The Dandenong Stingrays were the first to overlook him, but not the last. After finally receiving a transfer from the Stingrays’ region to the Eastern Ranges’, Robey played a practice game for them – but missed the cut.
Looking back at that game in March, the Ranges’ talent manager, Daniel Ryan, said Robey performed “OK, but didn’t set the world on fire”.
Robey was a sensation in the second half of the season for Eastern Ranges.Credit: AFL Photos
It was another bitter blow after a gruelling summer where he spent six days a week in his backyard gym, and plenty more pounding the pavement and honing his skills at Holm Park Reserve in Beaconsfield, not far from his home in Officer.
Robey went back to play for Rowville’s under-19s, which he captained, but soon forced his way into the senior side as a 17-year-old.
His powerful frame and rapidly ascending performances not only impressed Rowville’s senior coach Ben Wise and his assistant, ex-Saint and Bomber James Gwilt, but also the Ranges’ recruiters, who had not forgotten him.
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That owed, at least in part, to Robey’s father, Chris, who works for the Australian Federal Police and never stopped calling and emailing Stingrays and Ranges staff while trying to organise an opportunity for his son.
Then on one Thursday night in May, while completing a captain’s run with the under-19s, the Ranges sent the Robeys an email with an invitation for him to train with them again.
“I’d always had confidence since the beginning of the season, and even through the pre-season, that I’d get my opportunity eventually, and be good enough to go head-to-head with a few of these big names [in the draft],” Robey said.
Even then, there was no guarantee he would play.
But back-to-back three-goal performances for Rowville’s seniors forced the Ranges’ hand. By June 21, Robey was lining up for the Ranges against Gippsland Power and likely No.1 draft pick Willem Duursma.
Robey’s gruelling gym routine helped him emerge as a top AFL draft prospect. Credit: Eddie Jim
Robey’s rampage was about to begin, firstly as a forward then as a power-packed midfielder. By his third game for the Ranges, Ryan knew Robey was “something special”.
“We were playing Oakleigh Chargers, and up by six or seven goals, but they came back pretty hard in the last quarter and hit the front,” Ryan said.
“We rolled him into the midfield, and he got a couple of clearances. We won the game off his stoppage work, and he got better every week from there – and the rest is history. From where he started the year to how he ended, it was incredible growth.”
That was July. By late August, Robey amassed 40 disposals, 18 contested possessions, five clearances, three goals and 11 score involvements against the Western Jets.
Robey’s scar from a mountain bike accident five years ago.Credit: Eddie Jim
By then, recruiters were watching vision of his Rowville games and desperately hunting as much information on him as they could. Every scout thought Robey was their secret smokey, but his increasingly brilliant form made that impossible.
From unwanted to top-five contender, Robey’s has been an extraordinary rise.
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His journey has been full of challenges, including a mountain bike accident five years ago that left him with a long scar on his right leg. He was 1cm from rupturing an artery, and the wound required 20 stitches.
Robey’s football knock-backs don’t have the same physical reminder, but helped drive him to the heights that will see him selected early in next week’s draft.
“I like the [bolter] label,” he said.
“It’s pretty good, considering where I started. I love this attention I have now, and it’s something I feel like I deserve. There’s no hate towards the Stingrays. It was a little bit frustrating [to be overlooked] after I’d grown a bit and put a lot of work into my body, and football – but here we are.”
