In Fast Five we catch up with women and non-binary people in sports media and ask them about their work, their career highlights and their advice for emerging sports media content creators.
Tara Murray is a sports journalist and commentator. She works full time as the sports journalist and editor for Star Weekly Newspapers covering a wide range of sports. You can find her calling for the Essendon District Football League, WARF Radio and the Victorian Netball League among other places.
Have you always wanted to work in sports media?
Growing up I was obsessed with AFL, especially Essendon and drove everyone mad with it. I used to read footy history books before I went to bed each night and loved talking about footy or most sports to be honest.
I was in year 7 when we had to do a school assignment about what career we wanted. For me, it was getting paid to watch and talk about football, because Kevin Sheedy was going to coach Essendon forever at that stage so I’d never get that job. That’s when I discovered what a journalist was and the rest is history. I didn’t get into journalism at uni straight away, so I did another course for 12 months which I look back on was the best thing for me. I then got offers into sports administration and journalism after that and journalism was still number one.
What’s a favourite moment from your career so far?
Commentating AFLW has been a pretty awesome experience. I had only done two play-by-play calls at local level before I called an AFLW match last year. Having the chance to commentate an AFLW match at the MCG a couple of weeks ago was just incredible. I was surprisingly not as nervous as I thought I would be.
From a writing perspective, there’ve been so many great stories and I still get excited today by some of the stories I get to tell. I’ve covered games at Marvel Stadium and the MCG and covered many grand finals. Receiving the Basketball Victoria overall media coverage award sits up there too.
What is your dream sports media gig?
My dream was to get paid to watch and talk about sport, so you could say I’m living the dream. In terms of a dream role, I honestly have no idea. I’ve learned in this industry, sometimes you have to take it where it goes. Five years ago I wouldn’t have believed that I would be calling AFLW. Getting paid to call AFLW would be awesome. While I don’t know what a dream role looks like, I know there’s key events that I would love to cover. Commentating an Essendon match is right up the top, along with covering an Essendon premiership in any format.
Who are some of your favourite sports media creators?
This is a hard one. I know the ones that I’m not a fan of, but don’t really think about my favourite ones as I consume so much sports media. For me, the key is not making the story about yourself which many in the industry do. I respect Caroline Wilson for what she did in making inroads in the industry for women, but I’m not a fan of a lot of her work. I loved Tiffany Cherry growing up as she was the first woman I saw covering football. I love listening to Jo Wotton call football and you could never go past a good feature from Emma Quayle. I do have a soft spot for Bruce McAvaney and Anthony Hudson as callers.
What advice would you give to any women or non-binary people interested in pursuing a career in sports media?
Say yes to opportunities. My full time job is as a print/online journalist, but that has led me to so many other opportunities. Through that role I’ve been involved in podcasts with multiple leagues, calling football and netball across a number of leagues as well. The two can work side by side and it makes me a better writer and better caller.
While email is awesome and has its place, communicating with people either on the phone, zoom or in person is better. I see so many new journalists whose first thing is to email people and while you might get your answers, it’s hard to build those connections. People are more likely to remember you if they’ve spoken to you or met you and you’re likely to get more for more story.
Being a female in the sports industry can be an advantage. With my role at the paper, it’s been me against the boys for many years. Because I’m the only female, it means coaches and presidents and the like know who I am. I was at a game years ago and this person I had never met came up to me as he saw me with my notebook. It happened to be the president of the club who I had spoken to on the phone and he had worked out who I was. I got the exclusive that day and for many years to come from him and that club.
Be passionate about what you’re doing and buy into it. You get found out pretty quickly if you don’t have that passion and it shows in your work.
Follow Tara and her work on X (formally Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and Tik Tok.