14 hours ago, sam6172 said:

Just a quick distraction from all the speculation going on currently, I would like to ask the Demonland community a question that I have often wondered about but never asked.

How good was Robbie Flower?

I was born in 86, and didn't really take footy seriously until a teenager so missed him by a decade or 2. I have heard stories of how good he was but would love to hear from anyone who actually saw him play, what was he like? Is their anyone in the modern era you would compare him to?

Incomparable.

Closest I can get is to say a mix of Pendlebury (for his ability to make the game slow down around him), a gazelle and Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto.

Think Pendles — one of the greatest I’ve ever seen (despite being Filth) — but imagine him with a stronger overhead mark and doing it in a side that was, at times, far from great. A remarkable player. And unlike Pendles, he never so much as hinted at leaving the Dees. Loyal, humble, bled red and blue. A wonderful captain and genuine role model. More than a few could take a leaf out of his book.

I admire your humility in asking the question, @sam6172. Many believe the so-called “modern” game of run-and-carry and line-breaking was invented five minutes ago, but Tulip was doing it week in, week out — linking from the back pocket all the way to the forward line. His skills by hand and foot were sublime, his footy IQ every bit the equal of Pendlebury’s. He could play virtually every position on the ground except ruck, and he never wasted a moment on the interchange bench. Injuries often kept him out or limited his influence, but even at fifty percent he was still better than most in the comp.

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by Queanbeyan Demon

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Incomparable.

Closest I can get is to say a mix of Pendlebury (for his ability to make the game slow down around him), a gazelle and Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto.

I'd add Nureyev to that mix

This is such a nice, wholesome, thread. A delightful departure from some of the other content lol

I also didn't get to see Robbie play (live), but from what I have seen and heard, he was one-of-a-kind.

The good ones always go far too young, and leave us with the monsters who live to a million years old.

2 hours ago, Demonised said:

Notice how no one who saw him is nominating a current day player who is like him? RF was one of a kind.

Sometimes when Windsor runs with the ball I get a Robbie flashback. Something about the shoulders.

28 minutes ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

And unlike Pendles, he never so much as hinted at leaving the Dees.

According to his biography "Robbie" (released in 1987 and written with Ron Reed), there were no shortage of suitors.

One club offered him $60,000 as a sign-on bonus. That doesn't sound much these days, but it would have paid for Robbie's recently purchased house.

Robbie played U19s? for the MFC at the Punt Rd Oval and the Richmond Senior players would come out and watch.

Robbie made footy look easy, so easy in fact that I always expected more. He beat his opponents as if brushing away a fly.

I went to an Origin game at Artic park with a Tigers mate. My mate turned to me and said : I didnt realise Flower was this good.

17 hours ago, beelzebub said:

In a fashion you're almost asking the wrong people. Ask any Melbourne supporter who grew up watching Tulip and you will pretty much get a similar answer. Football poetry in motion.

Now, go ask supporters and especially players of teams who played against him. They will say essentially the same thing if not more particularly one of the hardest players to play against, one of the fairest adversaries to take the field.

Arguably one of the most unlucky to never to have won a Charlie as he personified it.

Deserved to play in more successful teams.

He was a gentleman, humble and still to this day the best player I've ever had the chance to watch. For many seasons the only reason I went.

An absolute champion. He wore 2... but he was number 1 in my book.

Well said Bub.

It was like going to a show and watching a genius at work.

We got beaten for the majority of his games but you'd go just to see him play. Could do things no other would even try.

I can rarely remember him being tackled.

I was lucky enough to get into the rooms after many matches in that era as a kid and I'd always head to Robbie and he was just the nicest kindest, gentle humble man.

With everything written above, he was better than that. To see Robbie play was a gift. The superlatives are insufficient, watch the you tube highlights and imagine every game and every minute was sprinkled with his magic. I tear up remembering.

Thank you for being Melbourne Robbie.

From upstairs on the wing in the outer, you would see him closing in the ball and the roar was like nothing - "Robbiiiiieeeee!"

People leaping out of their seats to see what was down the ground, because he opened the game up, he would put it on the chest of a team-mate - a couple of bounces and a bullet pass, and half the ground was wiped when he swooped into play.

I watched his first game from directly above him. By half time we were rapt - Geelong could not get the ball off him. A year or two later, his impact spread further as he controlled where he took the ball - and his team-mates had come to expect it. In interstate games, it's true - surrounded by really good players he only looked better. He was a team player - brought others to life around him.

So thin, So humble, but dedicated to the game. He transcended everything. If you think of Pendlebury who never wastes a possession, always chooses the best option - Robbie Flower had that and more, and his skill and speed would have made Pendlebury look like a draft horse.

The thing was, there have always been musclebound thugs who play the game. And administrate it now. Corporates rule. In Robbie's day, there were thugs on the field tried to put him out of business. He did get injured. Dipierdomenico, RhysJones, etc. But one out, he was unbeatable. In fact one of the great players of that era famously said if you could beat Robbie Flower you could retire - there'd be nothing left to achieve.

So, with MFC so bad through nearly his whole career, Robbie Flower was like some magical pure essence of football, way beyond winning or losing. To see him do his thing was off the show, not just in his individual brilliance but in his being so absolutely embedded in the team. He'd get on ABC radio to talk football every Friday afternoon and with great earnestness explain to Barbara Horn why the Demons had a real chance this week.

We'd get slaughtered again, but we'd go home re-living the impossible blind-turn, the huge sticky-fingered mark he'd taken, and so on..

My brother was a died-in-the-wool Essendon supporter, and one miserable wet Saturday at Windy Hill in the mud he saw an absolute slog of a game. He told me about it - "it was dreadful conditions, and the game - apart from Flower who was in a class of his own". He surely was. Still is.

If you think of the story of Bradman with a wicket and a corrugated rainwater tank, Robbie's thing as a boy was kicking the footy high enough in the front yard to be able to race down the drive and mark it in the back yard. Too skinny to be considered, they let him run as a boundary umpire for a year. The gateman wouldn't let him in the players' gate for his first senior game so he bought a GA ticket to get in. The man was an utter legend, a total freak, and no ego whatsoever. He said he lacked character when he started. Football didn't deserve such a man. Petracca in Perth was pretty good, but Robbie was way beyond that, a mystical unearthly magician, week after week. There is no way you can adequately explain what he brought to his beloved Demons.

5 hours ago, Fritta and Turner said:

Sometimes when Windsor runs with the ball I get a Robbie flashback. Something about the shoulders.

If only he could bounce the ball with his left hand. It is so like Robbie that I nearly weep.

Robbie was better than any other player I have seen since the 50s by several orders of magnitude.

GOAT does not do him justice.

5 hours ago, Bay131973 said:

From upstairs on the wing in the outer, you would see him closing in the ball and the roar was like nothing - "Robbiiiiieeeee!"

People leaping out of their seats to see what was down the ground, because he opened the game up, he would put it on the chest of a team-mate - a couple of bounces and a bullet pass, and half the ground was wiped when he swooped into play.

I watched his first game from directly above him. By half time we were rapt - Geelong could not get the ball off him. A year or two later, his impact spread further as he controlled where he took the ball - and his team-mates had come to expect it. In interstate games, it's true - surrounded by really good players he only looked better. He was a team player - brought others to life around him.

So thin, So humble, but dedicated to the game. He transcended everything. If you think of Pendlebury who never wastes a possession, always chooses the best option - Robbie Flower had that and more, and his skill and speed would have made Pendlebury look like a draft horse.

The thing was, there have always been musclebound thugs who play the game. And administrate it now. Corporates rule. In Robbie's day, there were thugs on the field tried to put him out of business. He did get injured. Dipierdomenico, RhysJones, etc. But one out, he was unbeatable. In fact one of the great players of that era famously said if you could beat Robbie Flower you could retire - there'd be nothing left to achieve.

So, with MFC so bad through nearly his whole career, Robbie Flower was like some magical pure essence of football, way beyond winning or losing. To see him do his thing was off the show, not just in his individual brilliance but in his being so absolutely embedded in the team. He'd get on ABC radio to talk football every Friday afternoon and with great earnestness explain to Barbara Horn why the Demons had a real chance this week.

We'd get slaughtered again, but we'd go home re-living the impossible blind-turn, the huge sticky-fingered mark he'd taken, and so on..

My brother was a died-in-the-wool Essendon supporter, and one miserable wet Saturday at Windy Hill in the mud he saw an absolute slog of a game. He told me about it - "it was dreadful conditions, and the game - apart from Flower who was in a class of his own". He surely was. Still is.

If you think of the story of Bradman with a wicket and a corrugated rainwater tank, Robbie's thing as a boy was kicking the footy high enough in the front yard to be able to race down the drive and mark it in the back yard. Too skinny to be considered, they let him run as a boundary umpire for a year. The gateman wouldn't let him in the players' gate for his first senior game so he bought a GA ticket to get in. The man was an utter legend, a total freak, and no ego whatsoever. He said he lacked character when he started. Football didn't deserve such a man. Petracca in Perth was pretty good, but Robbie was way beyond that, a mystical unearthly magician, week after week. There is no way you can adequately explain what he brought to his belo

Thank you for that beautiful response. Having to buy a ticket to get into his first seniors game is hilarious!

On 17/09/2025 at 19:16, sam6172 said:

Just a quick distraction from all the speculation going on currently, I would like to ask the Demonland community a question that I have often wondered about but never asked.

How good was Robbie Flower?

I was born in 86, and didn't really take footy seriously until a teenager so missed him by a decade or 2. I have heard stories of how good he was but would love to hear from anyone who actually saw him play, what was he like? Is their anyone in the modern era you would compare him to?

Hey Sam,

As a fan who started watching Melbourne in 1976, I agree with all of the responses. I have two more points to add.

Firstly, the period from 1977 to 1986 were dark days with two wooden spoons and nothing close to a finals appearance. It was tough being a Melbourne supporter of primary school age.

One bright spot was that Robbie was a standout on the Handball competition on Channel 7's World of Sport. Each week, two footballers would come into the studio to compete in a knockout competition, aiming at a target with 5 handballs on one side of their body and then 5 on the other side. Robbie was a standout in that competition and won at least twice. One one hand, it was both consolation and affirmation for this young Melbourne fan. On the other hand, it represents his standout skills.

Secondly, Robbie was my absolute idol as he displayed so many qualities. Unlike many footballers in the 1970s, he was totally fair and never went the biff. He was totally loyal to the Melbourne Football Club. And he was generous with this time and had no hesitation in posing for a photo with me at Federation Square at Melbourne's 150th Anniversary celebration in 2008. Of all of the celebrities who have died in my lifetime, his passing was the only one that made me shed a tear. When I grow up, I want to be like Robbie.

In Ken Piesse's The Complete Guide to Australian Football, Flower's player summary quotes Brent Crosswell: "...beat Flower and you could just about retire from League Football because anything else smacked of anti-climax." Wayne Schimmelbusch in the same publication said: "I paid more attention to Robert Flower than any other opponent."