Geelong Advertiser |
LUCAS Murphy has shocked Anglesea by telling the club on Thursday night that he would not be coaching next year.
The 36-year-old announced he would draw the curtain on his decorated career at season's end, saying he was "burnt out" after three decades in the game.
"The original idea was to go on and coach next year because I still think it is an exciting list, but in the last few weeks in particular, I just felt I needed a break away from footy," Murphy told the Geelong Advertiser yesterday.
"I couldn't fully commit and if you are a senior coach, you need to be that to be fair to the players. So I felt this was the best thing to do."
Murphy spent the majority of his playing career in the Eastern Football League in suburban Melbourne, winning his only senior premiership with South Croydon, before reaching the Division One preliminary final with Mitcham under former Hawthorn champion Andrew Collins.
He moved to the Geelong region when he was 31 and spent three years at Barwon Heads, before taking on the assistant coaching role at GDFL club East Geelong and then crossing back to the Bellarine league to coach Anglesea this season.
Murphy admitted the club "didn't really see it coming" when he told them of his resignation this week.
"In terms of the club, I couldn't speak more highly about them," he said.
"There was no rift or anything like that, it was just about me not being able to commit 100 per cent due to family and work commitments.
"I've been involved in footy since I was five, so it's a long time, and when the season finishes, you have to get straight on to recruiting players and in many ways it gets busier. I didn't have the energy to go again."
Murphy said he would coach the final two games and planned to support the club in the future.
"They need to complement the list with some bigger bodies, but there is a positive future," he said.
"We have had some heavy defeats in the last month or so, so maybe also my message was not getting through because I thought our second half of the year would be better. That stops with me."
