'You just never know with injury and illness . . . I've seen it before'

"Last time we were a little bit more of a set team because we were world champions and we played together the three years previous," he said of his rink which broke up after finishing a disappointing fifth at the Olympics after coming in as world champions.

"However in '06 I think we were a 10-man team at the start of the season and then we came down to five or six leading up to Turin."

To some extent the management have sought to find a middle road between the two this time around, keeping together the group that, with Tom Brewster as skip, won silver medals at the 2011 and 2012 World Championships, but also giving them scope to add quality experience by bringing in Murdoch.

He first joined them in 2012, playing third, but he and Brewster swapped roles for this year's World Championship where they claimed top spot in the round robin stages, going on to win a bronze medal.

Murdoch skipped every match at that competition with Brewster and the youthful trio of Scott Andrews, Greg Drummond and Michael Goodfellow taking turns to sit matches out, while having two highly experienced skips available - both were junior world champions in the nineties - offers additional scope.

"This time around it's slightly different again," Murdoch said. "But the core of the the team had been together and obviously I've known Tom for a long, long time, so we've had a full season together plus almost another full season this year, so that bodes well. We were very confident at the end of last season and we want to take that into Sochi."

He swept aside the question of whether there was any danger of egos getting in the way as he took over from the group's original skip, saying: "We've all got the same goal which is great to have in the team. We're pushing each other hard and trying to make each other better players and become a better team."

Instead he focuses on the positive aspect of that all-round flexibility: "The good thing about it is that both myself and Tom can skip the team. You just never know with injury and illness . . . I've seen it before.

"At the last European Championships I was sick for three games, so you have to have plenty cover. We can't put all our eggs in one basket with four players and then one person gets ill or injured. The fact that we've got five guys who can all play two positions minimum is great to have."

In presenting the team with their letters confirming their selection, Mike Hay - Team GB's Chef de Mission at the Games and the coach to Rhona Martin's rink when they won Olympic gold in 2002 - had made the point that it is vital to have an understanding of the different distractions that affect those competing in the Olympics.

Noting that British men have not won an Olympic medal in curling since 1924, the year it was first introduced, he also pointed towards the nature of the Olympic cycle as generating additional pressure, something Murdoch acknowledged.

"I think it does change the pressure on the ice," he admitted. "You think of it as a four-year cycle whereas all the other championships are around that. So you do put more pressure on yourself. The toughest part is that you have nine games in the round robin and having trained for four years those games can be won and lost on millimetres, then it's four years until you get another chance to redeem yourself."

That awareness can only help ensure that all distractions are dealt with appropriately. There is no question about the drive, though, that he will bring to their effort given his profound personal understanding of what it at stake.

"I feel that both '06 and '10 have left unfinished business for me," he said. "It's the one medal I don't have and I still have the hunger to go after that which has shown in my training and the form of the team and myself over the last couple of years. We really want this."