Paul has been with the club since juniors, debuting for the men's Premier side in 2009. From there, he became an integral part of the club and its success. Ahead of his 250th match on Friday 16 July 2021, his teammates have summarised his career to date and his contributions below..
Paul began his hockey career on the grass down at ‘Richo' way back in the mid 90s. As a dominant junior player, with junior club premierships and a multitude of underage representative sides on the resume, Pauly always had the potential to be a significant contributor to the senior ranks.
Fast forward to Round 1 in 2009 - WASPs vs Aquinas. A strong Aquinas outfit featuring Des Abbott and Joel Carrol came up against a WASPs team with the likes of Kiel Brown, Brett Dancer (balding) and a young Paul Robertson on debut. It was a blockbuster!!! Well, that was until Red's Des Abbott decided he would run riot, putting the Yellow Train to the sword and leading Reds to a runaway 5-1 victory. Unfortunately Pauly's movie star/model good looks didn't help WASPs on this day. Whilst the debut didn't go as planned, it was the start of Pauly becoming a cornerstone of one of the most successful decades of WASPs hockey.
In 2010, Pauly was a member of the team that won the Guth Ardagh Minor Premiership Pennant which would be the first of a number of pennants in his first grade career. With confidence brimming, WASPs went bang bang – but not in a good way, and were sent packing in straight sets. After a similar story in 2011 (minus the minor premiership), Robbo took his scoring skills to Europe for 12 months in 2012.
Returning in 2013, Robbo was up and about for a successful year. However, unfortunately, his season was ravaged by injury.. although an indisputable career highlight was achieved with an assist Pauly handed out, allowing our Canadian import Arif Virjee to score. This assist provided what many would claim to be the miracle of the century.
2015 was when things really started to heat up for Paul. He played a game against YM where he hit five past Tyler Lovell (four in the first half) and was a key member of the team which made the GF - unfortunately falling to YM 1-2 in the final. This led into the following season where Robbo was the driving force (if you ask him) behind the 5-0 grand final win over Melville. Coming off the previous season high, Robbo was once again pivotal in helping lead WASPs to their third straight GF in 2017, unfortunately falling to UWA 1-2.
As one of the senior players heading into 2019, Pauly really showed his worth, being a focal point of the team and making an enormous contribution to another First Grade Premiership, this time beating Hale 3-2 in the GF.
More important than any of the above achievements though is the impact Paul has on the First Grade team itself. He is one of the beloved characters in the team and provides endless entertainment for the group. Whether he is relaxing at the estate, posting to his 3800 followers on his Cheeky Gardener Instagram (#thecheekygardener), writing his weekly Sunday Times gardening column or watching the Eagles lose to North Melbourne in the rain on a Monday night, Paul always provides a level of entertainment which makes his value to the team so much more than what we see on the hockey field.
Pauly, congratulations on 250 First Grade games. Enjoy the moment, you have well and truly earned this one!
Key Highlights:
- 2x Premiership Player (2016, 2019)
- 4x Premiership Appearances
- 2x Guth Ardagh Minor Premierships
- 5 Goals vs YM in 2015
- Engagement to Claire
- Cheeky Gardner Instagram Page (3,800 Followers) (#thecheekygardener)
- 2018 WCE Premiership
