I'm old enough to remember him as a player and had it not been for a bloke called Sterling he would have played many more first grade games for Parramatta. In 1978 Graham Murray was good enough to keep John Kolc out of first grade who had played for Australia the year before.
As a coach he achieved much. Just in Australia he was the first coach to get Illawarra to the semi-finals in 1992 and was narrowly beaten by St.George in the preliminary final. In 2000 he got the Roosters to their first grand final in 20 years and if it weren't for a red hot Broncos team, would have won his first NRL flag. In 04 he steered the Cowboys to their first preliminary final and in 05 Cowboys made the grand final. In 06 an act of unvelievable luck saw NSW get pipped at the post in the decider by QLD in SOO 3, the beginning of an unbelievable run by QLD. In addition to this he achieved a flag for Leeds in England in the late 90's.
Graham Murray made an unbelievable contribution to the game as both a coach and player.
Nicknamed "Little Artie" after the great Arthur Beetson, it's ironic that both passed from the same cause.
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