| Kevin Murray | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Kevin Joseph Murray | ||
| Nickname(s) | Bulldog | ||
| Date of birth | 18 June 1938 | ||
| 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
Representative
| |||
| 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.
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.
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]
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.
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).
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.
From 1975 until 1976, Murray served as captain-coach of the Sandringham Football Club in the Victorian Football Association.[5]
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.
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.
Murray has been inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and was elevated to legend status in 2010.[7]