Fletcher Roberts (born 3 June 1993) is a former professional

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 for the in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL).

Early life

Roberts was educated at De La Salle College and

Melbourne Grammar School Melbourne Grammar School is an Australian private school, private Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Day school, day and boarding school. It comprises a co-educational preparatory school from Prep to Year 6 and a middle school and senior s ...

and attracted attention after kicking four goals in the last quarter of the 2011

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

Grand Final to lead the

Sandringham Dragons Sandringham Dragons is an Australian rules football club playing in the Talent League, the top statewide under-18 competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They are based at the Moorabbin Oval in Moorabbin, Victoria, representin ...

to victory. He was then recruited by the Bulldogs in the 2012 Pre-season Draft, with pick #11.

AFL career

Roberts made his AFL debut in round 20,

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, against at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

. Roberts struggled to hold down a spot in the senior side in 2014, playing only five games, but started to show signs of developing into a tall defender for the Bulldogs' VFL side Footscray. The highlight of the season was in the final round against Richmond's VFL side at

Punt Road Oval Punt Road Oval, also known as the Richmond Cricket Ground or known by naming rights sponsorship as the Swinburne Centre, is an Australian rules football ground and a former Cricket oval located within the Yarra Park precinct of East Melbourne, ...

. Trailing by 33 points in the final quarter, Footscray fought back to snatch the lead, only for the Tigers to steady with a goal and seemingly have the game won. With seconds remaining, Roberts took a pack mark and as the siren sounded, lined up from 60 metres. He kicked truly to give Footscray a memorable three-point victory and secure second place on the VFL ladder. Sadly, Roberts would miss Footscray's 2014 VFL premiership triumph through injury. In

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, Roberts was not selected until the Round 6 clash against due to recovery from an injury interrupted pre-season, but would then play 15 of the remaining 16 games during the home-and-away season. He was one of the players dropped for the Elimination Final, but would be recalled for the Preliminary Final to replace the injured

Matt Suckling Matthew Suckling (born 25 July 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club and Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL). Suckling is known as a player with precision kicking and link-u ...

. Despite suffering an early facial injury, Roberts returned to play arguably his best game for the club, holding the dangerous

Jeremy Cameron Jeremy Cameron (born 1 April 1993) is a professional footballer with the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Greater Western Sydney Giants from 2010 to 2020. Cameron has List of VFL/AFL p ...

goalless as the Bulldogs advanced to the Grand Final. After some uncertainty early in the week leading up to the Grand Final, it was announced that Roberts retained his place in the team ahead of Suckling, which meant that the Bulldogs would field a team that had no experience in an AFL Grand Final. In the match, Roberts combined with Joel Hamling to shut down 's twin threats of

Lance Franklin Lance Franklin (born 30 January 1987), also known as Buddy Franklin, is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the Hawthorn Football Club from 2005 to 2013 and the Sydn ...

and

Kurt Tippett Kurt Anthony Tippett (born 8 May 1987) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club and the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Tippett represented Queensland in under-18 bask ...

, limiting their output to just one goal to help the Bulldogs clinch an emotional 22-point win, ending their 62-year premiership drought. Roberts is currently playing for the

Port Melbourne Football Club The Port Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Borough, is an Australian rules football club based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne. The club was founded in 1874 and has been competing in the Victorian Football League (VFL) – ...

in the

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 ...

Personal life

Roberts studied a Bachelor of Psychology at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

. He grew up in the

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

suburb of

Murrumbeena Murrumbeena ( ) is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 13 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Murrumbeena recorded a population of 9,996 at the 2021 ce ...

and played junior football fo
Murrumbeena Junior Football Club

Statistics

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2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

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2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

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2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

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2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

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2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 10 , , 8 , , 18 , , 4 , , 3 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 5.0 , , 4.0 , , 9.0 , , 2.0 , , 1.5 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! colspan=3, Career ! 51 ! 0 ! 2 ! 245 ! 226 ! 471 ! 143 ! 72 ! 0.0 ! 0.0 ! 4.8 ! 4.4 ! 9.2 ! 2.8 ! 1.4

Honours and achievements

AFL *Team **

AFL premiership This page is a complete chronological listing of VFL/AFL premiers. The Australian Football League (AFL), known as the Victorian Football League (VFL) until 1989, is the elite national competition in men's Australian rules football. The inaugur ...

VFL *Team ** VFL premiership: 2014

References

External links

* *
Match ratings
from Inside Football {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Fletcher 1993 births Living people Western Bulldogs players Western Bulldogs premiership players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Sandringham Dragons players Williamstown Football Club players Port Melbourne Football Club players VFL/AFL premiership players People educated at Melbourne Grammar School 21st-century Australian sportsmen