Carlton captain Marc Murphy says Sunday’s two-point win against Port Adelaide was not only a “ripper”, but it’s right up there with some of the best wins in his career.
Speaking to RSN on Tuesday, Murphy believes the way the Blues grabbed the four premiership points in the dying stages of the game showed a “good sign of maturity” in the developing group.
“To come back from being almost down and out, I think we were three goals down with seven or eight minutes to go, we just stuck to our processes,” Murphy said.
“We trained pretty heavily over the pre-season about what to do in certain scenarios and we did a lot of things well in that time (of the game) – that’s a really pleasing part for us.”
Since Brendon Bolton’s arrival at the Club last year, Murphy reiterated it’s not only the senior coach who is filling the group with “confidence and belief”, noting it’s also the entire collective of coaches: Neil Craig, John Barker, Dale Amos, Tim Clarke, Mathew Capuano and Shane Watson.
“As well as the other coaching staff that he’s (Bolton) brought along with him, he’s instilled a lot of confidence and belief within the group,” Murphy said.
“Having only been involved with him (Bolton) for seven or eight months now, I’ve felt like I’ve been working with him for years – he makes playing football pretty simple, keeps it clear and you know where you stand with him.”
The midfielder believes building strong relationships is an important part of creating a unified club, and it’s something all the coaches are well versed in achieving.
“I’ve got really good relationships with all the coaches,” Murphy said.
“I think that’s almost one of his (Bolton’s) biggest strengths is that fact he’s willing to build those relationships, because if you don’t have relationships you can’t really have the hard conversations with blokes about their football,” Murphy said.
“He invests a lot of time in the playing group, he’s always trying to get blokes in his office to chat about life outside of football as best he can, but his coaches underneath him do that as well.”
After suffering a nasty head gash against the Bulldogs in Round 4, Murphy has worn a helmet to protect the deep cut and help it heal.
Since donning the headgear for the first time in Round 5 the Blues have won every game, making it four wins from four outings.
With many remarking it’s becoming a lucky charm, the skipper says he’s still wearing it to protect the wound.
“At the moment it’s still a little bit soft, the opening – I’ve still got a few scabs on the cut,” Murphy said.
“The doctor wants me to wear it for the rest of my career considering I’ve had a few head knocks, so I’m not sure if he’s just being cautious or not, and then the other fact is that we’re four and zip and Bolts did allude to it (being a lucky charm) last week.”
When asked how seriously he was taking the doctor’s advice in regards to keeping the helmet full-time, Murphy replied: “pretty seriously”.
“I had a cheekbone (injury) three years ago, I had a bad concussion over in Adelaide against Port in 2014 which threw me around for a good couple of weeks – it was the second to last game of the year and I was no chance to play the following week.
“It’s an interesting one, I’m weighing it up at the moment whether to keep wearing it – it does reduce some of the impact.”
Look out for Murph and his helmet this Saturday night when Carlton takes on the undefeated North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, kicking off at 7:25pm.
