Just before the emergence of Covid and as Australian sport began to properly acknowledge the effects of concussion, former Hawthorn footballer Tim Boyle wrote an article for The Sunday Age titled “The new form of courage may be not playing at all.” ”. I was reminded of this piece when Daniel Venables retired, Angus Brayshaw retired and Collingwood’s Nathan Murphy ended his career on Tuesday morning.
Nowadays, when a football player retires, he stands in the hall in front of his teammates. There are sniffles, shivers, and meandering pauses. Most people now read from the Notes section of their iPhone. However, there is a huge respite for those who retire as a result of a concussion. There is a life to last. There is a world outside football.
Relating to: Collingwood’s Nathan Murphy forced to retire from AFL due to concussion
And consolation comes from those who support and report the game. If Murphy had continued playing, watching him would have been a terrible experience. When Paddy McCartin suffered a concussion in the most innocuous of circumstances, it was almost embarrassing to watch him being helped. Murphy spoke eloquently about her mother and how she compared the rooms after last year’s elimination final to the airport scene in Love Actually. His son no longer needs to risk long-term brain damage on the football field.
Murphy didn’t celebrate much with his teammates after last year’s grand final. While he was drinking with two hands, he had an appointment with the medical board that would decide his sporting future. He waited outside for half an hour while they argued. This is an increasingly common scenario. They eventually said he could continue playing. But preseason training raised more doubts. We did not have any physical concerns. But he wasn’t mentally ready to fully commit. Everything had to be included. He knew he couldn’t be that actor anymore. He didn’t want to be an actor.
His former coach Nathan Buckley spoke on Monday of a player who took a long time to find his feet, a long time to understand exactly what kind of player he was. He was an excellent cricket player in his youth. He dreamed of opening the batting for Australia. He was tested further on the field when he just started playing football. But gradually it became clear that he was a defender through and through.
He thrived under the management of Craig McRae. He became the glue of the outstanding Collingwood backline. The defenders would rearrange themselves, work for each other, and destroy the field. Like them all, Murphy had the perfect balance between risk and reward. He knew exactly when to split, when to man up, and when to block for a teammate. He was reliable and determined. He allowed names like Nick Daicos and Darcy Moore to circulate and develop. He played 24 matches in his Premiership years and played a crucial role in many of these close finishes. His absence was keenly felt as Collingwood made a stuttering start to their premiership defence.
Buckley talked about a football player who was in many ways too brave for his own good, who needed to be reprogrammed, who needed to learn to protect himself. Whenever Murphy suffered a concussion, the coaching group would give him extensive instructions on how to move his body and how they didn’t expect him to recklessly enter every contest. Murphy nodded. And in the first minute of the rematch, he threw himself back into the group. This was constitutional for him.
Relating to: Peter Wright’s four-match ban shows AFL has changed; one unconscious player every time | Jonathan Horn
This kind of courage used to be universally admired and, more importantly, encouraged. Coaches like Grant Thomas would hold a walk-through on Monday morning, reviewing the tapes and selecting each player who withdrew from the contest. Having a concussion was almost a badge of honor. Luke Ball described it as a “shitty situation”. “Every player who has played league football has done so under threat of embarrassment in one way or another, and there is no quicker way to achieve this than through blatant cowardice,” Boyle wrote. Another former Hawthorn forward, Dermott Brereton, recently mentioned he would be sent back to the field after suffering a concussion. “It was a sign of your manhood,” he said.
These attitudes are changing. They definitely change within clubs. This isn’t always evident in the way the sport, especially its former tough guys, analyze and comment. But such reckless abandon is no longer indisputable. A player with a concussion is of no use to either his team or himself. And if you quit football, you will no longer be considered weak or disappointing your friends.
Nathan Murphy had been in the system for seven years. He received only one Brownlow vote. He only scored one goal. He suffered at least 10 concussions. The decision to continue playing was taken away from him, but he accepted it with grace, laughter and a certain relief. He reminded us that courage in football comes in many forms. He emerged in good health, as prime minister, and with the admiration of everyone who watched him.