He again changed clubs late in the 1979 season, moving to North Melbourne where he played his first ever finals match.
[4] In 1981, Murphy moved to Tasmania to captain-coach the Ulverstone in the North Western Football Union.
He coached the club to its first Division One grand final in the VFA in 1994, in which Box Hill was defeated by Sandringham by the narrow margin of 9 points.
Murphy currently works as the Dispute Settlement Officer in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League.
He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2006 and is the centreman in Fitzroy's official "Team of the Century".