WHEN Chris Judd was inducted into the Carlton Hall of Fame last week, everyone in the Victory Room at Marvel Stadium and tens of thousands elsewhere could wax lyrical about the impact the dual Brownlow Medallist made on the Navy Blues.

One man who was there from start to finish of Judd’s playing tenure was Marc Murphy: someone who idolised Judd growing up, and would go on to be passed the captaincy torch after five seasons at the helm.

Murphy wearing the No.3 guernsey was in no small part to Judd and his exploits at West Coast — as well as someone else Murphy loved watching growing up, with that person being none other than Michael Voss.

When asked to pay tribute to Judd leading into the Carlton Hall of Fame, it was an instant ‘yes’ from the sixth individual to play 300 games for the Carlton Football Club.

Murphy had his fair share of stories of his former teammate - and, to this day, still his great mate - that couldn't be kept secret for any longer.

If only there was some way for these stories to continue to be told . . .

The rumours

Like many at the end of 2007, Murphy was well and truly caught up in the media storm when it was announced that the best player in the game was leaving Perth to ‘come home’.

And while Murphy would play a critical role in bringing players to Carlton later in life, the-then 19-year-old may have been a bit optimistic about his pull power.

“I had the same manager as him at the time, so i was calling Paul Connors every day to find out where we sat and if I could do anything . . . as a 19-year-old, in hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have been able to say too much!

“Every Melbourne club was big into him.

“Once Paul called and said ‘You can rest easy, I think he’s coming’, I was pretty excited.”

The number

Judd’s first handful of seasons at the top level were as good as the game has seen, with a Brownlow Medal in 2004, a Norm Smith Medal in 2005 and a premiership captain in 2006.

All of that was done in the No.3 jumper. So was Murphy nervous about losing the number he was handed after walking into Carlton as the first pick in the draft?

“I started wearing No.3 because of Michael Voss, but then ‘Vossy’ got a bit older and ‘Juddy’ was the new kid on the block. I always wore No.3 in juniors because of them,” he said.

“[Judd] didn’t ask for the number when he arrived… there may have been a few tongue-in-cheek discussions about it in the lead-up, and there were figures bandied around about what he might offer me for the number.

“He was happy coming into a new football club and making a new number his own.”

The first sighting

IKON Park looked a bit different at the end of 2007 as it does now in 2023.

However, when it came to the first time that Murphy was in the building as Judd, the fanboy feeling in the future Leigh Matthews Trophy winner remains as clear as day.

“One of the first times i saw him was in the weights room in the old dungeon over the side - which is thankfully long gone - and he was in there doing some extras,” Murphy said.

“Eddie Betts came over and said ‘’Juddy’s’ in there!’, and it was one of the first times we saw him.

“It’s quite funny to think back on.”

Judd v hot chips

The story goes that, in one of Judd’s earliest weeks as a Carlton player, he joined a number of his teammates for lunch.

Legend has it that Judd had a word to one of the Blues’ favourite sons about there no longer being room for hot chips on a training day.

The truth lies somewhere in between, according to Murphy.

“I’ve heard that story a few times and ‘Carrots’ [Andrew Carrazzo] cops the brunt of it,” he said.

“There was a story about Andrew Carrazzo eating some fish and chips across the road on a lunch break after a hard session, then ‘Juddy’ walked in and said that’d be the last of the hot chips.

“I think ‘Carrots’ has copped a bad rap there, I think was one of the younger boys! I won’t mention their name.

“He made you think more about your football and what it took to be the best.”

Judd, the person

This bit needs no introduction.

"Everyone thinks he was straight down the line and a bit of a nerd.

"He's very witty. But he's a terrible rapper."

The legacy

Judd finished up with Carlton at the end of 2015 as a player, shortly before the influx of new talent later in that year’s draft.

But, with two players in particular who would go on and lead the football club, Murphy sees Judd’s influence continue at IKON Park to this day.

“He certainly paved the way for a lot of the guys who were younger,” he said.

“Guys like Paddy Cripps and Sam Docherty, who worked with him early and have been leaders of the football club . . . he was setting examples to those guys right towards the back-end of his career.

“I still remember ‘Crippa’ being a sponge to the older guys, and I still see him out there with ‘Juddy’. He learned his craft from ‘Juddy’, really: [Cripps] would say the same thing.

“He’s got a lasting legacy and is certainly well deserved to be in the Carlton Hall of Fame.”