IF YOU’RE a male footy fan of a certain age, the chances are sound that you had, or may still have, a dog-eared copy of a well known book called Football. The Australian Way.
Each of the 28 chapters is written by a famous player from the 1940s through to the late 1960s, and in the chapter written by Fitzroy great Kevin Murray he tells of trudging home disconsolately each Thursday night from footy training, aged just 13, having missed out on selection for the thirds.
"They didn't even name me an emergency," he would tell his father.
But eventually Murray did get a game for the thirds; then for the seconds, and then the seniors. And once he got picked, he rarely missed, amassing 333 senior games for Fitzroy between 1955 and 1974, a figure that stood for many years as the most by any player in the VFL/AFL.
And that doesn't include two years in the mid-1960s when he went to Western Australia to captain-coach East Perth, or the 10 years of lower-level football he played after he finished with Fitzroy.
Murray, now 72, finally hung his boots up only 20 years ago.
And the secret to his success? Hard, manual labour.
Murray wasn't one for a cushy office job to protect his body from week to week between matches. Instead, he spent most of his working life working as a scaffolder, lugging metal pipes, blocks of wood and bricks up, down and across building sites throughout Melbourne.
And to this day, Murray insists that the hard yakka helped, rather than hindered his playing career and added to his longevity.
"It was a fearful trade," he said in The Brownlow, a book published several years ago to honour all those to have been awarded the AFL's highest individual honour.
"You were always at risk if slipping and falling. It took me six months to adjust to it because I'd be too exhausted for football training. But it made you so strong and exercised all of your muscles.
"If you had injuries, you'd work them out of you because you were always moving. It was gym work without going to the gym. You were out in the elements - the heat, the cold and the wind - and that was a big help to my football."
'Bulldog' as he was fondly known, was runner-up in the Brownlow in 1960 and again in 1962 and pined to go one better.
He did so in 1969 and tells the story of the second last game of that season against Melbourne at the MCG when he hurt his ankle.
Knowing that the ankle would likely blow up if he took off his boot, Murray instructed a trainer to pour methylated spirits into it to prevent it from swelling. After playing the second half, he spent hours every day for the next week soaking his ankle in seawater.
Sure enough, he recovered and played the final game, finishing one vote clear in the medal count ahead of Footscray's George Bissett and Essendon's Barry Davis.
The following year, he captained his club and introduced his players during the historic MCG clash against Richmond that was attended by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.
As a player, Murray was a dogged competitor, an undersized warrior centre half-back or a ruck-rover who could run all day.
He is arguably the greatest Fitzroy player of all, but had the misfortune of playing for the club during a lean period. He only played finals in 1958 and 1960 and had to content himself with a swag of individual honours - nine club best and fairests, 18 appearances for Victoria and six for Western Australia. He was twice named All-Australian and was awarded 178 career Brownlow votes.
Murray played a key role in the merger between his beloved Fitzroy and the Brisbane Bears - not in any administrative sense but simply because he gave it his blessing. His approval of the union between the two clubs convinced many Fitzroy supporters to throw their support behind the Brisbane Lions.
'Bulldog' Murray was an inaugural inductee into the AFL Hall of Fame in 1996 and is now the 22nd official Legend of the game, which he says is a great thing for the Fitzroy Football Club.
His is a lesson of perseverance and passion to play.
Kevin Murray - By The Numbers
333 - games played for Fitzroy
1956 - the year in which he won the first of nine Fitzroy best and fairests
1959 - the first of 16 seasons in which he didn't miss a game for any reason
178 - career Brownlow Medal votes
44 - matches as captain-coach of East Perth
159 - times he captained Fitzroy
51 - career goals for Fitzroy
