Kevin Roberts was the classic half-forward flanker whose rapier left foot could deliver a perfect low pass or booming goal with ease.
Kevin passed away on June 26 at the age of 87 after a long illness and leaves behind a host of friends at both St Kilda and his original club Cheltenham. His easy going, sociable nature was the hallmark of his life. He was terribly unfortunate not to be a part of the 1966 premiership team as he suffered a broken collarbone in mid-season at a time when he believed he was playing the best football of his life. In his prime he was considered to be on the brink of state selection.
A few weeks before that injury he had bagged a personal best five goals in a 24 possession game against Fitzroy at Moorabbin and was on the top of the world.
His long-kicking and leg speed were assets suited to the expanses of the MCG and when St Kilda broke a 22 year drought by returning to the finals in 1961 he was regarded as the Saints’ outstanding performer in the First Semi Final loss to Footscray despite entering the game under a cloud due to a knee injury.
But according to The Age: “There was no doubt about Kevin Roberts’ fitness although his left knee was heavily bandaged. He kicked with his usual power and was the Saints’ best player. By the end of the match three Footscray players John Jillard, Barry Thornton and Barney McKellar had all failed to curb his brilliance.”
Two years later he again played a dominant game in the 1963 First Semi against Melbourne kicking three of St Kilda’s eight goals.
Kevin had come to the Saints from Federal League club Cheltenham. At the time the Federal League was one of the strongest suburban competitions in Victoria and Kevin won the competition’s 1959 best and fairest playing as a full-back.
In 1958 St Kilda could not get a clearance for the Tasmanian star Verdun Howell who had to stand out of football for most of the year. St Kilda let Howell play briefly for Cheltenham to gain some match practice, and folklore has it that Roberts would launch kickouts from full-back and land the ball with Howell in the centre who would then fire it into the goalmouth.
Kevin played as centre half-back in the reserves in his first two weeks at the club in 1960 then started the next three games on the reserve bench for the seniors. In each of those matches he was given a brief run and when tried as a half-forward his future course was set. He missed a couple of games when hits to his face fractured his nose and a subsequent infection landed him in hospital.
But the Saints saw his future as a forward and in 1960, he played 15 games and won the Best First Year player trophy.
There was a minor hiccup in early 1963 when he was suspended for four weeks for striking Carlton’s Bruce McMaster-Smith who would later become a teammate at St Kilda. Kevin had a major setback in 1964 when a pre-season shoulder injury kept him on the sidelines for the entire year. Back in harness in 1965 he came off the reserve bench in the Grand Final loss to Essendon.
His superb kicking meant that he was a regular contestant on the Channel 7 World of Sport champion kick competition and he reached the semi-final stage on a couple of occasions. One of the competition’s judges – the ever-meticulous Bruce Andrew ruled out a Roberts stab-kick because he deemed it “a controlled low drop-kick”.
After the collarbone injury of 1966 he had a strong 1967 campaign despite being flattened by Richmond’s Tony Jewell early in the season.
Kevin played 107 games and kicked 108 goals in his time with the Saints from 1960 to 1969.
He crossed to VFA side Oakleigh for the 1970 season and after a couple of years returned to Cheltenham, his original side. Cheltenham stalwart Col Anderson remembers Kevin telling him “I had the best seat in the house at St Kilda, playing on the flank next to Darrel Baldock every week”.
Kevin continued to enjoy his other sporting love – golf – and at the Southern Golf Club would head out for the morning every weekend with mates Norm Robinson, the famous Australian Open winner Bob Shearer and the Australian baseballer Peter McFarlane no matter what the conditions were. In the depths of winter that would mean bracing against the cold with a shared sip of Stones Green Ginger Wine along the way.
His connection with St Kilda continued in the early 1980s when he worked in the newly created Junior Development department, and for a time was the club’s runner for the senior team. Earlier this year his former teammates Ross Smith and Neil Roberts presented him with a heritage certificate awarded to each Saint who played during the 1966 season.
Back in a 1963 profile bio in Footy Fan magazine he said that “the friendliness between League players after matches made playing football a real pleasure.”
That comraderie was at the core of Kevin Roberts’ life.
