Domain Review Book Club: Michael Rowland reviews Bob Murphy's Leather Soul

This month’s review

As keen News Breakfast viewers will know, I am a passionate Western Bulldogs fan. When we talk AFL, it is the only time I struggle to maintain any semblance of objectivity. So please bear this in mind as I cast my eye over Bob Murphy’s Leather Soul.

The book is part autobiography, part paean to football. The former Bulldogs captain takes us through a life devoted to the game and its rich traditions.

We’re taken back to Warragul where teenage Bob is cutting a swathe through junior footy ranks. He soaked up the atmosphere in the outer at the MCG, barracking for his beloved Richmond Tigers and dreaming big about his future.

Then we’re in his family loungeroom when the news comes through that the skinny 17-year-old has been picked by the Bulldogs in the 1999 national draft and learn of his ‘‘out of body’’ experience when suddenly training with legends like Chris Grant and Nathan Brown.

Of course, Murphy’s 17-year career at the Dogs dominates the book but it is far from a red, white and blue hagiography. He is unsparing of the lean years; the locker room tensions; his personality clashes with teammates like Jason Akermanis – ‘‘We were north and south poles’’ – and former coach Brendan McCartney.

Murphy is similarly painfully candid about the bittersweet premiership year of 2016.

He takes us through the emotional gauntlet that was his season-ending knee injury in round 3 and the ‘‘aching sadness’’ he felt as he celebrated the grand final win from the sidelines.

This isn’t your typical footy book.

• Leather Soul: A half-back flanker’s rythm and blues, By Bob Murphy $39.99, Nero, out now
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The next read

Join Michael Rowland and read One Hundred Years of Dirt, By Rick Morton $29.99, Melbourne University Publishing, out now