His first year as Caversham coach was always going to be tricky as he stepped into the formidable shoes of Steve Fleming.
Part of the club's royal family, Fleming was the inspiration behind a decade of Caversham dominance of southern football.
His decision to step back opened an opportunity for a fresh voice but his imposing record of success was always going to make it difficult for his successor.
Murray (36), preparing for Sunday's Chatham Cup semifinal on the road against Napier City Rovers, did not expect to get the top job so soon.
"It's definitely been a bit intimidating. But you want to start at the top and see how good you are and test yourself," Murray said yesterday.
"It's been a massive step up. I'd always looked at the future but it came a bit out of the blue. It was an opportunity I couldn't turn down."
Murray, a teacher at Wakari School, enlisted respected coach Andy Duncan as his assistant, and Fleming has been in the background as a mentor.
Under Fleming, Caversham won 10 premier league titles in 11 seasons. But the club can finish no higher than second this year, and has already had to watch great rival Dunedin Technical celebrate a drought-breaking championship.
"For the first time in six or seven years we're not winning the title, and that's been quite hard," Murray said.
"It's pretty disappointing. But to win the league you need to be consistent week-in, week-out."
The holy grail for Caversham remains the Chatham Cup, New Zealand football's premier piece of silverware.
Caversham has never won it - has never even made the final - and was knocked out on penalties by Bay Olympic at the semifinal stage last year.
"The Chatham Cup was a target at the start of the year," Murray said.
"It's a big hump we need to get over. We've made four semifinals in six years, and we're very keen to go further."
Murray believes, as did Fleming, that the bigger Otago clubs find the crunch end of the Chatham Cup difficult because they do not play enough really competitive games during the league season.
"It's been better this year but you're still getting games where you are winning by six, seven, 11 goals. You don't learn much from that."
Murray has done some advance scouting on Napier City, which will be match-hardened after a tough extra-time quarterfinal win over Manurewa.
"They've been consistent and they've claimed some big scalps. But it doesn't really matter who you play at this stage. You've got to beat two teams to win the Cup."
The only downside for Caversham is being drawn away. The team leaves Dunedin on Saturday morning, and will fly back straight after the semifinal the following day.
"It's tough. And it's a massive expense for the club."
Murray was raised in Dunedin, attending King's High School. He played junior football for Dunedin City and then joined Roslyn when he left school.
He joined Caversham in 1999, played for University-Mt Wellington and East Coast Bays while teaching in Auckland for five years, and then played for Caversham - all over the field - until retiring after last season.
Murray coached junior representative teams, has guided the Otago National Youth League team in the last two seasons, and has twice taken the Otago Youth Development team to Singapore.
