Even now that he has passed any mention of Murdoch will turn heads and the tales will continue.
The stories of his immense strength still live on nearly 50 years on from when he last took to the rugby paddock.
The tale of how he put his hand out the window grabbed a rope which was attached to a trailer and basically towed the trailer along is still told with some glee.The way he used to have to work his way back through the grades at his club when he turned up at the start of the season.Those stories are all well and good but has anything ever been done to right the wrong which led to Murdoch’s fall from grace.
Time to own up
We live in a time where we seem to be rewriting history — past convictions thrown out years later by governments.
Perhaps New Zealand Rugby should take the lead on the Murdoch affair and show some grace.
Whatever happened on that fateful night in a hotel in Cardiff will never be known.
But players who were there have always regretted not standing up for Murdoch.
It is time for New Zealand Rugby to get involved?Maybe the union has written an apology to Murdoch but if it did, it flew under the radar.
The national union is always beating its chest about legacy, so how about some sort of acknowledgement about the affair in Cardiff and the union penning a letter to the Murdoch family apologising about the treatment of the big prop on the tour.
It seemed a bit sad that Murdoch’s graveyard service in a small town in the backblocks of Western Australia attracted about a dozen people. Some All Blacks wrote a note but from what we can gather there was never anything official from the national union.
He may not have wanted it but he deserved some sort of acknowledgement from the national union.
Talentless
There are two types of coaches — those with good players and ex-coaches.
Unfortunately for Janine Southby, she is probably going to be the latter because she did not have enough of the former.
The Government has launched 75 working groups over the past six months, so surely we do not need another inquiry into the woes of New Zealand netball.
It is pretty obvious one would have thought — the shooters could not get the ball into the hoop.
That is the basic job in netball when you are a shooter. They had the chances, the opportunities came along. But they just could not do it.
Whether that is the fault of Southby is debatable. How do you become a good shooter? You train and train and train.
Go ahead and jump
Now this is probably tantamount to criticising the taste of Lemon & Paeroa, or saying you hate Ed Sheeran, but is anyone else getting sick of seeing Richie McCaw?Can’t he just go away and fly his helicopter somewhere?
We know it is not his fault when he enters an event that the organisers want to promote their race or challenge by using McCaw.
The movie, Chasing Great, was all right and gave some insight into him and his job.
Those adverts, though, are just going that wee bit too far. The Fonterra ones, where he goes on his milk run. A tad tedious perhaps.
But the one where Richie and wife Gemma go running through a park, advertising some health vitamins, sorry but Richie has jumped the shark. He has done what the Fonz did all those years ago.
A real shame but it is true.
For those who do not know what the jumping the shark means, ask your parents or start watching the Jones channel.
Two at the back and not much else
Not a lot of people noticed this but when the Highlanders played the Blues at Forsyth Barr Stadium at the start of the season, only two Otago players started the game.
And those two never played for Otago last year.
The two fullbacks — Ben Smith and Michael Collins — are contracted to Otago for the coming season.
But Smith has not played for Otago for five years because of All Black duties and Collins missed last season because of a leg injury.
For most people it is irrelevant — they do not care where a player comes from so long as they play well in the Highlanders and the team is winning.
But to those who claim to think a bit deeper, it is not good for Otago rugby. A couple of Otago players have already headed off to new provinces for the coming Mitre 10 Cup season and part of the motivation was to get a look in with other franchises.
The conspiracy theory goes that the new coaches have no allegiance to Otago like their predecessors and Otago players will not get much of a look-in against other players.
Time will tell. But stories like Dillon Hunt and Jono Ruru with the Blues show just getting out and playing well will be noticed.
Dad, son and coach
The Black Sticks men’s team did well at the Commonwealth Games and there was a strong Dunedin presence there with Kane Russell, Hugo Inglis and Nick Ross playing.
Nick’s father, Dave Ross was in the stands watching his son.
Dave Ross actually coached the now Black Sticks coach Darren Smith at King’s High School.
So if anyone knew what was going on with the Black Sticks, it would have been Ross senior. He had coached the coach and his son was in the team.
Also one has to feel for Maniototo’s very own Tessa Jopp. After working hard for the past couple of years she made the Black Sticks team to go to the Commonwealth Games.
But injury ruled her out and she had to watch as the women’s team managed to get over the line and win the gold medal.
It’s just a game
Apparently the game between Roslyn-Wakari and Dunedin Technical was fairly — how can we say it — heated last weekend in the top league.
One player was sent off, there were plenty of bookings and the niggle never stopped throughout the whole 90 minutes.
The clubs don’t like each other, apparently, so there was plenty of bad temper throughout.
Really, though, isn’t it all just pathetic? It is a game of football in Dunedin.
It is not Red Star Belgrade playing Partizan Belgrade. Or Rangers taking on Celtic. It is a game between two amateur teams in a small city.
How the other half live
The New Zealand Open was played in pleasant conditions in early March in Arrowtown and an Australian came through to win the big prize.
Chocolate fish to the person who can name that winner off the top of their head.But the Open is where the other half live. Where it is Camenbert and roast duck rather than sausage rolls and fries.
While watching the leaders one day, a conversation was overheard about going to Vegas.
Now in most realms, that means going to Invercargill or Rotorua.But at the Open, going to Vegas actually means going to Las Vegas — not the geysers or King’s Fish Market in Invercargill.
Thoughts
Just to finish with some questions.
• If under the rules you have to change sides and players when teams get 35 points ahead in junior rugby, how come some teams are racking up near on 100 points?
• What is the actual thinking behind having 9-year-old players taking part in an football academy?
• How much longer before Kettle Park is completely taken over by the sand?
• Didn’t the Aussies pull out of the ANZ Premiership, not NZ?
• Would Laura Langman made that much of a difference on the Gold Coast? Hasn’t she more or less retired?
- From the Sidelines is a collections of thoughts on sport from the Otago Daily Times sports department.
