Former Collingwood defender Sam Murray training in bid to revive his AFL career after drug ban
Suspended ex-Collingwood defender Sam Murray speaks for the first time since returning a positive match-day test for an illicit drug. He opens up on how it’s changed his life and view on football.
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Suspended ex-Collingwood defender Sam Murray is committed to restarting his AFL career when his drug ban expires in December.
Murray is eligible to play in Round 1 and return for pre-season training with a club on December 18 after being suspended for 18 months for testing positive to cocaine on match-day.
WATCH SAM MURRAY’S TRAINING SESSION ABOVE
Speaking for the first time since returning that test in July 2018, Murray told the Herald Sun the experience had transformed his outlook on life and football.
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“I don’t think it’s necessarily changed me (as a person) but it’s been able to deepen where I see myself,” Murray said.
“You can get lost in the football side of things and maybe become a distant version of yourself but this has allowed me to really understand what I believe and what I want as a person.
“What this period off has allowed me to do is understand what makes me happy and what I want to do in life and I’ve pursued that and it’s made me a much happier person now. There could be one thousand things that come out of it, so I just take every day as it is.
“It’s a humbling experience. I understand where I sit now.”
So what does Murray want to do?
“I want to play footy but I just want to be happy and that’s the most important thing. Me being happy is me playing footy,” he said.
“I’ll train my hardest to play AFL football but if I don’t play AFL football I’ll be playing football somewhere. I’ll just give myself the best opportunity to get back on a list.”
Murray, 22, has ramped up his training for a potential AFL return by working with top personal trainer Danny Kennedy.
The running defender is training five times a week — three sessions with Kennedy and two on his own to focus on football-specific conditioning — to prove he’s worth the risk.
“There’s a few,” Murray said of interested clubs.
“I was on the front foot early on when I knew where I was sitting with the ban and we made sure we were being active …
“My football stacks up compared to people coming through the draft this year and kids that haven’t dealt with things I’ve dealt with. I’ve probably dealt with bigger lows in football than anyone else and dealt with more outside of football than most footballers probably deal with.”
Kennedy has been more than a trainer to Murray.
The pair met through a mutual friend and have developed such a close friendship Kennedy has become a mentor who has helped Murray through dark times.
“There definitely is times where it’s hard. I sat out of football for 12 months and watched my team play in a Grand Final,” Murray said.
“It’s easy to get lost in all the mess of it all but being able to have mentors and people around me like Dan … it grounded me and kept me focused.
“We don’t necessarily talk about training when we’re in here. We do the exercises but for us, we’re very similar and relatable and he’s a very in-touch person who understands what’s good for him but also what’s good for other people around him.
“For me those conversations we have in the gym, it’s a release.”
After watching Kennedy put Murray through a gruelling weights session, ironically out of Progression Fitness Club at the Glasshouse — a gym underneath Collingwood’s Holden Centre headquarters — it’s clear the former Magpie and Swan is serious about earning another chance.
He’s focused as he moves between sets and pushes himself for an extra 10 seconds in his final set of rope slams and an extra 15 for the weighted plank to finish.
For the first time in his life, the gym is his happy place.
“I’m in the best physical condition of my life, easily. Like weight-wise, body shape, mentally as well and with any injury concerns I had last year they’re all gone,” Murray said.
“It’s hard to distinguish what happiness is. It’s a feeling and not necessarily a thing you understand. I think I just know that when I’m training I’m happy in the fact I feel good training.
“That’s not necessarily saying that I wasn’t (happy before) but when I went through what I went through there was times where I didn’t want to train and that’s like anyone when you spend 18 months out of the game.
“For me it’s just mentally I’m driven … I’m genuinely driven to get back and play footy, I’m genuinely driven to be a better person, I’m driven to make good decisions and live my life the way I want to and know I should.”
That drive means Murray is rarely, if ever, looking in the rear-view mirror but the suspension is part of his life, and he accepts it.
When asked how he’d describe who he used to be compared to the person he is now, Murray is brutally honest.
“I’d say mediocre as a human and as a footballer … but now driven,” he said.
“When I look back I’m not naive to the fact there’s question marks over me but there’s no point being down on it or reliving it every day. It is what it is and I’m a better person because of it.
“I’m not saying what happened was good, ever, but I think I’m in better shape now to be a professional athlete and better human than ever.”
As well as working with Murray, Kennedy is currently training tennis champion Dylan Alcott in preparation for the Australian Open in January and has worked with a number of high-profile AFL footballers.
What has struck him most about Murray is his motivation to get back to the elite level.
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“What impresses me about Sam is once he sets a goal and puts his mind to something he’s extremely driven,” Kennedy said.
“Setting specific goals and then reverse-engineering how to achieve that and sticking to the path.
“Physically now he’s far fitter, stronger, more powerful and covers more ground than he did before and mentally he’s in the best headspace possible because he knows he can take on whatever load he needs to.
“He’s made sure he’s ready, so now he just waits for the opportunity and I think he’ll really, if he does and I’m assuming he does get the opportunity, he’ll impress a lot of people next year on the field.”
