Excitement Machine – Allan Murray By Steve Smith Allan Murray is one of those guys you’d pay your cold, hard cash to go and see play. There are days when you get that feeling he’s on the verge of pulling out the mark of the century. But as well as the flash and the dash, he’s also remarkably grounded, with a passion for helping those less fortunate. So, is he a complex individual or just a bloody good bloke? Let’s find out… SS: Firstly Allan, congratulations on your new arrival - Ryder Murray, a brother for sister Sammi. All went well I hope? AM: Cheers mate, yea he is a little legend... yea all went good and mum's doing well. SS: May I enquire about the name Ryder – after Patrick Ryder of Essendon? Your favourite player? AM: Ummm, well we liked Riley and thought Ryder was cooler, plus he'll be riding packs like his old man in no time... Lol. SS: There is more to you than meets the eye Budgie – your ‘LinkedIn’ profile lists some of your achievements to-date and it’s quite an amazing list of credits for such a young bloke (28). I take my hat off to you. For example: 2006 Aboriginal Young Achiever of the Year, 2007 Nomination for Australian of the Year, 2008 Indigenous Community Justice Award. It also mentions your involvement as CEO of the Jerrboongun Indigenous Corporation, which supports at risk aboriginal youth and that you set up the Unity Foundation with Xavier Clarke of St Kilda and the Indigenous Not afraid of heights Lighthouse, which provides support and direction for homeless indigenous children. You obviously have a long-standing passion for looking after indigenous kids? What made you want to put your hand up and get involved? AM: Yea, don't be deceived by the good looks... Nah seriously it's certainly a passion of mine to try and teach less fortunate Indigenous kids about life skills and about the ripple effect of each decision, plus the consequences of those decisions. It's something I've learnt along the way and want to pass on. SS: While we’re on the topic of research, in an old news article I read on yourself, your old St Kilda coach Grant Thomas called you ‘Budge’ – so the Budgie nickname goes back a bit. If they were going to name you after a bird shouldn’t they have chosen something bigger, more fierce and exciting like ‘Hawk’ or ‘Eagle’? Who came up with Budgie? AM: I had a budgie when I was younger and the name has stuck... Big wingspan SS: Obviously there’s a rich heritage of footballers in your family, with you being a cousin of Nathen Lovett-Murray and probably a few more? What about old man Murray (your dad) – was he the cream of the crop? AM: Yea dad played a bit of footy but finished in his teenage years. Dad had to work to help provide for the family as he was 1 of 9 kids. I had an uncle who was on Richmond and North Melbourne’s lists... I have a couple of uncles on mum's side who were guns back in the day... and of course with the 'rich heritage' we all have class... Lol. SS: My research tells me your brother Derek was a fair player, playing over 40 games for Port Adelaide. Is he still running around somewhere getting a kick? Any other siblings playing footy? AM: Yea he did go alright for his size. He broke his leg pretty badly in 2002 and never really recovered from that. He played a bit of country footy for a couple of years but finished up last year. And yea, my younger bro Matty Murray is playing in the Ovens and Murray league with North Albury and is having a great year. Matty is moving down later this year so he'll don the mighty Tigers jumper next year and is one of the toughest little pricks going around (as Derek and I always ganged up on him growing up, so he had to defend himself!). Prepared to spill a little ‘claret’ for the cause SS: You also followed him to Port Adelaide, playing one game before joining St Kilda. What was your Port Adelaide time like? AM: Yea a great experience, we had the likes of Gavin Wanganeen, Che Cockatoo-Collins, Peter Burgoyne, Fabian Francis. Adelaide was good for 2 years but that was long enough. SS: From there you spent a few years at the Saints, playing 15 games in your number 20 guernsey. You must have played with and against some good players during that time. Care to name-drop a few of your favourites? AM: Barry Brooks, Daniel Wolf, Luke Penny, Dylan Phitzner, Josh Houlihan are a couple of legends… SS: With your spectacular abilities it’s surprising to me (and probably many others) that you didn’t forge a longer career at AFL level. An article by Greg Baum on your first game for St Kilda against Brisbane described your performance as a “Spectacular debut”, in which you had 19 kicks, 9 marks, 5 handballs, 2 goals and 6 tackles. What do you put it down to? Did you peak first up?!! Trick photography – not a ‘wardrobe AM: Sorry mate, don’t know where you got the data from but my first game with the Saints malfunction’!!!! I played against Hawthorn and kicked 4 on Joel Smith….lol. SS: That will teach me for not noticing it was an alphabetical list (and not chronological) of clubs you played against! Moving right along, you would have played with Brett Moyle in your time at the Saints. Was that how we managed to get you to Balwyn? AM: Yea had a year or 2 with ‘tennis ball head’ and Micky McGuane was assistant coach at the Saints in my last year. SS: I see you played at Lavington (near Albury). Was that where you played all your junior footy? AM: Yea played at North Albury then Lavington in the Ovens and Murray League. SS: The next phase of your career was with the Murray Bushrangers, where you had a stellar year in 2000, winning their goalkicking, most improved and also making the All Australian Under 18 side. Good times? AM: We should’ve won the flag that year but missed out on making the GF by a goal… But yea, had some very good players that year and the good old days of travelling to training on a 15 seater bus from Albury to Wangaratta on a Wednesday night and getting home at 11pm. Now that's love for the game! SS: You also got drafted to Port Adelaide that year. There were 9 Draftees from that Murray Bushrangers side, which is the most ever for one year: yourself, Justin Koschitzke, Kayne Pettifer, Blake Campbell, Chris Hyde, Sean O’Keefe, Daniel Cross, Marc Bullen and Luke Hammond. Lighting up Lilydale Some impressive names there – who would you say was the most likely to be a hit in the AFL (and you can say yourself if you think so!)? AM: Kozi was a freak in the under 18s and Kayne Pettifer went top 20 as well and a few more should've got drafted. But Kozi for sure. SS: I’m sure I speak for all the Balwyn faithful when I say that St Kilda’s loss has been our gain. How have you enjoyed your time here so far? Obviously the premiership was a big highlight? AM: Yea the flag in 08 clearly the best highlight. Let’s hope we can top that with one in 2010. But plenty of good times in between. SS: When you first started in 2007 you seemed to be embroiled in a lot of scuffles during games. In recent times, not so much it seems. Does that mean you are settling down a bit, or can’t be bothered getting involved any more and would rather leave it to the angry little blokes like Jake, Roc, Chuck and Cheevo? AM: I’m a lover not a fighter, but as you can see the names mentioned have ‘little man syndrome’ besides Chuck - those arms are AMAZING!!! and Cherry Road… SS: Now to your high flying – in the rooms there is a great photo hanging in there of a huge mark you took. There are some days Budgie when I just get that feeling that you are going to do something special and take the mark of the decade. My fear is that you will do it and I will be at the other end of the ground! Do you wake up some days and have that feeling that today might be the day? If so, can you give me some sort of signal like a scratch to your ear when you are about to go for the big one? AM: Just always have the camera on rapid shot brother… SS: Does Harf encourage his players to play with that sort of flair. Does he give you a Fair set of guns in the No. 20 “licence to thrill” – in other words, fly for the big grabs and wreak mayhem in the forward line? Or does he prefer you stay grounded and do all the team-oriented things? AM: Nah Harf just wants me to do my thing for the team and if that’s me playing well then so be it…. SS: Seamus Billings was bemoaning the fact that I’ve become too focused with the camera on the high flyers like yourself and not on the grunt guys like himself in the backline.