Graham Murray
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Personal information | ||
---|---|---|
Full name | Graham Murray | |
Date of birth | January 6, 1955 | |
Place of birth | Sydney, Australia | |
Senior clubs* | ||
Years | Club | Apps (points) |
1976–1980 1981–1983 |
Parramatta Eels South Sydney Rabbitohs |
45 (30) 43 (24) |
Professional clubs coached | ||
1991–1995 1997 1998–1999 2000–2001 2002–2008 |
Illawarra Steelers Hunter Mariners Leeds Rhinos Sydney Roosters North Queensland Cowboys |
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Representative teams coached | ||
2006–2007 | New South Wales | |
* Professional club appearances and points |
Graham Murray (born January 6, 1955) is an Australian former rugby league player and Coach.
Contents |
[edit] Playing career
Having starred for the Parramatta third-grade side in the middle 1970s, Graham Murray took over a captain of the Eels' reserve grade side in 1977 and was regarded as too skilful for reserve grade rugby league owing to his great organisational ability, which had him known as "little Artie" after Arthur Beetson. With international halfback John Kolc suffering ankle ligament damage, Murray spent some time in first grade during 1977, but returned to captain the reserve grade side to a premiership when Kolc was fit.
1978 saw Murray take over from Kolc as first grade hal for most of the year, but the emergence of soon-to-be champion Peter Sterling caused him to flirt between the grades in 1979 and 1980, but in the former year he captained the reserves to their third premiership in five years. Murray moved to Souths in 1981 and played fairly regularly in first grade until he left at the end of 1983 to play in the country.
[edit] Club Coaching career
After previous appointments as reserve grade coach at Penrith (where he won a premiership in 1987 and helped develop many of the future 1991 first-grade premiership team) and Balmain, Murray was made coach of Illawarra in 1991. He guided the club to its first finals appearance in 1992 and during his tenure, the Steelers always won more games than they lost. He was dismissed as coach in April 1995 after he facilitated negotiations between Steelers players and representatives of the rebel Super League organisation. He was the only person out of the countless players, coaches and administrators involved with the Super League saga to lose his job as a direct consequence.
Installed as coach of the Newcastle-based Hunter Mariners Super League team, Murray was able to construct a competitive team despite the apathy of the local community who were mostly supportive of the Newcastle Knights still playing in the Australian Rugby League's premiership. Although they made the final of the World Club Challenge in their first season, the Mariners were shut down as a condition of the establishment of the National Rugby League.
Left without a team to coach in Australia, Murray joined the Leeds Rhinos in the English Super League, directing the team to a Challenge Cup victory and a Super League grand final place. He signed a deal to coach the North Sydney Bears for National Rugby League season 2000. However, before he could take up this position, the club was excluded from the competition and forced to merge with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. After the resignation of Phil Gould as coach of the Sydney Roosters, Murray was quickly named as his replacement.
In 2000, Murray proceeded to guide the Roosters to their first grand final since 1975, although they would lose 14-6 to the Brisbane Broncos. Despite a sixth-place finish in 2001, Murray was sacked by the Roosters two days after the end of the season.
After starting 2002 in his former profession as a teacher, he was made head coach of the North Queensland Cowboys to replace the sacked Murray Hurst in April. After three seasons of steady improvement, the Cowboys made the NRL finals for the first time in 2004 and finished one game short of the grand final. They improved on their efforts in 2005 when they lost the grand final to the Wests Tigers by 34 points to 16.
In National Rugby League season 2006 the Cowboys missed the finals and finished in ninth position.
Cowboys' CEO Peter Parr announced that 2008 will be Murray's final year with the North Queensland Cowboys, with the club seeking to move in a different direction. He will be replaced by Murray's former assistant, current Canberra Raiders coach, Neil Henry from 2009.
On May 19, 2008, Murray quit the North Queensland Cowboys after a poor start to the season with a 3 - 7 win/loss record.[1]
[edit] Representative coaching career
Graham Murray was the coach of the Fiji team in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, winning one game and losing two.
Murray was appointed coach of the New South Wales State of Origin team for the 2006 series, losing the series to Queensland by two games to one. Murray was re-appointed as New South Wales coach in 2007 with the full support of the North Queensland Cowboys board. Once again New South Wales lost the series by two games to one. In August, 2007, Murray announced that he would step down as coach of New South Wales. [2]
- NSW City Origin - 2001 to 2005 - won annual contest against Country Origin in 2002, 2003 and 2005
Murray rumoured to be appointed as new head coach for English Super League club Hull FC 19/05/2008.
[edit] References
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Preceded by Ron Hilditch 1989-1990 |
Coach Illawarra Steelers 1991-1995 |
Succeeded by Allan Fitzgibbon 1995 |
Preceded by team created |
Coach Hunter Mariners 1997 |
Succeeded by team excluded from NRL |
Preceded by Dean Bell 1995-1996 |
Coach Leeds Rhinos 1997-1999 |
Succeeded by Dean Lance 2000-2001 |
Preceded by Phil Gould 1995-1999 |
Coach Sydney Roosters 2000-2001 |
Succeeded by Ricky Stuart 2002-2006 |
Preceded by Murray Hurst 2001-2002 |
Coach North Queensland Cowboys 2002- 2008 |
Succeeded by Ian Millward |
Preceded by Ricky Stuart 2005 |
Coach New South Wales State of Origin 2006-2007 |
Succeeded by Craig Bellamy 2008- |