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Hundreds farewell Rohan Robertson, colourful former North Melbourne player and AFL recruiter
A thrilling North Melbourne debut alongside his brother. Recruiting Tony Lockett to Sydney. Moonee Valley and the ‘Brunswick Hilton’. Rohan Robertson lived life to the fullest and his death has come as a huge shock, writes PAUL AMY.@paulamy375
6 min read
January 15, 2023 - 7:00AM
The late Rohan Robertson playing for North Melbourne against the Brisbane Bears in the 1980s.
Rohan Robertson was a vibrant and voluble figure in the Melbourne sporting scene, but he didn’t like to speak about his league football career.
When friends brought it up, he would turn the other way or walk off.
He much preferred to talk about them.
“So self-deprecating and so interested in everyone else,’’ is how his great friend Bruce Eva, Melbourne sports commentator and journalist, put it.
If he had been inclined to discuss his time at North Melbourne, Robertson could have told of a memorable debut, not only for him but his younger brother, Shane.
Both Robertsons played their first game for the Kangaroos in Round 3 of the 1985 season, against Carlton at Princes Park.
It was a rollicking affair.
Each team kicked 22 goals and North, coached by John Kennedy, flashed home to win by two points.
Playing alongside the Krakouer brothers, both Robertsons finished with 14 kicks and one handball.
Rohan was 23 and Shane 22.
Neither went on to long careers; Rohan played 26 games spread over four seasons and Shane played four, all in 1985.
But Rohan Robertson, who collapsed and died at his Brunswick home on December 27 at the age of 61, stayed involved in league football after finishing with the Roos, recruiting for North Melbourne, Sydney and Port Adelaide.
Rohan and Shane Robertson during their time at North Melbourne.
On Saturday, many football figures attended his funeral at the Octagonal Room at Moonee Valley Racecourse, where he had been a member for more than 30 years.
He was always in his element at the Valley, enjoying a bet and a drink with his mates (he was equally happy when they made their annual trips to Warrnambool for the jumps carnival and to Tasmania for the Launceston Cup).
Former leading racecaller Bryan Martin, who hosted the funeral, called Moonee Valley Robertson’s “happy place’’.
Eva described it as his “favourite piece of real estate’’.
Robertson lived close to the Valley in a home people in his circles christened the “Brunswick Hilton’’.
There was a key at the back and they were welcome to come and go.
It was the scene of many late-night shenanigans and a starting point for a fund of humorous stories told about Robertson.
“Rohan was unique. He was loyal, he was a funster, he loved a prank, he always had your back,’’ Martin said.
“He could move in any circle, at any level … but never did he become his own hero. Today is a day of reflection and acknowledgment of a life well lived and a life gone too soon.’’
Martin said Robertson’s death had come as a “huge shock’’ and left a “huge void in the hearts’’ of his family and friends.
He said he was sure Robertson’s life would end up the subject of a Netflix series.
“What a life,’’ he said. “What a life.’’
Rohan Robertson and Bruce Eva.
Opening his tribute to his brother, Shane Robertson said he had been told not to talk about women, alcohol or anything illegal.
“I don’t have a lot to say,’’ he quipped.
He said Rohan excelled at sport in Wangaratta “and he also excelled after the game’’.
“To anyone who was involved in Wang Rovers footy club and United Cricket Club, Rohan was the star of the show, always doing something stupid, always doing cartwheels and high kicks,’’ he said.
“I spend a fair bit of time in Wang because I live up that way and you always bump into people in Wangaratta and it’s always, ‘How’s Roh going?’ And my wife, Fiona, coined the phrase, ‘No change’.
“Rohan didn’t really change from a teenager right through to when he died. He had this enthusiasm and this teenage whatever it is that he carried through. It didn’t matter if he was talking to the Prime Minister or it could be a down-and-outer, he found the same level with all people.’’
He said his brother “coloured our lives in the way very few families get to experience’’.
“There was always excitement and anticipation that Rohan was going to come to a family function,’’ Shane Robertson said.
“He always gave us something to talk about and something to laugh about. He always lifted your spirits.’’
A Rohan Robertson newspaper caricature.
*****
In playing for North Melbourne, the Robertson brothers followed after their father, Keith, who made 69 appearances for the Kangas between 1957 and 1963.
He left the Roos at the age of 25 to pursue school teaching, taking country postings.
In the 1970s, a transfer took Keith McKenzie and his family – wife Gwen, sons Rohan and Shane, and daughter Leisa – to Wangaratta, where the boys quickly emerged in junior football and cricket.
In 1980, Rohan joined North Melbourne to play in the Under 19s – and won the best and fairest under the coaching of Slug Jordon.
He was talented but also wayward, and North sacked him in 1981 when he failed to turn up to training for three weeks.
Robertson briefly popped up at a down-the-grades amateur club, in one game reputedly having 70 possessions before three quarter-time then nipping off to have a can of beer.
North Melbourne’s Rohan Robertson kicks the ball as he is tackled by Carlton’s Adrian Gleeson and Warren McKenzie at The Oval in London during 1987. Picture: AP
In 1984, he played at Coburg in the VFA under Phil Cleary.
On the eve of an important game against Springvale, he had an eventful night and was in no great shape when he turned up to play on Vales hard man Laurie Fowler.
Warming up in the changerooms, he didn’t dare go near Cleary and run the risk of him picking up the lingering smell of alcohol on his breath.
Yet he shook off the heavy night and had 39 possessions in a best-afield performance that prompted North Melbourne to take him back.
His second league stint was more successful than the first. The left-footer had 20 possessions or more in eight of his 26 games.
One year, North judged him best clubman.
“But he didn’t turn up to the presentation night,’’ Shane Robertson said. “He hated being the centre of attention. He’s also the only bloke I know who didn’t turn up for his own 21st.’’
Rohan Robertson in his playing days as a Kangaroo during the 1980s.
The great North Melbourne administrator Greg Miller appointed him to the staff after he finished up at the end of 1988.
A role in junior development led to the recruiting department. Miller thought he had a good eye and liked how he delved into a potential recruit’s background.
Legendary North official Ron Joseph also had a high regard for Robertson’s scouting and took him to the Swans and then Port Adelaide ahead of its entry to the AFL.
Joseph and Robertson secured champion forward Tony Lockett for Sydney, making a trip to Devon Meadows in Melbourne’s outer southeast to get his signature.
And it was Robertson who scoured the suburbs of Sydney in search of a property and a permit to house the spearhead’s 20 greyhounds.
When the Swans and North Melbourne met in the 1996 AFL grand final, Robertson had had a hand in the recruitment of 16 players on the ground.
Tony Lockett during the 1996 grand final. Rohan Robertson recruited ‘Plugger’ and many other players in that game.
More recently in his working life, he helped community groups and sporting clubs gain government grants to improve their facilities.
His friends described him as a “business consultant’’ who always had an idea or project on the go and paid no heed to the nine-to-five working day.
One day, he phoned Shane and asked if he knew anyone who wanted footballs.
It turned out he had 800 to flog.
“I said, ‘Where did you get them from?’,’’ Shane recalled at the funeral. “‘Oh, a bloke I know’. It was always, ‘A bloke I know’.’’
Friends Eva, Robert Thompson and Brad Jones told how Robertson was always losing things: his keys, mobile phone, bank cards, lap-top, even his car after he’d had a bellyful of beer.
But he never lost their phone numbers; he regularly roused them in the early hours with calls or text messages.
Moonee Valley on Cox Plate Day last year. The racecourse was Rohan Robertson’s “happy place”. Picture: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images
Family members placed a number of items on Rohan Robertson’s coffin during the service: bottles of scotch and port, a Moonee Valley form guide, a bundle of newspaper clippings (he called himself “Barry from Brunswick’’ in his letters to editors), his No.12 North Melbourne jumper and a video of his 1985 league debut.
Shane Robertson said his brother’s life was a “rollercoaster of ups and downs and side-to-side bends’’.
“It derailed many times, but he found his way back on the track. It was a thrill, it was enjoyable, it was eventful,’’ he said.
“Unfortunately, it finished too soon.’’
Rohan Robertson is survived by his mother, brother and sister, and six nephews and nieces.
