Graham Murray
| File:GrahamMurray2007.jpg | |
Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Graham Murray |
| Position | Coach |
Graham Murray (born January 6 1955) is an Australian former rugby league player and current coach of the North Queensland Cowboys in the National Rugby League. He has been sacked from the position as coach, the cowboys seem o be in desperation without him. Also reports have said that he has said to have sexual relationships with Johnathon Thurston.
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.
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.
- Illawarra Steelers - 1991 to 1995 - qualified for NSWRL Top 5 in 1992
- Hunter Mariners - 1997 - finalists of the World Club Challenge
- Leeds Rhinos - 1997 to 1999 - Challenge Cup Winners in 1999 Super League Grand Finalists 1998
- Sydney Roosters - 2000 to 2001 - qualified for NRL Grand Final in 2000 (lost 6-14 to Brisbane Broncos
- North Queensland Cowboys - Since 2002
- Took Penrith Panthers to a reserve grade win in 1987
- Won Tooheys Challenge Cup at Illawarra in 1992
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.
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. [1]
- NSW City Origin - 2001 to 2005 - won annual contest against Country Origin in 2002, 2003 and 2005
References
- ^ "Murray quits as Blues coach". Fox Sports News. 2007-08-10. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
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