Adam Cooney spills the beans on Western Bulldogs teammate’s ugly ‘king hit’ at training

An AFL great has lifted the lid on a former teammate and the ugly moment which left one player out cold on the grass.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 4: Luke Darcy #14, Chris Grant #3 and Robert Murphy #2 of the Bulldogs leave the ground looking dejected after losing the round 14 AFL match between the Western Bulldogs and the Fremantle Dockers at the Telstra Dome, on July 4 2004 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

Emotions can boil over on the footy field, even when it’s just on the training track and it’s between teammates.

Tensions well and truly boiled over for the Western Bulldogs between two greats of the club during a practice match in an incident that went widespread.

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Bulldogs star Bob Murphy had gotten under the skin of former star ruckman Luke Darcy throughout the practice game when Darcy exacted his revenge.

"He didn't upset me, he put me to sleep," Murphy said on Fox Footy’s Open Mike.

"It was a practice match and unbeknown to me, which was the critical bit of information, (coach Rodney Eade) took Darc and Scotty West aside and said – because we were a young group – he said 'start a bit of trouble today.'

"I didn't know about any of that and Darc and I were very close but we'd sort of rib each other a little.

"We were on opposite teams, and the game started, and I knew the nickname 'Bambi' used to upset him because he was all arms and legs and he'd fall over and I was chipping him, chipping him, chipping him about being Bambi and about being a big, soft ruckman.

"I turned to take a kick out, the ball was about to be kicked back in and he came up behind me and – he says that he wanted to reach around and punch me across the chest or something but it got me in the sweet spot and I was out."

"You knocked your own teammate out!"

We finally get to the bottom of the infamous Luke Darcy/Robert Murphy incident.#TheKick #7AFL pic.twitter.com/g78eaNbu00

— 7AFL (@7AFL) June 16, 2018

But now former Western Bulldogs star and 2008 Brownlow Medalist Adam Cooney has lifted even more details from the ugly fracas that left Murphy out like a light.

“We had a practice game, match simulation, and Bob was being a bit of a smart a** to Darce and Darce just came straight up behind him, roundhouse king hit him … straight out,” Cooney said on SEN Breakfast.

“Knocked out, he was out cold. Had to be stretchered off.

“Then Darce had to front the players and plead his case like a kangaroo court style and it was just when photoshop and all them were coming in.

“He got vision of the footage and then put the worst sort of rock you’ve ever seen, super imposed coming across and hitting Murph in the head and he said ‘well it wasn’t me, it was a rock’.

“We all let him off, not guilty. He got away with it.”

"Bob was being a bit of a smart a--..."@Adamcooney17 lifts the lid on the time when a certain former Bulldogs ruckman came to blows with @BobMurphy02... 🥊 #AFL pic.twitter.com/0YHSEFlYlX

— Garry and Tim (@SENBreakfast) December 8, 2020

Murphy however took his revenge by vandalising the locker of Darcy by etching the words “coward” in permanent marker above it.

"I knew it was Darc, or Bambi as it were, and I went into his locker and I grabbed a blue texta and I wrote 'coward' aboved his locker and it remained there until they redeveloped the footy club,” Murphy said.