Star forward Ray Robins reflects on career in footy, including the infamous backflip

BEAU GREENWAY: So you were born and bred in Rutherglen?

RAY ROBINS: We lived next door to the footy ground. I lived all my life in Rutherglen until I was about 17. I played all my juniors at Rutherglen in the Coreen league. Jimmy McMahon was the man who looked after all the junior footy there. My father was the president of the club from 1983 to about 1987. It was a very strong club at the time, I think the juniors won about seven in a row at one stage and the seniors had a pretty handy side in the 80s. Guys like Vin, Terry and Steve Doolan and the local talent like Robbie and Bluey McMaster and Archie Jones.

BG: Can you recall your first senior game?

RR: I know my first senior game was actually between Rutherglen and Wahgunyah and I got collected by a close friend now in Ron Hall. I was only a 15 or 16-year-old kid. Mum and dad were actually at a wedding and they came out of the wedding to come down to the ground.

BG: You then made the step up to play Ovens and Murray?

RR: I stayed in Rutherglen until 1988 and won a flag in the seconds, but I wanted to have a crack at the higher level, so I went to Corowa in 1989. I stayed there until 1991 and then Rutherglen went into the Ovens and King league, so I went back there in 1992 as an assistant coach. Terry Smith was our coach and we had a good year. I went back to Corowa and had another crack the following year, but I started doing shift work and it got the better of me. I found it too hard doing shift work and trying to train at that level. I played the majority of the year in seniors, but I departed back to Rutherglen in 1994 to 1996.

BG: How was the next stint at Rutherglen?

RR: Neale McMonigle coached us for two years, he was a great player for Rovers and then Tony Gayfer came across and coached for one year in 1996. We had a great year, I really enjoyed it under Tony and still know him pretty well now and play golf with him on Saturdays.

BG: Were you close to a premiership with Gayfer?

RR: I really thought if he had done two years, it would have been a stepping stone to nearly winning a flag. We were very stiff that year. We finished third and got put out in the prelim final. I remember we kicked nine goals in the first quarter with a bit of breeze and got rolled against North Wang. To see him only do one year was tough because it made me feel we could have been a well-gelled unit if we stayed together. It didn't and a few people broke apart.

BG: David 'Chook' Barclay got you to Wahgunyah in 1997?

RR: The club was very welcoming and I had an absolute ball. The people you meet and the mates you make was a credit to the club the way they were.

BG: The club won its first flag since 1968 that season. How were the celebrations?

RR: We won back-to-back in 1997 and 1998. I remember one of the boys skiing behind a car on an old bonnet. They decided to put the best and fairest count the day after the grand final in 1997. We'd all been on the grog that night and I don't think we'd had any sleep. We'd all stayed down at the club that night and I think it was Sunday evening by the time they did the senior count and we were still drinking. I won the medal and I would be flat out remembering going on stage to say thank you. Ian Rogers put a firecracker in my trackie pants and lit it up and it went off in the rooms. It burnt a big hole in my pants and I'd only just bought them the week before. I think the following Sunday the league vote count was on and we did it all again.

BG: Did you get an offer to go elsewhere in 1998?

RR: I was sitting at work on the forklift and one of the ladies in production came out and said I was wanted on the phone. It was in the middle of the factory and no-one had ever rang me like that before. It was Ian Wales and he was at Whorouly at the time and was going to go to Myrtleford. He asked me what I was doing next season and said he'd get me and the missus a job, but in the end I said no. I thought I would rather support my local club Corowa and that was a great era for the club then with Jimmy Silvestro coaching.

BG: You missed the 1998 grand final, what was the story there?

RR: It was the only game I missed all year. I injured my hamstring in the second semi out at Oaklands. On the Saturday morning before the grand final, I remember Chook met me at the high school and I did a few laps to try and warm myself up. I went through a few strides and twists and it went again.

BG: Can you recall the game?

RR: We virtually had four seasons in one day. It was a beautiful day in the morning and it started to get overcast. Come to the start of the senior game it was spitting rain, but at half-time it absolutely bucketed down. It hailed that hard you could hear the commentators on the roof of the shed didn't want to be up there. I can remember one of the goals got kicked and no-one went and got the ball. We kicked a goal on the siren to win it.

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BG: You had the chance of a three-peat in 1999?

RR: It was a great season, but come the grand final it wasn't a good feeling. I've never watched the video and I know the coach has never watched it. We were on the afterburners early in the day and were up by 60 points at half-time. I think we kicked the first goal of the third quarter and put us further in front and the ball was on a string. I think I had seven to half-time, but that was pretty well the only goal we kicked for the second half. Jelrilderie turned it on and we virtually ran out of legs. To their credit, they nearly went from forwards to backs and backs to forwards and turned the game on its head. They ended up winning by 16 points.

BG: How was the reaction afterwards?

RR: I do know for a fact some people left the ground and thought they'd meet us back at the pub and have a good time. We went back there, but they couldn't believe we'd lost it.

BG: Wahgunyah bounced back to win it in 2002?

RR: Richard Grimmond from Wodonga came and coached us in 2000 and 2001 and then Malcolm Smith took over in 2002 and we won another flag that year.

BG: You then had a year at Howlong?

RR: A good mate of mine Ben Kane at Howlong got in my ear and Vin Glass and Richard Grimmond were also there so I decided to go there in 2003. I nearly kicked 100 there and I missed two or three games at the end of the season. I sat out the first final with a thigh injury and I came back for the second semi and we got done and twinged it again in the prelim, so I wasn't looking good for the grand final, but we got knocked out.

BG: You made a return to Wahgunyah?

RR: I moved back to Wahgunyah in 2004 and Scott Parker was our coach. Scott was very passionate about footy.

BG: Is is true you had a self-inflicted injury on the eve of the season?

RR: I was at a bucks day with a few boys and I was in the pub and jumped up on the bar and did a backflip. I landed on my feet, but it doesn't matter when you've got thongs on and I went straight over on my ankle. I did one and landed, but I decided to do another one and did my ankle. I remember Ian Rogers taking me home and I was sitting in the pub with my foot in a bucket of ice. I just stayed there having a beer with the boys until I went home.

BG: How did Scott react?

RR: Scotty found out about it and I remember him sitting me down in the rooms, it might have been the first game I came back to play seniors. He made me play two or three seconds games to get a bit of match fitness. He sat me down before the game and went off and said what I'd done was rubbish. We ended up coming good and won the premiership.

BG: You played Rennie in the grand final?

RR: It was a good one to win because Rennie came out and beat us in the second semi by 10 goals and we turned it around and beat them by six or eight in the grand final. We said there was no way we were that bad and we all stuck together as a group.

BG: From all reports Rennie forward Danny Casset talked it up before the game?

RR: Greg Eales absolutely shut him down in that grand final, I think he kicked one. I reckon he kicked nine or 10 two weeks before. They were more or less concentrating on me at one end and we were concentrating on him at the other.

BG: You had more season at Rutherglen?

RR: The coach of Rennie was Mick Hill and he ended up signing to coach Rutherglen in 2005 and approached me to go to Rutherglen for a year. I didn't mind it because I'm a Rutherglen boy. We made finals and got put out. I think I'm sitting on 99 senior games at Rutherglen and a couple of the blokes wanted me to come back and play one more, but it didn't happen.

BG: Wahgunyah got you back as coach in 2006 and 2007?

RR: It was the last two years of the Coreen league. We didn't have the success, we made finals but didn't really push on.

BG: That would have been around the time Taylor Duryea was coming through?

RR: I think he was only 15 when he came up to play a senior game under me at Wahgunyah in 2007 and he absolutely killed them. You could see the kid had talent and there was a future in front of him. I'll always remember this screaming mark he took on the wing at Wahgunyah in front of the siren box. I reckon he went over the top of five or six people, I've never seen somebody get so bloody high. All of a sudden he just turned around and hit me lace out.

BG: You continued coaching at Corowa and I believe you got a surprise call-up?

RR: I went over and coached Corowa seconds in 2008. I hadn't played a senior game there for 16 years but Peter Tossol said he wanted me to have a game in the ones. I played that one game against Raiders and I think I kicked four points. At the end of the year my dad got diagnosed with cancer and my brother had a head-on crash and nearly got killed within a couple of months. My brother was in intensive care for many months with bad injuries and dad was going through a tough battle.

BG: Did you ever get to play with your sons?

RR: I got to play with my stepson, Aaron, in the 2004 premiership at Wahgunyah. I also got to play with Brydon after he represented Vic Country in 2013. He went to Wang Rovers as a young fella and I ended up playing a couple of seconds games with him there as well. It was the high of my football career to play with my boys.

BG: Did you play a reserves game in the Ovens and King in 2019?

RR: Jack Aumont was coaching the reserves at Mohyu and a couple of boys from work had a game and asked me. I enjoyed it and I think I kicked five. I was bloody sore after it. I hurt my calf in the warm up and sat on the bench in the first quarter. I said to Jack to give me a roll of tape and I taped it up as tight as I could and went for it. I haven't pulled them on since.

BG: It's fair to say you had a pretty good run?

RR: Virtually from 18 years of age until I was about 35, I reckon I missed finals once. I also had a really good run with injuries as well apart from that grand final in 1998.

BG: You've most recently been an umpire?

RR: I've been umpiring for seven years. Warwick Henderson lived on the opposite side of the football ground in Rutherglen when we were kids. He gave me a phone call about umpiring after I'd given the game away and I thought why not. I love the game and you're a long time out of it when you're retired. I'm 50 this year and I thought I'd do it until then or 100 games and I'm around the ballpark on both.

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