Mitch Hahn was drafted by the Western Bulldogs in 1999 and went on to play 181 games in 11 seasons. He shares his thoughts exclusively to Aflplayers.com.au about getting drafted with Bob Murphy and watching him grow into a leader.
I knew absolutely nothing about Bob Murphy when we were first drafted to the Bulldogs in 1999.
It was a great draft crop to enter the club with, as Bob, Daniel Giansiracusa, Lindsay Gilbee, Ryan Hargrave, Patrick Bowden, myself and Patrick Wiggins all arrived.
One of the first things that I heard about him was from Scott Clayton who drafted us both and he said that Murph had the potential to win a Brownlow. I’ll never forget that and for him to go on and play 300 games is a special effort — he’s had a fantastic career and has been an outstanding player and person.
I was in Brisbane on the day of the draft so I didn’t meet Bob straight away, but I can vividly remember my first encounter with him when they flew us down for the weekend and we stayed at the Crowne Plaza and roomed together.
We sat up for most of the night and chatted about how pumped we were to be drafted and discussed what we both knew about the Bulldogs at that time, which wasn’t a great deal for myself because I was from Queensland. Thankfully, Murph knew a bit more about it than me!
It was two teenagers who were full of excitement and wonder at what AFL was going to be like. We spoke about the dream that we had and the different backgrounds that led us there.
There was a really strong connection between us and a great level of respect straight away.
Looking at our careers, Bob and I were opposites in a way. He was incredibly skillful and skinny, especially early on, whereas I came in with a bigger body and my game was based on being aggressive.
