Bulldogs vice-captain Jordan Roughead writes a fortnightly column for the Ballarat Courier. The following excerpt is from a piece he wrote on Saturday 8 August, for the full column, visit the Courier website.

Of all the prestigious awards handed out to players, coaches and umpires, one of them holds a different esteem.

That’s the “footy’s best bloke” award, voted by the fans.

That might sound facetious, but the point I’m trying to make is that there’s really only one person we’re all thinking about when we hear “best bloke” — and that’s our humble skipper Bob Murphy.

In the past decade and more, he has penned articles and appeared on footy shows and rarely spoken about himself, but rather of the passion and pride he has for our club, his teammates and the game.

Bob has a way with words and delivers a message full of charisma. It has made him one of the most respected players in the game.  

Murph’s style of leadership is a bit different. I like to think that he is more like our glue stick – the bloke that keeps us together. 

Bob’s ability to inspire his troops to play with a sense of belonging, a belief that our every action should aim to make the game easier for a teammate, stands out most.

It was on a pre-season training camp in Queenstown, New Zealand, in 2011 that I first really appreciated Murph’s ability to bring his teammates together. 

Midway through a gruelling teams’ race three of five teams dropped off the pace.

Murph led his team, as well as two other stragglers effortlessly across a finish line we might not otherwise have made. He was a true leader, spiritual or otherwise.

There’s a quote that has stayed with me, that sounds like something one of the great coaches might have said – a Jock McHale or a Tom Hafey, maybe the great NFL coach Vince Lombardi, or even the NBA’s Phil Jackson.  

“A team isn’t a bunch of kids out to win. A team is something you belong to, something you feel, something you have to earn.”

But just like our clubs leaders, inspiration can come from unconventional sources, like coach Gordon Bombay from The Mighty Ducks, and right now our coach and captain are helping us belong.