Murray John Richards (born November 6, 1976 in Brisbane, Queensland

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

) is a former field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 defender from Australia whose team won the gold medal at the 1997 Junior Hockey World Cup

Junior Hockey World Cup

The Hockey Junior World Cup, is an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation . The tournament was started in 1979. Since 1985 it has been held every four years. Competitors must be under the age of 21 as of December 31 in the year before the tournament...

 in Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

.

Richards made his senior debut for The Kookaburras in 1998. He played in total 28 matches for Australia, including the 2000 Champions Trophy in Amstelveen

Amstelveen

' is a suburban municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is part of the metropolitan area of Amsterdam. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the following villages and/or districts: Amstelveen, Bovenkerk, Westwijk, Bankras-Kostverloren, Groenelaan, Waardhuizen,...

, and was a member of the Olympic Squad for the 2000 Summer Olympics

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

 in Sydney. After missing Olympic selection he traveled to Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 to play for the Royal Antwerp Hockey Club (RAHC) - where he remains as a player / coach today.

Richards was recently named assistant coach to Adam Commens

Adam Commens

Adam David Commens is a former field hockey midfielder from Australia, who was a member of the team that won the bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney....

 with the Belgium National Men's Hockey Team

Belgium national field hockey team

The Belgium national field hockey team represents Belgium in the international field hockey competitions. The team was coached by Adam Commens until the end of 2010 before being replaced by Colin Batch as Adam Commens had been appointed coach of the Australian women's national team...

. The Belgium team made history by qualifying for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 by defeating world champions Germany at the 2007 European Nations Cup in Manchester, in the bronze medal

Bronze medal

A bronze medal is a medal awarded to the third place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St...

match. It was Belgium's highest ever finish in a European Cup, and their first Olympic qualification since 1976.