Meet Allie Murray…….middle-aged Riverina school-teacher…..doting mother of five……self-confessed sporting ‘nut’…..former pub chef……ex-Newsagent…..and warm-hearted, bubbly personality…….
You may have noticed her on the sidelines at Rovers games, clad in the regulation pink O & M Trainer’s top……. assisting with the 101 jobs that bob up on match-day…… casting a motherly eye over injured players……all the while observing what’s unfolding on the field of play…..
Allie’s been a trainer for 15 or so years…..Ever since the kids were whippersnappers, playing junior footy in Ganmain….
“They had no-one to help out, so I said: ‘I’ll have a go…..What’s required ?….’ I did a course….Been doing it ever since….I love it….It’s my way of being involved….” she says.
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Allie grew up on a farm at Matong ( 11km from Ganmain, 66 km from Wagga ) and says she’s been following footy ever since she was born……
Her Dad ( Pat Quinn ) has been recognised for his services to the game with a Life Membership of AFL Riverina. Among his other gongs are an OAM and a Commonwealth Sport Achiever’s Award.
“He and Mum have always been heavily involved….At the local games they’d be first there and last to go. Dad played, then umpired for years and years…..He’s 93….still mows the Ganmain Oval….”
“They wait up to watch Nick’s Adelaide games when they come on Austar at 2am……They’re mad-keen…..Mum has a ‘Wall of Fame’ at home, featuring all the grandkids’ clippings…….they buy all the papers and cut out anything about ‘em….”
“Dad once beat the eventual Stawell Gift winner in one of his lead-up races…..I tell Sam that’s where he inherited his running ability…..It certainly didn’t come from Pete….”
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In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a family more deeply-orientated in the game…….
Allie’s husband Peter was a football journeyman of sorts; a talented 197cm ruckman-forward who began his career with the Lavington juniors, was recruited by South Melbourne, then returned to Lavi, where he became an O & M star, and regular inter-league rep.
He headed out for a spell as coach of Jindera, then got the coaching job at Ganmain-Grong-Grong-Matong……That’s where he met Allie, one of the Lions’ keenest supporters……
Three years later, in a dream season with Henty, he booted 135 goals to help the Swans to the 1990 Hume League flag.
After another coaching stint at Jindera, the Murray’s moved up to Walwa to operate the local Pub….
“Pete promised me I wouldn’t have to cook …….Three weeks after we’d arrived, there I was, in the kitchen…..I had Sam and Nick whilst we were up there, and they talked Pete into coaching the footy team – Border-Walwa……”
“I was well-overdue with Sam the day they were to meet Cudgewa in the ‘97 Grand Final……I asked Pete: ‘What happens if the baby arrives today ?”
He said: “Allie, we can always have another kid, but we may not get the opportunity to win another premiership…..”
“It’s a great little town….He actually coached them to two flags and they lost another one by three points…….I even got to play in a Netball premiership….”
“So you had a bit of ability as a Netballer, Allie ?”, I ask……..”Well… I played a lot of sports, but wasn’t very good at them …….Let’s just say I was a handy team player….. How’s that ! ”
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The Murray boys, Paddy ( now 27 ) Sam (25), Nick (22) and Toby (19) made their way through Ganmain’s Auskick program, whilst the baby of the family, Molly (17) was slotted into a Netball team the moment she could qualify.
Theirs has been a long, winding, much-travelled – sometimes chaotic – sporting odyssey.
No more so than when they were re-united at Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong during the Covid Year of 2020…..…
“When the borders were being closed Nick and Sam, who’d been living in Melbourne, and intending to play with Williamstown, headed home,” says Allie.
“Nick hates the city, so he got a job back on the farm…..We all lived in this tiny little house…..Molly and Sam shared a room, and we all just got through…..That’s what you did in Covid…….Because they’d all started at GGGM, they were one-pointers…..Molly also played Netball, and won a premiership, which was great…..”
A touch over two years earlier the Murray name had been thrust into the footy spotlight when Sam – a 187cm, 86kg bundle of energy – earned a Rising Star nomination for a brilliant display in defence, in just his third AFL game.
He’d averaged 20 disposals and four marks since he broke into the Collingwood side, but a scintillating display in a win against Carlton brought him under notice.
It wasn’t that Sam had been an overnight success…….
As a dashing youngster from Henty he’d been overlooked for a spot in the Murray Bushrangers squad in 2015……… “He tried out twice for them, but they told him he was too slow,” Allie recalls.
Instead, he was recruited by the Wodonga Raiders, flourishing under the tutelage of Daryn Cresswell, and finishing third in the Morris Medal, aged 18.
Those who saw him ‘turn it on’ in an Elimination Final at the Findlay Oval that year certainly placed an asterisk beside his name.
‘Cressa’ probably had an influence in him being picked up by the Sydney Swans in the November Rookie Draft……But despite being named in the NEAFL Team of the Year and starring at both ends of the ground in successive seasons he was unable to crack it for a senior debut with the Swans.
Collingwood identified his pace and ability to break the defensive lines, picking him up in the 2017 trade period…..They were delighted with his progress, but Sam’s world caved in when, after 13 AFL games, he was embroiled in a Drug saga later that season…..
“We couldn’t sleep when the news broke,” says Allie…….”Pete and I were sitting up in the middle of the night….He said: ‘Come on, we’ve gotta go,’…….We jumped in the car and were down in Melbourne by 8 o’clock the next morning……”
“That was a hard time in Sam’s life, when he was rubbed out…..He was just so grateful that the Rovers gave him another chance….”
“He’s embraced the Rovers since he’s been there, and loves coaching..…..It’s another step in his personal development……He’s enjoying the guys and the sense of community in the Club….”
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Sam operates his own Social Media Marketing business in Melbourne. Older brother Paddy works with him.
Paddy’s earlier footy career with Henty had been hindered by a succession of knee injuries. He built a reputation as a composed defender with Western Region F.L club North Footscray over the past two seasons, but Sam talked him into having a run with the Rovers this year.
Nick also encountered a few hiccups on his way to football stardom …….
He began at Henty, and graduated to the Murray Bushrangers, playing 21 games, interspersed with eight appearances with the Greater Western Sydney Reserves.
He was recruited to the Rovers in 2019, where his aerial deeds and close-checking in seven games in defence continually came under notice.
The Hawks were resigned to losing him when things returned to normal after Covid…..But he’d already been overlooked in two National Drafts and wasn’t over-optimistic about his chances of being picked up.
He was toiling away on the farm back home when Adelaide invited him to try out for the vacant spot on their list……..A month or so later, in Round 2, 2021, he was lining up on Lance Franklin in his debut for the Crows at the SCG.
“Nick did it so tough….It was so deserving that he’d finally made it,” says Allie.
Former Crows player Stephen Rowe added: “It’s remarkable. I doubt there will be a bigger football debut story than this one….Three weeks ago not on a list….Six weeks ago, sitting on a tractor in the Riverina…..And now he’s playing on Buddy…”
In his subsequent 34 games with Adelaide Nick has become recognised as one of their most important players ……He has made the full back spot his own, and is playing with the poise of a veteran.
“Nick’s still very much a country boy,” Allie adds…..”He lives in town with Ned McHenry, one of the Adelaide players, and has bought a farm out at Mt.Barker, about 45 minutes north of Adelaide…….He rang up, excited the other day….. The sheep are about to lamb……and he’s just bought a really good Stock Trailer…”
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19 year-old Toby’s pursuit of his AFL dream seemed on track when he signed with Essendon’s VFL side earlier this year.
He’d progressed through the Murray Bushrangers program and enjoyed an excellent 2022, including selection in the NAB Team of the Year. As a raw 200cm ruckman/forward he displayed promising signs in his intermittent appearances with the Rovers.
The Hawks expected to have only limited access to the exciting youngster. When he decided to spend the year full-time in the Brown and Gold, they were tickled pink.
Toby started a new job at Reece Plumbing in Camberwell recently, and lives with Sam and Paddy. His footy also seems to be developing by the week. It wouldn’t surprise if League scouts were casting an eye in his direction.
17 year-old Molly made her A-Grade Netball debut with the Hawks three weeks ago, after spending the earlier games in the lower grades.
She attends Xavier College in Albury, and Allie, who teaches at St.Joseph’s, Culcairn, brings her down to train once a week at the Findlay Oval.
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“The travel is so much easier this year, because we’ve got four of the kids in the one spot,” Allie says.
“In other years it was nothing for Pete and I to travel from Culcairn, to Henty, to Shepparton ( for a Bushies game ), then on to Melbourne, in a week-end…….Sometimes we’d try to slot in a trip to Adelaide to catch Nick’s game….”
“People think we’re weird when we say we come down from Culcairn……Why ?……We get to see four of our kids playing sport every week-end…..I go from the Netball to the Football…..You chat to everyone…..It’s wonderful…… you get to meet a lot of lovely people…..“
“And the training allows me to become closely aligned to the boys……They’re a really nice group……So tight-knit…..”
“I say to them: ‘Now, I’m going to be like your mum……Just listen to me……Sometimes they need that…..”
ON REFLECTION 
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