Brierly-Christ Church appoints Mark Murphy as coach

Mark Murphy, who has spent the past three seasons in charge at rival Warrnambool and District Cricket Association club East Warrnambool-YCW, has headed back to his roots to coach the Bulls.

The 24-year-old takes over the top job from his elder brother Nathan and is looking forward to reacquainting himself with his home club.

“I played underneath him in senior cricket here and obviously country week, (with) him being the captain of country week. It’ll be good to have control over him for a while,” Mark laughed.

“I’m looking forward to exploring my knowledge of the game and he might hopefully learn a few things off it as well.

“I think I was sort of due back. It’s good to work with the young kids there. The group I had at East Warrnambool were a very mature-aged group, and (we) did blood a few young kids late in the season and I really enjoyed it.”

Mark, a past WDCA cricketer of the year, said the Bulls would look to attract a few recruits over the off-season to bolster its youthful group as they strive to push back into top-four contention.

Nathan said the brothers’ grandmother Beryl was “probably the happiest” of everyone to see the brothers reunited at Brierly.

“It’s something I’ve really missed,” Nathan said. “We don’t have to talk when we’re running between the wickets; we just know each other that well.”