John Murphy (born 20 November 1949) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(now

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

Playing career

Murphy debuted with the

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the Vi ...

in 1967 after being recruited from

Diamond Valley Football League The Northern Football Netball League (formerly known as the Diamond Valley Football League and later Northern Football League) is an Australian sports league based in the Diamond Valley region of suburban Melbourne, Victoria. The league regul ...

club

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, and went on to set the record for consecutive games played from debut -158 matches. This record held until 2005 when surpassed by

Jared Crouch Jared Crouch (born 5 March 1978) is a former Australian football player with the Sydney Swans of the Australian Football League (AFL), who is colloquially known as "Crouchie" to Swans fans and the media. He currently serves as a development ...

from Sydney. Murphy was made captain of Fitzroy in 1973, a position he held until he left the club at the end of the 1977 season after 214 games and winning five Fitzroy Club ChampionsBrisbane Lions (2008)
''Fitzroy Football Club Honour Roll 1897 - 1996''
. Retrieved on 6 May 2008. across half-forward and in the midfield. His departure was due to internal disputes with the club over his comments over some players that he thought should have been discarded from the club.Full Points Footy (2008)

. Retrieved on 6 May 2008. In 1978, he moved to

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at ...

playing 23 games in a season and a half. He again changed clubs late in the 1979 season, moving to

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

where he played his first ever finals match. He retired from the VFL in 1980 after injuries struck. In 1981, Murphy moved to Tasmania to captain-coach the Ulverstone in the

North Western Football Union The North West Football Union (NWFU) was an Australian rules football competition which ran from 1910 to 1986. In its time it was one of the three main leagues in Tasmania, with the Tasmanian Football League and Northern Tasmanian Football Asso ...

. He won the Wander Medal as the league's best and fairest. Following his playing career, Murphy had two coaching stints in the

VFA/VFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). I ...

. He coached

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham Local government areas of Victoria, local government a ...

briefly from 1983 until 1985, without much success. Then, from 1993 to 1998, John Murphy was coach of the Box Hill Football Club and is the club's longest serving coach. He coached the club to its first Division One grand final in the VFA in 1994, in which Box Hill was defeated by Sandringham by the narrow margin of 9 points. He received life membership of the Box Hill Football Club in 1998. Murphy currently works as the Dispute Settlement Officer in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League. He was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

in 2006 and is the centreman in Fitzroy's official "Team of the Century".

Post-football

When Fitzroy's official 'Team of the Century' was announced in 2002, he was named in the centre.Footy Stamps (2006)
''Fitzroy Team of the Century''
Retrieved on 6 May 2008. Murphy was admitted to the

on 22 June 2006. His son, Marc Murphy, was the number one draft pick in the 2005 AFL Draft. Marc considered a move to the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

under the father-son rule, as John played for Fitzroy, a club that merged with the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/ ...

to form the Lions. However, he nominated for the National Draft instead, and was selected by

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

with the first overall selection. After Marc's 100th game in 2010, Marc, John and John's father

Leo Murphy Leo Murphy may refer to: * Leo Murphy (Australian footballer), Australian rules footballer * Leo Murphy (baseball) Leo Joseph "Red" Murphy (January 7, 1889 – August 12, 1960) was a catcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Pittsburg ...

(who played 132 games for Hawthorn in the 1930s) became the only father-son-grandson combination in league history to each play 100 games.Tony De Bolf
100 Club is Murphy's lore
, Retrieved 18 August 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, John Fitzroy Football Club players Sydney Swans players North Melbourne Football Club players Box Hill Football Club coaches Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Bob Skilton Medal winners Mitchell Medal winners Ulverstone Football Club players Heidelberg Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) 1949 births Living people