\u2018The Footscray winters and the glorious liniment-scented afternoons. All of the laughs, the scraps, the yarns and the characters: they all left a mark on me. And I wouldn\u2019t change any of it.\u2019 \u2014Bob Murphy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In this unique memoir, Murphy takes the reader inside his seventeen-year career, including his three years as captain of the Western Bulldogs, exploring the people, places and events that shaped him.\u00a0From playing backyard cricket in 1980s Warragul to Community Cup with Paul Kelly in the 2000s, and from the joy of marrying his high school crush to the agony of a season-ending ACL rupture: the man described as the spirit of the Bulldogs has soul, and it\u2019s made of leather.<\/p>\n
Read on for an extract from Bob Murphy’s memoir, Leather Soul<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019m in love with autumn. Certain cities are suited to certain seasons, and Melbourne is at its most beautiful when the leaves change their shade. There\u2019s something about the cool, crisp mornings, when the winds lay low and the hot air balloons fly high, that makes autumn my favourite time of year. If I ever leave this fair city to live interstate or abroad, it\u2019s probably the autumns I\u2019ll miss the most. George Eliot said, \u2018If I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.\u2019 I feel the same way.<\/p>\n For footballers, autumn comes at a good time. The playing year has begun, and the season is finding its rhythm. You can feel the cogs turning and the pieces slotting into place. Autumn mornings are enchanting, but by mid-morning footballers want the sun to have burnt through the clouds so conditions for training are note perfect.<\/p>\n All of this is swishing around in my thoughts as I drive towards Footscray for training, just after 7 am. I have grown to enjoy the daily toil and grind of football training. There\u2019s a certain type of physical poetry that comes with unrelenting routine, and that\u2019s what a football season is about: routine and then more routine.<\/p>\n But today I have an extra pep in my step. We\u2019ve had a good week. After a surprising and disappointing loss to Fremantle in Perth, we\u2019re back on home soil and gearing up to play the Kangaroos in the very first game to be played on Good Friday. I have a good feeling about this week. Sometimes, you just know.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t much traffic on the road and it\u2019s mostly going the other way, one of the blessings of heading west in the mornings. A triple-shot mug of coffee and You Am I blast me all the way to the Kennel \u2013 past the cemetery in Carlton and the Melbourne Zoo, through Kensington, up on the shoulder of the Flemington racecourse and across the Maribyrnong River. As I roll across the bridge, I think about the river\u2019s long Indigenous history and its connection to our club.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Indigenous guernsey, designed by Koori artist and Bulldog fan Kylie Clarke, incorporates a map of the Maribyrnong and the camping sites that were once dotted along it. Then I\u2019m on the other side of the river, picking up speed, gently veering left towards the Whitten Oval on Geelong Road. I could almost make the trip with my eyes shut, I\u2019ve driven it so many times. I have been known to head off along this familiar trail with Justine and the kids in the car when we\u2019re meant to be heading on a family outing somewhere else.<\/p>\n The huge palm trees on the doorstep of the Whitten Oval come into view and I park my car. Today is \u2018captain\u2019s run\u2019 \u2013 the last training session before game day. It is the least physically demanding day on our weekly calendar. In total, there will be four meetings for the morning. There\u2019s a different energy inside our football club for the captain\u2019s run. A respectful reverence. For what, I can\u2019t be sure. Maybe the battle ahead. There\u2019s nervous tension in the room. A few sets of knees bounce up and down as we listen attentively. One of those sets of knees is mine.<\/p>\n The irony of the captain\u2019s run at our club is that since I\u2019ve become the captain, I rarely complete the session. I join the boys out on the ground for the warm-up and float through a couple of ball movement drills, but eventually I drift off to the side to watch while I rest my old legs.<\/p>\n The ten minutes that I\u2019m out there with the boys are precious though. Your feet barely touch the ground on a captain\u2019s run. The fatigue in your legs from last week\u2019s game is long gone and you feel rested and strong.<\/p>\n Today, the stillness of the autumn air and the soft warmth of the morning sun allow everyone\u2019s skills to shine like diamonds. We\u2019re running on top of the ground. The coaches are relaxed, or at least trying to appear so, and the feeling in the group is that we\u2019ll win tomorrow. There\u2019s not even a hint of doubt.<\/p>\n We take our time moving the ball from one end of the ground to the other, running among each other in big, sweeping figure eights, like ballroom dancers, and the ball glides across the oval before being rammed home for a goal \u2013 only for the dance to come back to life immediately for another run-through. I try to feel the ball in my hands, consciously feel the leather beneath the callouses, and carefully guide it down to my boot and sympathetically offer it up to a teammate who has led to space with outstretched arms. A perfect drop-punt pass that hits your teammate without him breaking stride is precious. It never gets old.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a sparseness to the whole session, like the closing credits of a great film. For years I\u2019ve stayed out on the ground for the full captain\u2019s run session, trying to soak in its goodness, but I can\u2019t do it anymore. It\u2019s hard to leave the group as they really hit their stride. But that\u2019s my lot these days.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Thursday, 13 April 2017: Captain\u2019s run
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\nFor all the moments of spark and exhilaration in footy, there are days and weeks when there is little more than the constant hum of routine and repetition. But then there are other days everything sits in perfect balance under a golden glow of gentle, unexpected sunlight. It was one of those days today.<\/p>\n![\"bob](\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/bob-murphy-in-post-banner-2.png\" "\\"Picture")
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