Meet The Coaches: John Murphy

He’s come all the way from Ireland, but Australian Head Coach John Murphy is bringing a lot more than the luck of the Irish to the Australian Table Tennis Squad.

He’s bringing his expertise, determination and love for the sport to lift the Australian able-bodied team to the next level.

Growing up in a country not known for table tennis, Murphy discovered his love for the sport by chance, playing for the first time in primary school.

“We had 10 tables at our primary school and in third class, which is when you’re between 9 and 10, our whole class got an opportunity to play table tennis,” Murphy said.

With natural skill, Murphy quickly gained momentum and a whirlwind upward trajectory saw him wear his home country’s colours for the first time at the age of 12. Not bad for a kid who only held a bat for the first time three years prior. 

“From there, I kind of just continued to play on school teams and then joined a club and before I knew it, I was on my first Irish team,” he said. 

“I made the Under 12 National Team in Ireland for the Six Nations, which is Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Guernsey. 

“That was the first major thing in table tennis for me. But it probably wasn’t really until I Was 15 that I took a step up and started to take table tennis seriously.”

Quickly rising above the rest, Murphy became the most successful domestic player in Ireland, holding the National Champion title five times, and representing his country at 10 world championships.

As his expertise in the sport grew, Murphy was offered a part-time role coaching for the Irish Under 15 team in 2011, and it was then and there that he caught the coaching bug.

“At that stage I was still playing but having realised I had gone as far as I was going to in Ireland, I started coaching full time,” he said.

“From 2012 onwards, I had the lead for the whole program. I started to be, pretty much Head Coach from the Seniors down. It happened quite quicky.”

Murphy coached the Irish National Team from 2012 through to 2018 and travelled to Australia that year to lead his team at the Commonwealth Games. And in those years, he played a huge role in raising the profile of the game, in a sports market otherwise saturated with soccer, rugby and Gaelic football. 

“Probably the year leading up to the Commonwealth Games, I made a decision that I would look to work outside Ireland,” he said.

“Obviously I played for Ireland for 15 years and then being coach for seven years. So I made the decision that I was a young coach and I wanted to explore opportunity in another environment.

“Post Commonwealth Games, I had some opportunities in different places, and obviously I’d seen that Table Tennis Australia was looking for a Head Coach.”

It was serendipitous timing for Murphy, who was still in Australia when the job was advertised, and was able to meet TTA Chief Executive Scott Houston.

“I had some conversations with him, applied for the job that was advertised and thankfully I was lucky enough to get it.”

Although Ireland hadn’t qualified table tennis players for the Olympics in some years, Murphy was ready to step up and lead a well-established Olympic High Performance program.

But it’s his experience in developing younger players that will help lead Australia to glory on the world stage.

“In Ireland, we were more building young players to perform on the international stage. Whereas taking the Australian job, we had the possibility to qualify for the Olympic Games and major events. That’s obviously a big difference,” he said.

“When I took on the job in October 2018, Tokyo was looming and the major goal was to try and guide and support the players to qualify for Tokyo. We were lucky enough to be successful to get the men’s and women’s teams qualified, but on an overall scale, to see the wealth of talent in the junior ranks here in Australia, is exciting.

“It was a surprise to see so much talent here. Obviously with the likes of Finn Luu and Nicholas Lum, I’ve had a great journey over the last two years, travelling and playing events and winning medals at junior events.

“That’s been a huge excitement and it bodes well for the future of the sport in Australia.”

Murphy has big goals for the Australian program, which he leads with the assistance of TTA National Pathways Manager Simon Gerada.

“I want to continue to build the culture. Myself and Simon who I work very closely with, work with all the players on the entire program.

“Building the culture towards being more competitive at the major events. Obviously to go to my first Olympics is going to be a huge milestone for me personally, but I’ve got other ideas after that.”

Murphy is already visualising his athletes winning medals in Birmingham, and will be trying to push them on for Paris.

“The first goal is Tokyo though, that’s our major focus.”

Murphy is certainly on track to reach his goals, with Australians already reaching new heights internationally. He’s assisted Dillon Chambers to relocate to Germany, and Birmingham medal hopeful Minhyung Jee to compete amongst some of the world’s best in France,” he said. 

“I came in at a time where Australia was in a transition. Rather than making changes right away, I was able to build my own philosophy and the pathway where I think I should go and where. The program should go.

“We’re building two nice teams at the moment. We’ve got our two players overseas, which is a goal for a lot of our players. I think a huge credit to both of those players for making the step at this stage, and then we’ve got the stalwarts who have been there at previous Olympic Games.

“You’ve got the qualified players like Chris Yan, Michelle Bromley who are qualified for Tokyo, and then of course players like Heming Hu, Jian Fang Lay and Melissa Tapper who are the core of the team.

“Then behind that you’ve got Finn and Nic coming into that group. That’s the map to Birmingham.”

While Murphy might not be able to wear his own country’s colours at his first Olympic Games, he’s looking forward to what’s ahead in his adopted home, Australia.

“There’s a lot to look forward to over here in table tennis. The future is bright.”