AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game
Full name
John Francis Murray
Known as
Jack 'Granite' Murray
Nickname
Granite
Born
15 July 1913
Senior clubs
Swan Districts
Club | League | Career span | Games | Goals | Avg | Win % | AKI | AHB | AMK | BV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Swan Districts | WANFL | 1935-1940, 1945-1949 | 170 | 37 | 0.22 | — | — | — | — | — |
Total | 1935-1940, 1945-1949 | 170 | 37 | 0.22 | — | — | — | — | — |
As either a ruckman or a defender Jack Murray scaled heights that few if any of his contemporaries in the Swan Districts league side could dream of. Had his career not been shortened by the war he would almost certainly have been Swans’ first ever 200-game footballer. As it was, in a career that ran between 1935 and 1940 and from 1945 to 1949 he fell 30 games short.
Murray made his interstate debut at the 1937 Perth carnival against South Australia, the start of a run which saw him play in 8 of Western Australia’s last 9 matches prior to World War II. He donned the state jumper once more after the war for a final tally of nine appearances. Consistency was a hallmark of Murray’s game, and he emphasised this by winning two club fairest and best awards eight years apart. Jack Murray was chosen in a back pocket in Swan Districts’ official ‘Team of the Century’.
Author - John Devaney