IN WHAT was a disappointing day for Sandringham, Sunday’s match against Geelong had an intriguing subplot; young Saint Brodie Murdoch lined up against his brother Jordan.

“It was a little bit weird,” admitted Brodie after the match.

“That’s the first time we’ve ever played against each other. I lined up on him at the start of the game and got into him a little bit, but we were fine all day. It was good.”

Brodie, 19, is a year younger than Jordan; they’ve each spent time at both AFL and VFL level this season. Brodie has played six AFL games for the Saints in 2013, while Jordan has managed nine for the Cats.

While Brodie has loved the experience of playing for St Kilda, he’s also learned a lot from playing at Sandringham.

“In the AFL I’ve sort of got one role that I play,” he explains.

“In the VFL, for me personally, I’ve been playing everywhere – a bit back, bit forward, bit midfield.”
 

[ RELATED: VFL match report ]

“In the AFL you just want to play your role. At VFL I’m trying to play a lot of different roles, so it’s just a bit more complicated, but you’ve got to push through that if you want to get a game at the highest level.”

Though developing versatility at VFL level is a challenge, Murdoch insists he learns more by playing just one role in the AFL.

“It’s a different type of learning. Obviously AFL’s a much higher standard, and I want to play as much footy there as I can. AFL gives me the best chance to learn off all the good players that play there, so I’d still learn more in the AFL (than the VFL).”

Murdoch played limited minutes in Sunday’s match and finished with just 11 possessions, but impressed Sandringham development coach Matt Embling.

“I thought Brodie, early on when he started forward, looked like he was going to take a couple of catches,” Embling said.

“It was your usual Brodie-type game – bustling around, trying to make a contest.”

For the first half Murdoch was one of many Zebras who took it right up to the best side in the VFL.

“I reckon in the first half we really gave it our all,” Murdoch reflected after the match.

“We went out really hard. We were always first to the ball; it was just the second and third efforts that killed us a little bit.”

Unfortunately, Sandringham was unable to sustain its first-half effort.

“In the second half they just ran all over us. They knew that they were the better team, and they didn’t play very accountable football, but we had a lot of skill errors (and weren’t able to make them pay, and) they were really good.”

Though the Cats won by a big margin, Brodie doesn’t expect he’ll be hearing about it from his brother.

“Nah, he won’t boast,” he says.

“If he’d played really well himself and I’d played terrible he might give me a little bit of stick, but he wasn’t as good as I thought he’d be.”

With their whole careers in front of them, Brodie and Jordan are likely to line up on one another again. Perhaps next year it will be at AFL rather than VFL level.