153
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Matthew Boyd is a player who gives his all no matter what. Absolute legend. Thank you for everything you have done for our Club.
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08-08-2017, 10:45 AM
#154
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Being All Australian last season, he had every right to play on this year.
Wonderful career - 3 time All Australian, 3 time best and fairest. Only 8 players in history have had 30 possessions or more in a game more times than Boyd. Won the 'Best Team Player' in our premiership year - which sort of sums up how he went about the tail end of his career once his role changed.
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08-08-2017, 11:14 AM
#155
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
A great and courageous player and clubman who made it from rookie to All Australian, AFL life member and a premiership.
A bulldog through and through. One hopes there is a future role for you at the bulldogs. All the very best, you deserve every accolade.
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08-08-2017, 11:41 AM
#156
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Originally Posted by
Ozza
Being All Australian last season, he had every right to play on this year.
.
Yeah of course and a credit to him he has been dropped to the VFL without a single complaint.
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08-08-2017, 12:01 PM
#157
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Press Conference today with Bevo
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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08-08-2017, 12:02 PM
#158
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Originally Posted by
Topdog
Yeah of course and a credit to him he has been dropped to the VFL without a single complaint.
Further to that he made a point of saying to Bevo - Don't play me just to get me to 300 games. Pick me on merit alone.
More of an In Bruges guy?
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08-08-2017, 12:12 PM
#159
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Originally Posted by
azabob
Further to that he made a point of saying to Bevo - Don't play me just to get me to 300 games. Pick me on merit alone.
Didnt hear about that but wouldnt surprise me at all. Great clubman!
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08-08-2017, 01:44 PM
#160
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Originally Posted by
comrade
You can't begrudge Boydy giving it one last crack this year - the will to squeeze out every last bit is in his DNA and made him the player he is - but I still feel he had the perfect opportunity to retire on top of the world at the end of 2016 as a premiership winning All-Australian. 2017 was always going to be difficult for him to hold ground with the return of Murphy and natural development of other players.
I blame myself as I told him to play on at the B&F ...
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08-08-2017, 02:13 PM
#161
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Sorry for all the mean stuff I said about you over the years Boydy, you were a gun and we're going to miss you greatly.
3 All Australians and Best and Fairests, plus a flag is a phenomenal career. He also shouldered a lot of load through some really dark times, and I don't think he'll really get the credit he deserves. Well done my dude.
- I'm a visionary - Only here to confirm my biases -
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08-08-2017, 04:30 PM
#162
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Here are some adjectives to describe Matty Boyd: loyal, tough, professional, wise, staunch, uncompromising, self-sacrificing, strong, determined, competitive, resilient, fair, inspiring, steadfast, reliable and tenacious. Good man to have beside you when the chips are down. Salt of the Earth.
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08-08-2017, 04:40 PM
#163
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Agree with all the above with one addition.....best tackler since Libba Snr. His ability to stick a tackle on an opponent running at pace always amazed me. Also an incredible exponent of handball on his wrong side and falling to ground.
I thought I was wrong once but I was mistaken.
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08-08-2017, 05:21 PM
#164
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Boyd and Cross were such loyal, hard working Clubman over so many years for our Club; the two going hand in hand.
Whilst they shared so many battles on-field, where they left nothing, it was their unrivalled determination and work ethic in the pre-season and on the training track where their legacy will be felt the greatest.
I hope that his great mate Crossy was there today to support him one more time.
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09-08-2017, 09:22 PM
#165
Re: This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris
Western Bulldogs veteran Bob Murphy opens up on retirement and raft of 2017 retirees
Thank you and goodbye'
1:04
WESTERN Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy is the only AFL player who was on a list before the turn of the century.
Last year he saw fellow 1999 draftee Matthew Pavlich call it quits and in the past fortnight alone the 35-year-old has watched Nick Riewoldt, Jobe Watson, Sam Mitchell and teammate Matthew Boyd deliver emotional farewells.
Although these announcements have sharpened the spotlight on Murphy’s footballing mortality, he is not ready to follow suit. Not yet.
“That decision I have got to make is probably coming around pretty soon,” Murphy told foxfooty.com.au ahead of his team’s critical clash against GWS on Friday.
“I see that everyone else of my vintage is retiring. I’m starting to wonder if there was a memo that I missed. The time for that sort of decision is pretty close.”
Of course the harsh truth is that Murphy is his vintage, bar nobody else. Indeed, there’s a chance that only Shaun Burgoyne will remain from the 2000 intake in 2018, while Drew Petrie’s future is still unclear.
Line Murphy up alongside his contemporaries and most are either wearing suits, runners or a mixture of both.
Easton Wood and Bob Murphy celebrate the win. Picture: Mark Stewart
Source: News Corp Australia
And the Dogs skipper is not one to shy away from his age given he’s been classified as a veteran for half a decade. In many respects he has no choice but to embrace it.
“I am at the stage of tucking in my singlets because I am conscious of getting a draft up my chest,” Murphy laughed.
“If that hasn’t caused a bit of a stir at my locker then nothing has. That is the official uniform of the middle aged man. It’s not very hip hop gangster.”
The visual of a slightly greying man with his shorts up high is hardly typical of a modern day footballer. But Murphy is anything but typical.
His team, the Western Bulldogs, played five games in July, losing their first two and winning their last three before defeating the Lions on Saturday to make it four wins on the bounce.
Not unlike day three at a major golf event, July is often characterised in football circles as ‘moving month’.
But for Murphy, the very prospect of moving has never been more trying than in recent weeks.
“I think July’s get a little bit more difficult every year,” he said.
“I don’t know if that’s the weather or because I’m getting older. But I must admit, at the ripe old age of 35, I cannot get the cold out of my joints. July is easily the most brutal.
“The soreness is there and the hard stuff that makes footy great is turned up to 10 in this time of the year.”
Bob Murphy in action. Pi
Source: News Corp Australia
For these reasons, Murphy is reserving his big decision until the days are slightly longer. In order to weigh up his future, the 309-gamer is not prepared to make a rash call in the depths of winter.
“I don’t think you should ask a player about retirement at this time of year,” he said.
“Until I can smell the spring air, I think that is a more applicable time to start thinking about the future. I don’t want to think too far ahead. You get to here and it’s all been about dry July. It’s a tough time of the year and everyone is still a fair way from home.
“I am enjoying footy as much as ever. Probably a part of that is the fact that I am not too sure how long it will last. I’m trying to saviour the little moments and joy. All the nice things, singing the song and that basic sort of stuff. It is the stuff you will miss.”
Murphy would like to believe his Dogs are “still a fair away from home”, but the end could be as few as 16 days away if they drop two of their last three games.
Upcoming clashes against GWS, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn have their season delicately poised.
This time last season the Dogs were also sitting seventh on the ladder, but were assured of a finals berth courtesy of their 13 wins.
This year is a vastly different equation, one which Murphy equates to a horse race about to turn for the last straight.
“I think we’ve had a couple of good furlongs,” he said.
“We got checked a couple of times in the middle part of the race. Now we are just drifting up on the hind legs of a few of the more fancied mayors. The turn will start this Friday night and then we will be going as hard as we can hopefully.
“This Friday is right up there in terms of importance in terms of where our season is at, the time of the year and our opponent. We’ve built some momentum the last four weeks but the challenges are sort of assembling at the turn.
“Now we will see where we are at.”
Alongside his pinpoint left and right boots, Murphy’s self-effacing humour remains as sharp as it has always been.
“It does feel like the end of an era in one way,” he said of the several veterans that have retired in recent weeks.
“There are guys retiring who are icons of the modern era. Hodge will probably have a statue made of him.”
But what about Murphy’s statue?
“Mine would probably be picking the ball up out of a bucket to take the kick-out. That would be the iconic, bronzed pose I should have.
There should be a public fundraising thing for that. I have to be careful with print because sarcasm can often be misplaced. Can you please put a little bracket. Say ‘Robert scoffed at himself’.”
After 309 games, two All-Australian guernseys and three international rules series’, nobody is scoffing at the son of a Catholic priest and nun from Warragul.
Retirement or not, sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. And Murphy knows this better than most.
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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