Neville P. Roberts (born 6 March 1955) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL) and

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL). He played with West Torrens,

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

and Norwood. His interstate career consisted of games for both

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

(five games) and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

(one game). He was South Australian state captain in 1984 and 1985.

West Torrens (1973–1974)

Roberts, a half-forward, played two seasons in his first stint at West Torrens, in 1973 and 1974.

Richmond (1975–1977)

He was signed by Richmond in March 1975, for a fee of $40,000 and made 17 appearances for the VFL club in his debut season, which included three finals. He won the season's Murie Cup as the leading combined votegetter in the seniors

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

and reserves

Gardiner Medal The Gardiner Medal was an Australian rules football award, formerly awarded to the best and fairest player in the VFL Reserves competition. Officially named the Seconds prior to 1959 and the Reserves from 1959 onwards, the competition ran from 1 ...

among players who polled in both. In

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

, Roberts only managed 13 games due to injury but still managed to kick 20 goals. He also booted six majors for

against

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco, Western Australia, Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood, ...

. He appeared in a further 18 fixtures in 1977, from which he kicked 31 goals, his highest goal tally at Richmond.

West Torrens (1978–1981)

In 1978 he returned to West Torrens and would play four more seasons with the club. He was captain of West Torrens in 1980 and 1981.

Norwood (1982–1987)

Roberts made his way to Norwood in 1982, and moving to full forward he would prove to be a prolific goal-kicker. He topped the Redlegs goal-kicking every year from 1982 to 1985. His 111 goals in 1983 was the first time a Norwood player had kicked over 100 goals in a league season and remains a club record, though as Sturt champion

Rick Davies Richard Davies (born 22 July 1944) is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as founder, vocalist and keyboardist of the rock band Supertramp. Davies was its only constant member, and composed some of the band's best-known songs ...

kicked a league record 151 goals in the same year Roberts didn't win the

Ken Farmer Medal The Ken Farmer Medal is named in honour of the Australian rules football full-forward Ken Farmer, who played for North Adelaide Football Club for his entire 13-season career, being North Adelaide's leading goalkicker all 13 seasons he played ...

. Roberts was a member of Norwood's 1982 and 1984 premiership teams, contributing six goals in the 1984 Grand Final. He captained Norwood in 1985 and 1986.

Coaching

In 2000, Roberts was appointed senior coach of Norwood, a job he held for two seasons, in which they finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Honours

He is a forward pocket in Norwood's official

Team of the Century In team sport, team of the century and team of the decade are hypothetical best teams over a given time period. For the century team, it can be either 100 years, or for a century (always the 20th). Similarly the team of the decade can be for 10 y ...

and in 2006 was inducted into the

South Australian Football Hall of Fame The South Australian Football Hall of Fame enshrines those who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. The Hall of Fame was established in 2002 when 114 outstanding individuals became inaugural inductees. S ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Neville 1955 births Australian rules footballers from South Australia West Torrens Football Club players Richmond Football Club players Norwood Football Club players Norwood Football Club coaches South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Living people South Australian State of Origin players