Neil Roberts on Robbie Muir

[saynta]

From herald sun.com. au

St Kilda great Neil Roberts glad fans are learning story of Robbie Muir after he wrote a column in 1994 defending misunderstood mate

St Kilda great Neil Roberts says he hopes more people learn the tragic story of former Saint Robert Muir. Roberts tried to raise the alarm on his tormented friend in a 1994 column for the Herald Sun. READ
Nick Smart, Herald Sun

St Kilda legend Neil Roberts – the man who first lifted the lid on Robbie Muir’s plight over two decades ago – says people needed to know the former Saint had been to “hell and back.”

The Saints have issued a full apology after the ABC on Sunday published a detailed account of the horrific racist abuse Muir endured across his career.

Roberts, the 1958 Brownlow medallist, used his 1994 column in the Sunday Herald Sun to appeal for help in trying to find work for a man who had suffered “massive personal traumas.”

“Former Saint Robbie Muir, arguably the most volatile footballer in the history of the senior game, has been to hell and back,” Roberts wrote in 1994.

READ NEIL ROBERTS’ FULL 1994 COLUMN BELOW

Speaking on Monday, Roberts — who was named centre half-back in St Kilda’s team of the century — said he wrote to it in a bid to help the prodigiously talented Muir.

“I was just trying to support Robbie and get some action happening because I just thought he’d been badly treated,” Roberts said.

“I always got on well with him and always spoke to him because he spent a fair bit of time alone.

“He had many enemies in those days, and for a brilliant footballer it’s quite a shame.


“He was a hot head, we know that, but there’s been a lot of hot heads.

“He had everything except control over his temper, but as we all now know he wasn’t without reason.”

Robert Muir(left) runs on to the MCG with Saints teammates including Phil Narkle.

The Saints admitted they had made “grave errors” in not supporting Muir during his 68-game career for the club, when he was subjected to relentless racist abuse from opposing players and fans. He told the ABC one of his first experiences after joining the VFL was being urinated on by a star senior teammate, and he said he had been ostracised by the Saints and the footy world since leaving the game in the 1990s.

A GoFundMe page set up by St Kilda fans on Sunday to pay for surgery on a shoulder damaged playing football and to show Muir “the collective care and support that should have been afforded him when he played for our club” has already raised over $110,000.

Collingwood joined St Kilda and the AFL in issuing its own apology to Muir on Monday.

“His is a story that is sad, shameful and a powerful reminder of why, as a club and code, we have important roles to play in seeking to eliminate racism from our game and our communities,” the Magpies said in a statement.

“Our club, and our game, failed some of its people in the past. The damage and hurt in Robert Muir’s story, and those of others, speaks of this.

“We must and can be better, an acknowledgement at the heart of Collingwood’s current review of a period in its own past. We are seeking to understand our previous experiences of racism to ensure they have no place in the current Collingwood environment.

“Robert ought to be commended for the courage it took to tell all Australians of how racism made an ordeal of his football career and of how, in graphic human terms, it affects lives.”
Robert Muir told the VFL tribunal he retaliated to racist attacks.

Roberts once worked at the Saints helping its Indigenous players adjust to Melbourne by finding accommodation.

He has travelled to the Tiwi islands and once presented the NTFL Nichols Medal in Darwin.

“I have a special place in my heart for Indigenous people, they’re brilliant people,” Roberts said.

The now 87-year-old said it was important people knew Muir’s story.

“When you look at his background, he’s lost two children, he contemplated suicide a number of times and his family has been picked on and brutalised at school,” Roberts said.

“People needed to know the real background history of it all and I’m glad it was written.

“There have been a lot of dark times for him and I feel sorry for him.

“At Victoria Park he was spat on and vilified.

“If you recorded some of the things that were said and some of the things that were done since the dawn of time in football, you’ll find it’s threaded with the same stuff.

“It’s just Robert was so habitual with it because he was so angry.

“His background justifies his behaviour, he just couldn’t get over it.”

Roberts paid tribute to the AFL for its efforts to stamp racism out of the game.

“The league has improved the situation an enormous amount,” he said.

“There’s nowhere near the vilification there was before.

“It’s much better policed now and they’ve done a very good job cleaning it up.”

Roberts wrote this column for the Sunday Herald Sun on March 20,1994:

NEIL ROBERTS: MUIR HAS BEEN TO HELL AND BACK

Former Saint Robbie Muir, arguably the most volatile footballer in the history of the senior game, has been to hell and back.

A week ago depression drove him to the edge of extinction, but he didn’t drop over — we nearly lost him.

Recently admitted to hospital in Ballarat in a critical condition, he has returned home and hopefully is recovering.

It was a close call as he was in a state of collapse with heavy chest pains.

Robbie’s massive personal traumas drove him to this situation.

He hit the twilight zone and went off on a life-threatening bout of over indulgence. Thank goodness he didn’t go all the way.

Robert Muir will be remembered by football fans for many things, but probably most as the Aboriginal Saint in the (Allan) Jeans era who got so mad that he stomped the turf, checked the umpire and pelted his mouthguard so hard that it went about a metre underground.

Robbie is an intense person. He was a talented and courageous player, but with possibly the shortest fuse ever seen.

Some coaches considered him uncoachable — he was frustration personified, a frustration that followed him in and out of various competitions in which he played the game he loved so much.

Mad Dog, as he has been dubbed, started his football in Ballarat. When I asked him to retrace his steps in sport, he said: “That’s a tall order, I’ve been everywhere, I wouldn’t know where to start.” So we didn’t try to document his sporting adventures.

We know that he roamed far and wide; it was a case of anywhere he could get a game. When the news broke that he had struck trouble and was in intensive care, inquiries came into the Sunday Herald Sun from all over Australia.
Robert Muir was a hugely talented footballer.

Robbie Muir is a popular man, a scallywag with an infectious smile and reckless selfless demeanour. He’s full of fun and good humour, and though he has fallen to many a tribunal in football and cricket, he’s never been in trouble off the ground.

Well, drink-driving is about as far as it goes.

A few years ago in an All-Stars match between the past players of the Saints and the Hawks at Moorabbin, Muir played very much overweight. He had good company: Cowboy Neale was about 32kg past his prime.

But Muir was easily the most entertaining player afield and the most talented, combining clowning with class.

And his stories after the game were just as engaging.

Now Robbie is a picture of frustration, he’s like a muzzled dog on a pie cart.

He’s without his licence, he’s out of work and he’s living on sickness benefits. After the bills have been paid there is little left for food.

Depression has become his fearsome opponent. He goes to his mum’s, where he is convalescing right now.

When I rang Robbie he was out walking with his brother, who is very ill. The Muir family has sadly endured four deaths in a year. Mrs Muir is anxious for Robert and his brother.

In the battle that has been his life, Robbie’s depression stems, in part, from his marriage break-up — he’s in Ballarat, his children are in South Australia and he rarely sees them. He sends money that, somehow, never seems enough.
Robert Muir gets a handball away under pressure from Richmond’s Francis Bourke.

Muir’s two sons and daughter are talented athletes who have reached state level in athletics, football and cricket. Robbie can’t afford to take them out or send them to sporting fixtures. He worries for his kids.

On top of this, his crook knees have crippled his ability to play sport. I think that the fact he was not fit to play for the VRI in a cricket grand final was the bitter final straw for Muir.

Sport is Robbie’s life and doctors say that he needs a plastic knee if he is to continue, you can imagine his response to that.

“I’ve got arthritis now and I’m vegetating,” Muir told me.

And, of course, grinding depression forces him to have a drink; he’s been known to have one on a hot day.

This is a sad story. Work will get Robert Muir out of this trouble. He needs a job, even if it forces him down to Melbourne to live.

Muir loves St Kilda, is more than capable of holding down a job, he’s a loveable and decent bloke who keeps hitting hurdles and probably has been his own worst enemy.

The ultimate for Muir would be a job at St Kilda Football Club in junior development. He’s terrific with young boys.

It is easy to dismiss people in situations like Robbie Muir’s. I know, his is just one of many deserving cases.

But when it happens to an entertaining sportsman like Robbie Muir, I feel something should be done.

This man is a challenge ... but that makes it interesting.

Apart from writing a book about his 65 games at St Kilda, he is looking for a chance to restructure his life.

He will be grateful."

[Saintmatt]

Neil spoke so beautifully on SEN this afternoon. Sad, but beautiful. There’s clearly a genuine affection.

[mcadam05]

Here is the Audio of Neil Roberts from SEN

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&sour ... Aql19YFbLE

[eel33]

How wonderful and decent a human being is Neil Roberts. His quiet personal leadership has been a constant throughout his life. Makes one wish that you could have observed him go about his work when he served down in the Antarctic in some of the most isolating of conditions.

Even now, despite the years gone by he wants to see right done for Robbie, as I think, do we all now.