Whether off the field or on it, there’s little respite for Carlton Captain Marc Murphy – particularly so in the past fortnight when everything including the kitchen sink has been thrown at the team and its leader.

But that’s fine by “Murph” who typically led from the front against the Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium and in the winner’s circle afterwards spoke for all when he said of the win: “It is a feeling of relief. It’s been a pretty tough few weeks”.

“What was good was the way our boys kept fighting all night. We knew they (the Bulldogs) were going to keep coming at us – they are a good side – and our backs were against the wall when we copped a few injuries late,” Murphy said.

“We were pretty much out on our feet but we kept digging deep. We laid some great tackles late although our tackling all night was impressive.”

Asked to explain away the previous month’s lacklustre performances, Murphy responded: “We’ve probably been doing things 80 per cent of the time well, but this (the Bulldogs match) was all about consistency of effort for longer and being in the game for longer – that was one area we focused on during the week and I thought we achieved that tonight”.

Now 170 games and nine seasons into his senior tenure, Murphy reflected on the previous week’s Melbourne debacle, to the moment where he called the players to a huddle before they vacated the MCG for the rooms.

“I spoke to the boys out on the ground after the game against Melbourne and I said: ‘The only way we’re going to get through this is by sticking together and working as a team and focusing on the little things and playing for the side’,” Murphy said.

“Tonight all the blokes played their role for the side, which is all you can ask. All you want is as many contributors as you can get and it obviously led to a good team performance.”

Carlton’s 28-point victory over the Western Bulldogs under the roof afforded Murphy some respite for a week from hell after the Melbourne loss.

As Carlton Captain, does he take it personally? “Yeah, I have taken it pretty personally the past week,” came the reply.

“There have been a couple of back pages that made me feel like I was a criminal, but when you’re captain of a great club like Carlton you’ve got to take the heat when it comes,” Murphy said.

“And I’m just really so proud of the way all the boys responded. It was backs-against-the-wall stuff and it’s only one win, but it takes a bit of relief off until next Saturday, and the challenge is now to back that up and play that sort of football next week.”