While Bob Murphy is unlikely to win a flag, he is as close to a Premiership player as anyone

SON of a priest and a nun, it was preordained Bob Murphy’s career wouldn’t be a garden variety version. While he’s unlikely to win a flag, he’s as close to a premiership player as anyone.

Western Bulldogs vs. Sydney Swans Robert Bob Murphy leads the Bulldogs team down the race after the win ES) (N) Picture: Wayne Ludbey

ROBERT Murphy, he of the unlikely AFL frame and deep-thinking mind, will leave the game with a story like no other.

Then again it was preordained that Murphy’s career wouldn’t be your normal garden variety version, given his father John was a priest and mother Monica a nun before they left the order to produce Ben, Bridget and little Robbie.

That the skinny boy who hated any form of conflict would go on to play over 300 games in a sport that can be brutal, both mentally and physically, backs up the old adage that you never judge a book by its cover.

And while he will never have the Premiership medallion he so richly deserved, Murphy is as close to a Premiership player as anyone in the history of the game when he was called to the dais last year when his beloved Western Bulldogs won the flag.

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Bob Murphy & Easton Wood with Luke Beveridge & Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Bob Murphy factfile

Age:

35

Games:

310

Goals:

182

Debut:

Round 19, 2000 vs Carlton

Western Bulldogs captain:

2015-current

All-Australian:

2011, 2015 (captain)

AFLPA captain of the year:

2015

AFL Rising Star nominee:

2001

We all have images of captains and Premiership Cups. For me Murphy standing with acting captain Easton Wood and coach Luke Beveridge rivals the 1966 snap of St Kilda’s Darrel Baldock holding aloft the club’s only Cup while wearing Des Tuddenham’s Collingwood jumper.

That Beveridge temporarily handed Murphy his medal is already an iconic moment of AFL history, with Murphy proceeding to take such obvious joy despite a crippling knee injury having ended his season five months earlier.

Luke Beveridge puts his premiership medal over Bob Murphy's neck

From the outside Murphy was never the archetypal AFL type, more Robbie Flower in a Bulldogs jumper than some chiselled adonis who roam club dressingrooms.

He actually gave the average bloke hope, that a slightly dorky looking fellow with ever-present sideburns could run rings around some of the best forwards in the game.

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And then land it on a teammate’s chest from 45m via either foot after bursting away with acceleration that has only started to fail him in recent months. Not that he has looked slow, but Murphy is a 35-year-old who was always going to leave the game on his own terms.

Just two years ago he was named All Australian for the second time in his career, those honours coinciding with his two second placings in the club’s best and fairest in 2011 and 2015.

Bob Murphy leads the Bulldogs off the field Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Hopefully his sensible and thoughtful ways won’t be lost to the game because the AFL landscape needs people like Robert Murphy for calm rationale when frenzied thought often reigns supreme.

That he will retire in the coming weeks as a player not just loved by his own supporters but greatly admired by those from opposition clubs says so much about a decent man who has played a very decent game.

Originally published as While Bob Murphy is unlikely to win a flag, he is as close to a Premiership player as anyone