Page 2293 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
To the football-soccer supporters at the club last Friday there was really no need to introduce Les Murray, as he is known as both the face and voice of football in Australia. He is the most prominent commentator and presenter of football on Australian television and is credited, along with the late Johnny Warren, with championing the monumental rise in popularity of football, of the world game, in Australia over the past 30 years. Quite rightly, he is known throughout Australia as Mr Football.
But there is another Les Murray that is not so well known to soccer supporters. The son of Hungarian refugees, Les emigrated to Australia from his native Hungary as an 11-year-old refugee in 1957. His love of football was established in Hungary as he and his father watched the Magical Magyars, the Hungarian national football team that virtually ruled the football world in the early 1950s, with players like Puskas, Kocsis and Hidegkuti his idols. He was shocked to find that his football was not the national sport of Australia. And from his childhood he started his tilting at windmills, a quest that many considered impossible, to convert Australians to “the beautiful game”, a quest that gathered momentum when he teamed up with Johnny Warren. His quest still continues to this day. His story is well worth reading and his biography By the Balls details his incredible and exciting journey.
I found it quite incredible that he was able to capture the attention and the respect of everyone at the Woden Valley Football Club dinner last Friday, from the young up and coming players, to the older local legends who graced the room with their presence, to the fans and the families of junior players, who learned about the power of the world game from this unashamed fan. Les Murray also provided an impressive insight into the role that football played in the assimilation and inclusivity that enabled refugees, newcomers to Australia, to become accepted in their new homeland.
I first met Les when we were both playing for St George Budapest in the mid to late 1960s. Les was playing in reserve grade and I was in the third grade side, while the captain of St George first grade then was a young guy called Johnny Warren, who would go on to become one of our great captains in the original Socceroos. Johnny and Les became great mates, while I moved to Canberra and, along with football legend Charlie Perkins, helped to set up our first entry into the 1977 Phillips Soccer League.
What is not well known is that Les has quite a history with our fair city. He called many matches of the first National Soccer League of Canberra City—incidentally, a new team that was coached by Johnny Warren—at the Bruce stadium from 1978 to 1980. Even before SBS came onto the scene, Les was the commentator here in Canberra. I spent many afternoons as his co-commentator as we froze in our little box high up in the Bruce stadium.
But back to Johnny Warren. His name became synonymous with soccer. He was Mr Soccer—Captain Socceroo, Skippy, to his mates. Johnny’s friendship developed even closer with Les Murray after his playing days were over as they became a dynamic duo as soccer commentators, giving us a level of insight and analysis that had all of us enthralled as they took us on a magical football journey every four years
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video