The full interview will be published in the official Collingwood Match Day Program each week.
This week, collingwoodfc.com.au caught up with Murray Browne, who played 47 games for the Magpies between 1981 and 1985. Browne is now the President of the Collingwood Past Players Association and his 20-year-old son, Alex, is currently in his second season on Essendon's senior list.
On what he's doing in 2012...
I’m a certified financial planner. I run my own business, it’s called MBA Financial Group and I’m in the Melbourne CBD. I’ve been involved with that for 25 years, ever since I left footy.
On how he found his way onto Collingwood's list...
In my era, it was based on where you lived. I played footy for Watsonia in the Diamond Valley Football League (now the Northern Football League) and the scouts used to go around in the areas the kids used to live in and I played all my junior footy with Watsonia and they (Collingwood) invited me down to train during the pre-season of 1981. They invited about 150 blokes down then who then had to fight for a spot the lists, which had about 50 players on them in those days. I got on the list and hung around for six years. I was a Collingwood supporter growing up and two of my brothers played in the under 19s and reserves. One of them is Jeff Browne, who now runs Channel Nine.
On the impact losing the 1981 Grand Final (Collingwood's third in as many years) had on the club...
It (the morale) was affected. Halfway through the following year, Tommy Hafey got the flick so it was obviously a culmination of that. I only got the last year of the three defeats but quite clearly we had a rough time after that. 1982 was not a good year. We finished down the bottom, Tommy got sacked, the New Magpies came in with the Ranald Macdonald era, and then we had to rebuild. In 1984 we played in the Preliminary Final but 1982 and 1983 were pretty ordinary years, probably because of the three Grand Finals, and there was always going to be a bit of a fallout from that.
On the four coaches he played under during his time at Victoria Park...
Tommy was obviously very hard. Tommy was Tommy. I still see him occasionally now down at Sorrento and we still have a chat. He obviously only coached me for a year and half but I was in the reserves for most of the time so I didn’t have a lot to do with him. Mick Erwin took over half way through 1982 and I played just about the rest of the season in the seniors, give or take a game or two, so Mick was very good for me. Then John Cahill came in and I had two pretty solid years under ‘Jack’. He was really good for me as well. Then Bobby Rose came in and I struggled a bit under Bobby. But Mick Erwin was very good for me. Some coaches suit you and some don’t. But really, having said that, it’s up to you, isn’t it? Tony Shaw had so many different coaches but it didn’t matter because he was just so good. I basically wasn’t good enough to stay at that level for any period of time.
On playing in the 1984 finals series...
I won’t say low, but probably….yeah, I’d have to say that. The lows are when you get sacked from a club because your career is gone and you have no opportunity to do anything about it. But certainly playing finals out at Waverley was just a fantastic experience. Obviously to get beaten by a record margin was not a good thing, but we finished third and we were never going to win it.
It was a hard game to win because we probably didn’t have the personnel. Essendon lost to Hawthorn the week before, and we knew that they were best two teams and we knew Essendon would bounce back really hard. I remember watching that game and thinking ‘how we are going to beat them?’
It signalled the end of Cahill which was unfortunate because I thought he was a good coach. He was certainly good for me, being very personable, so that was a bit of a pity. He was probably in a bit of trouble anyway. I’m not sure how it was going with the committee, but that was probably the nail in his coffin. It was sad because he was a good coach.
On his one season at Fitzroy in 1986...
I really enjoyed it because Fitzroy were great blokes. But when I went over I lost all my hunger to play league footy. I played half a dozen games there but really struggled with the demands of VFL football, as it was back then, and was tearing my hamstrings and I think I also tore one or two in ’85 there with Bobby, and I lost my pace and I was pretty much gone by end of ‘86. There were massive differences in terms of the facilities at Fitzroy but I really enjoyed being with blokes like Gary Pert, Richard Osborne, John Blakey and all of those really good types of players and great blokes as well.
On his role as the Collingwood Past Players Association President and watching his son, Alex, play for Essendon...
No, not really. A lot of people ask me that, but I love Collingwood. I had a fantastic time there and I barracked for them when I grew up, following Peter McKenna, Des Tuddenham and those sorts of guys. I loved my time there, and have still got good mates from the club. I just like going to the footy, and we’re doing a lot of work with past players in helping guys into operations and financially and getting past players and their families back into the footy. It’s my way of making a contribution back to the club and I’m very happy to do that because I got so much out of playing for them, and I just loved it.
Alex’s story is completely different. We didn’t know where he’d get drafted or if he’d get drafted and what I’m really pleased about is that he’s gone to a fantastic club and from a family point of view I’m glad he’s still in Melbourne. Whether he’s at Collingwood or not it doesn’t matter because it’s his time now and as long as Essendon are good to him, that’s fine.
