Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL). Renowned for his silky skills and leadership qualities, Murphy has also proven himself a versatile player, equally capable of playing in attack or in defence depending on the situation. He served as the Bulldogs’ captain for 2015-2017 following the departure of predecessor Ryan Griffen.
Murphy is the third and youngest child of a priest father and a nun mother. He has a brother and a sister.
On 26 May 2006 Murphy injured his left knee during a horrible collision in the Bulldogs’ 34 point loss to Collingwood. This injury caused him to miss the remainder of the 2006 season, including what would have been his first finals series. After successful reconstruction, he returned to action in the 2007 NAB Cup series in February 2007. He injured his right knee early in the 2008 season, but played on for the remainder of the season, before undergoing surgery to repair a damaged patellar tendon in September 2008.
In 2015 He was named captain of the year at the AFLPA awards becoming the fourth player to win the award in his first year as a captain and was also named captain of the all Australian team becoming the first ever player to have collected both honours in the same season.
On 10 April 2016, in the final minutes of the Bulldogs three-point loss to Hawthorn, Murphy sustained a knee injury while contesting a mark in the Hawks’ forward 50. Scans later revealed he had injured his knee and had sustained a season-ending ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
Murphy features frequently in the media. He writes a weekly column in the sport section of The Age newspaper. An article he wrote about playing against Steve Johnson earned him a highly commended prize in the 2012 Australian Football Media Association awards.
He was formerly a regular panelist on the AFL 360 television talk show on Fox Footy. He is now a frequent guest of the show while not a regular panelist. In 2018 in collaboration with Fox Footy he released his own short weekly series called ‘Bob,’ where he interviews a number of Australian icons.
He is married and has three children.
Link to Wikipedia biography