By Benjamin Millar
Bob Murphy was never one to flinch on the footy field.
But here he is, visibly thrown by the suggestion he has entered the echelons of ‘favourite son’ status at his beloved Western Bulldogs.
Murphy is at Whitten Oval to discuss his 17-year playing career with the Dogs and his long-awaited new book, Leather Soul: A Half-back Flanker’s Rhythm and Blues.
He’s chatting comfortably until asked about being one of club legend Charlie Sutton’s favourite Bulldogs.
Murphy accepts that he found a place in the team he so desperately wanted to be welcomed into, but still struggles to be mentioned in the same breath as other stars from the club’s history.
“You say ‘favourite son’ and I look over my shoulder looking for Chris Grant and Doug Hawkins,” he said.
“I did have a thought in my first week at the club that when I finish I want to be a ‘Bulldogs person’. On that mark I think I got a tick.”
Leather Soul takes readers from Murphy’s early days kicking the footy around in a gravel car park at school in Warragul through to his 17-year career with the Bulldogs, including three unforgettable years as club captain.
The memoir is roughly chronological, but interspersed with diary snapshots of key moments in the past three years.
Sitting on his obligatory second cup of coffee for the day, Murphy explains the making of “a different kind of footy book”.
“I always thought there was a gap in the football books – the players were the champions, the guys who had climbed the Mt Everest and put their flag at the top of the mountain,” he said.
“I was not that kind of player, I didn’t have that kind of career. I was probably going to do it anyway, then in the last three years there was a more obvious story with a bit of drama and a few tears.”
The book took shape over one of the most remarkable periods in the club’s history, from the rubble left behind after the spectacular walking out of captain Ryan Griffen at the end of 2014 to the breaking of a 62-year premiership drought with a grand final win over the Sydney Swans in 2016.
While the idea for a memoir had been kicking around in the back of Murphy’s head, he could never have guessed the twists and turns his final three years at the club would take.
“I wasn’t sitting down every night going ‘Dear diary, today I lifted weights and got yelled at by a coach’,” he said.
“There’s bits of notes here, scraps there, stuff on drink coasters – just obvious little touchstone moments that are part of the story.”
While the bulk of the story relates to Murphy’s career with the Bulldogs, much of it traces life behind the scenes at the club.
There is also insight into the man behind the player, the Bob Murphy as happy at a Tex Perkins gig or listing to Exile on Main Street by a campfire in the hills as he was chiming into the game to make a crucial play from the half-back flank.
“I definitely felt restless in the early years. There’s almost a guilt attached to it, you’re chained to this 10-year-old-kid that just wants to play football and that’s it,” he said.
“You leave the small town and come to Melbourne; it’s not that you lose the love for the game but the whole world just becomes bigger. So I felt a tug-of-war with that in my early 20s, which a lot of players do.”
Embracing this other side to his personality and beginning to write a regular newspaper column about the game actually took some pressure off his on-field performance and helped Murphy love his footy more than ever.
“Before I felt a bit claustrophobic, your whole self-esteem was riding on whether you got a kick or whether you won or lost, and you’re living in constant judgement,” he said.
“Towards the end I loved it – maybe that’s partly because you had a few more runs on the board and you felt acceptance at the club and you didn’t feel constantly judged by your own people.”
Despite a stellar career that included being named as All-Australian captain and playing an integral part in the club’s successful flag campaign, Murphy still struggles to come to terms with not being one of the 22 Bulldogs lacing up for ‘the big dance’ in 2016.
Murphy was the club captain at the time the perennial underdogs enjoyed their greatest triumph since 1954, but failed to take the field after ruining his knee early in the season.
Leather Soul opens with a heart-wrenching window into the bittersweet turmoil of that Grand Final Day in the Murphy household.
“That’s a difficult one for me to talk about still. Obviously missing out on the grand final is a big deal, but the further time goes I check in with that school kid… I got to play AFL, that was it, so I’m happy enough.”
Murphy returned from injury to take the field in 2017, retiring at the end of a season that failed to deliver the longed-for silverware.
He remains philosophical about the club’s current lack of on-field success, feeling frustrated when people talk about a ‘Bulldogs hangover’.
“You inherit the culture and the baggage of a club. When I came in I felt the heaviness. For a young player coming to the football club now, I think there’s less weight,” he said.
“The way I describe it is that Hawthorn are mountain climbers, the Bulldogs were astronauts – winning the flag was like landing on the moon, now we’ve got to get our feet back on the ground, and it’s the transition of becoming mountain climbers.”
Murphy said this means finding a new story about who the club is and what it means to be a Bulldog.
“That’s emotionally tricky, that’s going to take some time,” he said.
“Hopefully that lightness gives them a better chance – it becoming the expectation, not the dream.”
Leather Soul: A Half-back Flanker’s Rhythm and Blues is out now via Black Inc imprint Nero.
Murphy will be signing copies on Saturday, August 4 at Robinsons Bookshop Highpoint from 11am and The Sun Bookshop from 1pm.
