Wednesdays are different for Dylan Roberton. On his day off, he ventures into Moorabbin for physio treatment. But he isn’t alone. In tow is usually one, two or even three of his young children. There’s Boston, Henry and Pip and they love following Dad to work. And Mum loves it when they do too.
At 25, the versatile defender is in a vastly different life situation than most footballers, especially at his age. But for Roberton, he can’t even remember what life was like without his two boys, aged three and two, and his one-year-old daughter.
In the all-consuming world of league football, going home to a house full of kids is a welcome distraction. Even if he wanted to dwell on the ebbs and troughs of football, he couldn’t. There’s simply no time for such liberties, with household duties to perform once he walks in the door each day.
“I think it’s good for me. I honestly can’t remember not having them in my life. When you get home from footy, if you’ve had a bad week on the track or if the team hasn’t gone too well, it’s still in the back of your mind but you quickly focus on other things because you’re very busy. You’re more on notice at home than at the club because it’s pretty hard looking after three of them,” Roberton told saints.com.au ahead of his 100th game this weekend.
“When I get home it’s pretty full on because Amy’s been there all day looking after them and doing everything; getting them up; getting them breakfast; putting them back down; cleaning the house; waking them up and everything else.
“So when I get home I relieve her, she goes off to the gym and has a break and by the time she comes home it’s dinner time and bath time. It’s pretty much their favourite time of the day when they’re in the bath. It’s pretty full on but we’ve had a routine for a while now. Once you have a routine they respond to that pretty well, so they’re in bed pretty early.”
Hailing from Frankston, Roberton was plucked from the Dandenong Stingrays by Fremantle in the 2009 National Draft at pick No. 49, joining a Dockers draft class that included 2015 Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe and No. 4 pick Anthony Morabito.
In the blink of an eye, he packed up his life and moved across to the other side of the country at just 18. Quickly, he settled in, debuted in Round 6, and played 13 games in his maiden season, including the elimination final win over Hawthorn and the semi-final loss to Geelong. Put simply, he loved life in Western Australia and loved Fremantle, despite the tyranny of distance.
But by the end of his third pre-season in Perth, the then 20-year-old discovered that his partner, Amy, was pregnant with the couple’s first child. With both her and his family a long way away, they decided that they would try and facilitate a move home at the end of 2012. That is, if one could be properly orchestrated.
“It all started during my last pre-season at Fremantle when I found out that Amy was pregnant. I was in the last year of my contract then, so I notified my manager that I would be thinking about moving home at seasons end,” Roberton said.
“There were times when I thought we’d try and stay over there, but at the end of the day it was always going to be easier having the family support – her family, my family – back home. So that was obviously the main driver to come home.
“There was that period between the end of the season and when it all happened in November going back and forward at Fremantle working out if I was going to stay or if I was going to go.
“In the end they couldn’t work out a trade unfortunately, so they ended up doing the right thing by me and delisting me, which gave me the opportunity to become a delisted free agent. That way clubs that were looking at me didn’t have to give up anything to get me.”
With no guarantees that a new destination awaited him in Melbourne, Roberton was confident he could find a home during the 2012 off-season. After all, he had played 37 games and begun to establish himself in a potent Fremantle backline that included Luke McPharlin and Michael Johnson.
When Scott Watters landed the senior coaching role at St Kilda at the end of 2012, he brought with him Tony Micale from East Perth; a man who had coached Roberton when he wasn’t getting a game with the Dockers. There, Roberton thought, was a potential link into Linen House Centre. A link that proved powerful in securing a spot at the Saints as a delisted free agent.
“Funnily enough, my coach in the WAFL when I was playing with East Perth was Tony Micale. He’d just come over with Scotty Watters as his assistant. Once I found that out I gave him a call and told him my situation because I was pretty close with him. I let him know that I was back at home and only round the corner so if I could come and have a run,” Roberton said.
And from there the puzzle pieces fell in to place for Roberton. He returned to Frankston and to a new club literally on his doorstep. In the years since, the couple have had two more kids and built a life for themselves around family and friends in the area they both grew up in; a world away from a previous life in Perth.
“At the time for my football, it was probably a better decision to stay at Fremantle, especially when you consider the next year they made a Grand Final, which I potentially could have been involved in. But from a life point of view, it’s a long way away and the plan wasn’t to just stop at one, we wanted to build our family then. So it was a move that had to happen,” Roberton said.
And while it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing since he moved to the Saints, Roberton has followed up his career-best season last year with an equally impressive season in 2016. That bold move at the end of 2012 appears an inspired one now as he moves along a north-east trajectory at the same rate as the club he returned home to.
