Life without Bob
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I'm about to suggest something that pains me greatly. As a Bulldogs fan and a person with perhaps a bigger man-crush on Bob Murphy than any other bloke in the world, I'm almost to scared to say it out loud. But I will: the season-ending knee injury sustained by the great man in the dying minutes of last Sunday's epic encounter against Hawthorn could well be one of the positive defining moments in the history of a club that has gone far too long without reaching football's pinnacle.
Now, before I'm drowned about by a loud chorus of "Sacrilege!", please hear me out. I'm not suggesting that the Western Bulldogs will be better for the loss of Bob as a player and leader. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he's irreplaceable in both categories. I would give my own ACL (as wonky as it is) to see the clock turned back and have that fateful moment in the final seconds of the game erased.
But no amount of wishing and hoping is going to reverse that damage done. Acknowledging it and dealing with it is the only thing that we as fans, and the Western Bulldogs as a club, can do.
And this is where a great opportunity arises for the club and its current crop of players and other leaders.
The president of my local cricket club recently announced that he will be stepping down from the role after several fine years of service. When I heard the news, my first thought was, "Oh no, that's a big loss. Who will replace him?"
Then I remembered the moment several years earlier, when our previous president had stepped aside and I had exactly the same thoughts, and I realised that our cricket club is a strong community organisation, with many good people constantly and consistently growing, ready to step into the role when the time comes - suddenly or otherwise - for the incumbent to move on.
This is the one of the hallmarks of a good club, one capable of reaching the pinnacle that the Footscray Football Club has ascended just once in 90 years in the V/AFL. And now is the time for the Bulldogs to demonstrate that they now have that hallmark.
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I've been a fan of the Dogs for decades but I am an outsider. I don't know the inner workings of the team, the football department or the administration. But from my external perspective, I've always felt a sense of an out-of-proportion focus on individuals, rather than the teams, across the eras. Brian Lake, speaking on AFL360 this week, alluded to that very concept, when he said the Western Bulldogs, in his experience there, were "more about the individual than the team".
Such an attitude is entirely understandable and forgivable, given the dearth of team success the club has endured since winning its one and only flag in 1954. When you have precious little in terms of premierships to celebrate, you must find something else to rejoice in, for the sake of your own sanity as a supporter and for the morale of the club.
But in doing so, you can fall into the trap of accepting that as the standard, the model for the future. And if you do, you are condemned to repeat the past. The Bulldogs must not allow themselves to repeat the past any longer.
Lake's proposed solution is perhaps radical and certainly unpopular. He suggests that Bob Murphy should retire rather than entertain thoughts of a comeback next year, for the "betterment of the club". And while I do not agree with his stance, I fully understand the rationale behind it, given our club's history.
However, I believe Bob's enforced extended period on the sidelines will present the club with a rare opportunity to break free from the shackles of worshipping a single deity, and welcome Bob back to the playing field next season, if indeed, he wants to return.
There are 20 weeks left in this season, plus several more in September and maybe even October if the Western Bulldogs are good enough to get there - and I believe they are. I've lived through more false dawns at Footscray than most - certainly more than I care to count - and I am very confident in my belief that the current crop of players and coaches at the club can take it further towards sustained premiership success than any group before it. More so than in the Malthouse era, the Wheeler era, the Wallace era and the Eade era.
In any one of those four eras, the Dogs could have a pinched a flag. The current group of players is good enough to win not just one, but several premierships. That's not to say they will, but I believe there's never been a better opportunity to do so.
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And that's where the reaction and response to Bob's heartbreaking injury will play a major part. Just as I can see that there are several good people who can take on the president's mantle at my local cricket club, I can see several who will be able to take on Bob's playing role of marshal in defence, and several who will be able to assume the his leadership mantle.
None of them would have been expecting to take on the role so soon, but they need to realise that they are ready to do so nonetheless. And from what I've learned of coach Luke Beveridge in his brief time at the club, he is just the man to help those young men realise that they are indeed ready.
These new leaders and marshals will have five months on the field without Bob to grow further and quickly into the roles for which they were already being groomed. And they have a group of players around them to make sure that the Bulldogs will win the majority of their games as they do so.
Then, regardless of how deep they go into the finals this season - and if the new leaders relish their elevated roles as much as I suspect they will, there's no limit to have far that might be - the Bulldogs will only become stronger still by welcoming Bob back to the fold if he chooses to play on next year. In fact, to put an end to Brian Lake's (and others') perception of "individual rather than team", the best thing that could happen might be the return of Bob, so the team can demonstrate that it is about the team, not the individual, with many figureheads - not just one - for players and fans to look up to and rely upon, very much like Hawthorn (a club that's won three premierships in a row) has done.
As so many others did at that awful moment last Sunday, I mouthed the words, "Not Bob", as his knee collapsed beneath him. And I still mouth them. More than anything, I wish Bob could be back out there this Saturday and all the Saturdays in between now and Grand Final day.
But he will not, and the Western Bulldogs are better prepared than they've ever been to cop that bitter blow and use it as a stepping stone to football greatness. The time has come for them to do so.
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