He learned his junior football from Father John Brosnan (1919–2003) at St. Joseph's College, in Collingwood. [2]
Although only 5 ft 10 in (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 ft 6 in (198 cm) tall. [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 represented and captained his home state of Victoria, and was playing coach of Fitzroy in 1963 and 1964. Although Fitzroy had not won a single game under his coaching, Murray would receive several offers from WANFL and country clubs following the close of the 1964 season. [5]
East Perth (WANFL)
In October 1964, Murray signed with WANFL club East Perth, announcing to Fitzroy that he would move to Western Australia even if Fitzroy refused to clear him – although he feared a permanent falling out with his former club. [6] Fitzroy refused two applications to clear Murray over the summer but relented by the end of March, 1965 as they feared that if they failed to clear him he would not return. [7] 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, who were captain/coached by former East Perth player Mal Atwell. Atwell switched to Perth because he didn't agree with Murray's methods.
Return to Fitzroy
Despite his success in Perth, Murray was tipped to return to Fitzroy for 1967 soon after the 1966 home-and-away season was over. [8] Like his move west, Murray's return to Victoria was affected by refusals of clearance: East Perth insisted Fitzroy pay $2,000 for him and consequently [9] he was refused a clearance three times. [10] His return to Fitzroy in 1967 was triumphant, winning the club's best and fairest award in his first two seasons back, and in 1969 Murray was awarded the Brownlow Medal.
Career
Murray's 333 games for Fitzroy was a then-VFL record, though 208 of these games resulted in losses – which was record for a player in the VFL/AFL until it was broken by Carlton's Kade Simpson in 2020.
Murray also played 44 games for East Perth for a total of 377 career premiership games in elite Australian rules football, which remained a record until it was broken by Barry Cable in Round 20 of the 1979 WANFL season.
In his career, Murray played in a total of 226 games that resulted in losses, which remained an elite Australian rules football record until broken by Ralph Sewer in Round 16 of the 1990 SANFL season; Sewer retired at the end of that season having played in 229 games that resulted in losses.
Other matches
Murray also played 30 matches in interstate football – 24 for Victoria and six for Western Australia. Among Murray's other honours, he was named an All-Australian player in 1958 for Victoria and 1966 for West Australia, the first player to achieve that distinction for two states. [12] He also played in seventeen night series matches for Fitzroy, which are counted as senior by the WAFL but not the VFL/AFL. If these be included, Murray played a total of 424 senior career games: 374 in Victoria and 50 in Western Australia.
The VFL/AFL lists Murray's total as 407 career senior games, with 357 in Victoria, excluding his pre-season/night series matches for Fitzroy.
Despite the differing viewpoints, Murray was the first player in elite Australian rules football history to play 400 senior career matches, a feat he achieved in either of Round 15 of 1974 (using the VFL/AFL's total) or Round 20 of 1973 (using his overall total).
Using either of the VFL/AFL's Victorian total of 357 or his overall Victorian total of 374, Murray's Victorian career senior games total was behind only John Nicholls at his retirement. His senior career games total remained an elite Australian rules football record until broken by Kevin Bartlett in either of the 1982 Grand Final (using the VFL/AFL's totals), Round 12 of 1983 (excluding Bartlett's International Rules matches) or Round 5 of 1983 (including Bartlett's International Rules matches); Bartlett retired at the end of the 1983 season with 427 senior career games (using the VFL/AFL's totals), 435 senior career games (excluding his International Rules matches) or 439 senior career games (using his overall total).
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