Kevin Murray (Australian footballer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kevin Murray
Personal information
Full name Kevin Joseph Murray
Nickname(s) Bulldog
Date of birth (1938-06-18) 18 June 1938 (age 83)
Original team(s) Fitzroy Thirds
Height 178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 79 kg (174 lb)
Position(s) Half back flank, ruck-rover
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1955–1964, 1967–1974 Fitzroy 333 (51)
1965–1966 East Perth 44 (20)
Total 377 (71)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
Victoria 24
Western Australia 6
Coaching career3
Years Club Games (W–L–D)
1963–1964 Fitzroy 34 (0–34–0)
1965–1966 East Perth 45 (26–19–0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1974.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1966.
Career highlights

Player

  • Brownlow Medal: 1969
  • Fitzroy Club Champion: 1956, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1968, 1969
  • Fitzroy captain: 1963–1964, 1967–1972
  • All-Australian team: 1958, 1966
  • AFL Team of the Century
  • Australian Football Hall of Fame – Legend status
  • East Perth Best and Fairest: 1965
  • East Perth captain

Representative

  • National Football Carnival Championship: 1958
  • Simpson Medal: 1965
  • Captain of Victoria
  • Captain of Western Australia
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Kevin Joseph Murray MBE[1] (born 18 June 1938), commonly nicknamed "Bulldog", is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League in 333 games over 18 seasons.

Family[]

The son of Daniel Thomas Murray (1912-1992), and Eileen May Murray (1913-1998), née Dowdle, Kevin Joseph Murray was born on 18 June 1938.

Murray's father, Dan, had also played for Fitzroy, including their 1944 VFL Grand Final victory.

Football[]

He learned his junior football from Father John Brosnan (1919-2003) at St. Joseph's College, in Collingwood.[2]

Although only 5'10" (178 cm) tall, he had a very long reach: In his own words, he felt his arm span was more like that of a player 6'6" tall (198 cm).[3]

Fitzroy (VFL)[]

Murray played for Fitzroy from 1955[4] to 1964 and from 1967 to 1974, winning nine best and fairest awards for the club. He was playing coach of Fitzroy in 1963, a job he also filled in 1964, along with representing and captaining his home state of Victoria.

East Perth (WANFL)[]

In 1965 Murray moved to Western Australia to captain/coach East Perth Football Club. Over two seasons he played 44 West Australian National Football League (WANFL) games.

In 1965 he won the Simpson Medal for best player in the WA v VFA interstate match and also won East Perth's best and fairest award.

In 1966 he captained WA at the 1966 Hobart Carnival and led East Perth to the WANFL Grand Final which they lost to Perth (captain/coached by former East Perth player Mal Atwell who had switched to Perth because he didn't agree with Murray's methods).

Fitzroy (VFL)[]

His return to Fitzroy in 1967 was triumphant. He won the club's best and fairest award in his first two years back, and in 1969 he was awarded the Brownlow Medal.

Sandringham (VFA)[]

From 1975 until 1976, Murray served as captain-coach of the Sandringham Football Club in the Victorian Football Association.[5]

Career[]

He also played 24 matches for Victoria and six for Western Australia in interstate football; and among Murray's other honours, he was named an All-Australian player in 1958 (as a Victorian player) and 1966 (as a West Australian player) — "the first to achieve that distinction for two states".[6]

His 333 games for Fitzroy was a then VFL record, but 208 of these games resulted in losses, which until recently was the most ever suffered by a single player in the VFL/AFL, (since surpassed by Carlton's Kade Simpson) and played 44 games for East Perth. His total of 377 games was an elite football record until 1979, when it was broken by Barry Cable.

Brisbane Lions[]

At the end of the 1996 season, Fitzroy merged with the Brisbane Bears to form the Brisbane Lions. Murray was a great supporter of the new entity and the Lions' club championship award, the Merrett–Murray Medal, is part-named in Murray's honour.

Australian Football Hall of Fame[]

Murray has been inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and was elevated to legend status in 2010.[7]

See also[]

  • Fitzroy's Team of the Century
  • AFL/VFL Team of the Century
  • 1963 Miracle Match
  • Fitzroy FC honour roll – for coaches, captains, leading goalkickers and team position.
  • List of Fitzroy Football Club coaches
  • List of Fitzroy Football Club players

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ It's an Honour Retrieved 24 June 2012
  2. ^ Lane, Tim, "Champions' touching tribute to the game", The Age, 6 June 2010.
  3. ^ Sheahan, M., "Mighty Mighty Kevin Murray, the proudest Roy", Herald Sun (Melbourne), 4 June 2010.
  4. ^ Stephen, Bill, "Maroons will Cause a lot of Bother", The Argus, (Thursday, 31 March 1955), p.22.]
  5. ^ John Devaney. "Kevin Murray". Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  6. ^ Ross (1996), p.247.
  7. ^ Kevin Murray crowned an AFL legend

References[]

  • Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2004). The Encyclopaedia of AFL Footballers: Every Brisbane and Fitzroy AFL Player Ever. Melbourne: BAS Publishing. ISBN 1-920910-09-3.
  • Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0
  • Mighty Kevin Murray, The Proudest Roy, Lions Media, 1 May 2020.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""