Leigh Murnane??

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B

BULLITT

Draftee
Sep 2, 2006
13
0
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
PMFC
Have had the pleasure of meeting Leigh a few times through my GF's family & he's a terrific fella. Being in my early 30's and a tigers supporter, I can't really recall much about his VFL carreer. Would anyone here be able to enlighten me? (It'd be a bit rude to front him & say "were you any good or what?")
Thanks
 
51 games 49 goals from 1981-84. Good enough to have played 200 games, but retired too soon. Recruit of the year in 1981. He was only about 21, but looked 50 due to his lack of hair. Tough & skilful. Always went for the hard ball. The tougher it got, the more he liked it. Very popular player. Greg Champion wrote a poem, "Fitzroy, You're Gonna Miss Lee Murnane" & we did.
 

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BULLITT said:
Thanks Fat Pizza,
Any idea of the reasons behind him leaving?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure, but he was quite a wealthy businessman, who used to run sawmills in country Victoria. He probably didn't have time to commit to league footy as well. By moving to Beaufort, he could play country footy & still run his sawmill. He probably enjoyed country life more than the city too.
 
Very graceful and skilful in some ways, but had a strange gait. He used to run with sort of bent legs, which tended to keep him close-to-the-ground. At the same time, he had almost a bounce in his step when he ran. Played quite a bit on the half-forward flank. Wasn't a champion, but would have been a sensational country footballer. I seem to recall him being either on-song or not contributing much at all. He was a good team man, linking up constructive, creative handball moves and the like.

Edit: His name is 'Lee'.
 
Leeroy Murnane..

He was orginally an Essendon Supporter back in the days up at Colac where he grew up, and although he wanted to play league footy- he'd preferred if it was back home in the country.

He went down for 3 seasons and hated city life. I quiet fella who loves his mates, he went back to the country and played for Beaufort footy club where he is a team of the century member and arguably their greatest player.

The reason why he went away, was because at the time in beaufort the mill was up for sale, and at that time it was 30 k or something. he had the money and thought why not- i love the bush, wanna work and play country footy. In the end he did just that- buying the mill where it still stands today, and owning several more with his relatives in colac.

He was offered many more opporunities to go back to the big smoke, namely with geelong and carlton, but turned them both down.
 
A personal favourite - one of those players with time and skills .. but appeared to lack the drive required. Maybe should have won us the 81 Elimination with a last minute shot .. we had some great country players back then.
 

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Leigh Murnane??

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