Sports editor Courtney Ward recently chatted with Kiama product and five time Commonwealth Games athlete Karen Murphy about her career on the greens.
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During their in-depth chat, the pair discussed why she got involved in lawn bowls, her career high and lows – including numerous international medal, the future direction of lawn bowls and even her work experience with the South Coast Register’s Rob Crawford during her time at Bomaderry High School.
You started your illustrious lawn bowls career at Shoalhaven Heads at age 11 in 1985. What can you remember from back then?
I remember long skirts, bad white bowls hats, stockings and getting petrol the day before bowls so I didn’t have to get out of the car in that getup.
You played a number of sports growing up – touch football, golf, cricket – why did you choose lawn bowls?
I still enjoy playing lots of different sports, I still play touch footy, I like a hit of golf every now and then, I go to the gym, I’m a sports nut.
I think I represented Bomaderry High School in nearly every sport. I was not as much an academic.
I suppose the longevity of bowls, and I probably found I got quite good quite quickly and it was a passion of Dad’s, it was something we could share together, so that was really nice.
In year 10 I told my careers adviser I wanted to play bowls for a living, which was unheard of back then – he laughed at me.
I’ve been really fortunate to have made a great career out of it.
Your first tournament win was in 1989, the Gerringong junior pairs with Leith Shelby – talk us through that.
I remember that tournament, we played down at windy Gerringong, it was really good, Leith was the gun player back then, and it was really lovely because we both ended up winning the world singles on the same day, so fast forward 30 years or so.
I was really lucky to have played in an era when there was a lot of really good young guys that played, and they played an aggressive style of game. So I adopted that very quickly.
From Shoalhaven Heads you made the move to St Johns Park, where you became the first ever professional women’s lawn bowler and then you went to Cabramatta – describe that process.
I was at St Johns for about 10 or 11 years, that was great, they’re a massive club now.
The change was good at the time to go to Cabramatta and I’ve really enjoyed my time there as well, and I’m still there.
We’ve got a lot of really good Aussie players and international representatives at the club. They look after me really well, and I love getting out there and playing for the club.
Did they take your game to the next level do you think?
I think both clubs were great, but a refresh is always good too. They’re very proactive in supporting the bowlers, which is good.
What does it mean to you to be the first professional women’s lawn bowler?
I’ve never really thought about it to be honest.
I suppose when I do give it away, I hope that I’ve been a trail blazer for young girls getting into the game.
Bowls is now not uncool, it’s nice to have seen the change in the sport over 20 or 30 years.
On the bigger stage, you dominated the national scene, including six Australian indoor crowns and numerous outdoor crowns. Does one stand out?
The indoor during those years where I reigned were quite special I suppose, the carpet style of play suits my game.
Top national achievement would be the six indoors.
So do you prefer indoor over outdoor?
Yes and no. The carpet really suited my game, I’m more of a touch player sort of thing. I still prefer to play outdoors, but I do really enjoy playing on the carpet.
You made your mark at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, which was your first international tournament and you brought home a medal.
One silver medal in KL, Mum and Dad came over to that one, which was really good. That was great.
KL back then in ‘98 the bowls facility was nothing like it is today, it was petty sparse, there wasn’t a lot around, but it was a great experience and I played with some really good players.
You competed in the 2002, 2006 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, including a pairs gold medal in Melbourne. Is that the standout from your Games career?
Yes, the home Games were amazing. It’s been great to have been able to compete in two home Games.
Gold Coast was fantastic as well, winning in front of your home crowd with my best mate was pretty good.
You unfortunately missed out in 2010, that was obviously a hard pill to swallow.
Yeah it was, we had a change of coach and he wasn’t really a fan of mine for some reason.
We didn’t have any issues or anything like that. I knew straight away I wasn’t going to make the team, so I did consider retirement and I thought ‘no I’m going to make him drop me’.
I’m glad I did, I’m still forever proud with how I handled that, I handled it with grace and I think no athlete really goes through their career without having challenges.
Certainly although it was hard and it was wrong at the time, it made me fight and I went on to bigger and better things after that. So challenges are a good thing.
You talk about the two home Games, obviously you competed this year on the Gold Coast, it wasn’t your best Games, but you had some personal stuff going on didn’t you.
Yeah, I lost in both quarter-finals by one and two in the singles and pairs.
Mum was diagnosed with a brain tumour on the first day of the Commonweath Games. She had had a couple of falls, and one when I did a school visit to Shoalhaven Heads Public School – she was with me and she fell over. After that she had a couple of other falls when we got to Brisbane prior to the Games.
She is good now, it was benign, she was really lucky it didn’t need any treatment and I feel like I won two gold medals anyway because she’s okay.
Looking back, what’s your number one career achievement?
My first world singles in 2012 in Adelaide was really really special, but to back it up and win it again in 2016 in Christchurch was really special as well, just as special probably.
They would be my two favourite wins I suppose.
Do you think you made the right career move from work experience with Robert Crawford at the South Coast Register back in the day?
He would probably say no, I did have aspirations to be a sports journalist when I was younger. Rob was great, he’s a sports nut too.
There’s a lot of me that still wants to study and get a degree in something that’s sport related, but yes I think I did make the right one.
You’ve gone into commentating now.
I really enjoy commentating, it’s something I would like to pursue. A lot of bowls events are televised now, so there’s an avenue for that. It’s good fun, I enjoy it.
Do you think lawn bowls is heading in a positive direction?
Yes definitely.
There’s a lot of younger kids playing now, we’ve moved into high performance with our Australian team and our high performance program is far and above any other country in the world.
It’s a lot more professional these days and I would encourage any young people to go and try it.
After four months off, what’s next for Karen Murphy?
Bowls Premier League is next week, for the Sydney Lions up at Pine Rivers on the carpet, which will be live on Fox.
I’m really looking forward to that, it’s a really fun week, all the players mingle and it’s fast, it’s like the Twenty20 cricket, but for bowls.
Then we have an Australian camp at the end of November, so that will be it for this year and then it’s all back on again next year.