Footy History: Austin Robertson

 

I despised Austin Robertson.

From when I first starting following the footy, and became the third generation of my family to support West Perth, in 1968 – the year Polly Farmer came back from Geelong and sensationally crossed over from the hated East Perth to be our captain coach ­–­ the Subiaco no. 16 gave me the shits.

That year he kicked 157 goals in the home-and-away season – one more than the previous record set by Souths Bernie Naylor in 1953. In the state game against the Big V he booted 6.2 (matching Peter Hudson’s 5.8) as WA went down by only nine points.

To a football neophyte like me, there just didn’t seem to be anything outstanding about his play. He wasn’t lightning fast, didn’t drag in screamers, wasn’t elusive on the ground or tough in the packs.

He may have infuriated opposition supporters who could never quite fathom how he did it, but the truth was that he was the perfect full forward.

Those who knew their footy remember his cool efficiency: the perfectly-timed lead, always to a scoring position; the safe hands; the calm, measured approach to the kick and the accuracy of his drop punt.

Austin burst out of Scotch College in 1961 after an amazing senior year, kicking 105 goals in 10 Alcock Cup games. After a year of colts footy, for 12 seasons from 1962 to 1974 he dominated the WAFL with a record 1211 goals in 251 games, at an average just under five.

He was eight times the WAFL’s leading goalkicker, twice Subiaco’s fairest-and-best and a member of its famous 1973 premiership side. In 10 state games for WA, against the best defenders in the country, he booted 44 goals. In his one season at South Melbourne he finished second in the VFL behind Essendon’s Ted Fordham, with 60 goals in 18 games.

He’d come over to the Bloods – where his dad had three times led the scoring in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s – at the behest of its captain coach, Bob Skilton, and left after one season when Bobby was replaced by Alan Miller. There’s no way of knowing what would have happened had he stayed, though his record suggests  “Ocker” would have been a prolific champion wherever, whenever and in whatever company he played.

But Subi Oval was Ocker’s second home, and no-one has kicked anything even remotely like the number of goals he’s scored there. It’s hardly surprising that its western end is named in his honour.

Austin has had a roller-coaster career outside football as a journalist, sports promoter and manager, and has seen his share of the highs and lows of life.

He was instrumental in the establishment of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, and subsequently managed many of Australia’s leading players. When he fell on hard times a few years back, many of them, led by his close friend Richie Benaud, joined his former teammates and opponents at a benefit dinner organised by the Subiaco Football Club.

I’ve been privileged to get to know Ocker over the past few years as my wife Lesley has been subbing his copy at the Subiaco Post, where he’s become an avidly read, idiosyncratic sports columnist. He’s unfailingly modest about his achievements, an astute judge of sport and sporting people, and a damn good bloke.

To top it all off, he’s become a staunch Dockers’ man!  I take back all the rotten things I yelled at him back in the day.

It’s a little bemusing that successive coaching panels at both Freo and West Coast have declined his offer to give their sometimes errant forwards a little advice and assistance.

I know that, one day soon, a certain young bloke of my close acquaintance will be going to the Austin Robertson Jr end of Subiaco Oval for a private goal-kicking lesson. And his tutor is going to be a Hall of Famer.