Hamling a Dog

[Twodogs]

Alec Eason.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Matty Robbins was more then servicable.

Pretty underrated player.

I was a big fan of him, even in his early days as a defender. I remember mentioning I thought he had the tools to become a good forward, and the following year that's what happened.

He was quick, strong, a good one on one player, could jump, applied great defensive pressure when it wasn't the norm and was a solid finisher. He didn't get a lot of it, but he was a quality player. It's just a shame that he wasn't around/in his prime when we had a better list from 08-10.

[bulldogtragic]

Pretty underrated player.

I was a big fan of him, even in his early days as a defender. I remember mentioning I thought he had the tools to become a good forward, and the following year that's what happened.

He was quick, strong, a good one on one player, could jump, applied great defensive pressure when it wasn't the norm and was a solid finisher. He didn't get a lot of it, but he was a quality player. It's just a shame that he wasn't around/in his prime when we had a better list from 08-10.

Unlike most of his era, I thought he had a good year of footy left in him.

[Happy Days]

Thread needs more Andrew Wills

[Torpedo]

Perhaps he retired too late.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/af...f672642a9b7f45

[1eyedog]

He was cut because of a surfeit of players like him or so it has been said. Add that the Cats brains trust were inspired to trade pick 21 for StK dud Stanley.

Yes he was well back in the pecking order but had not showed much during his tenure. Promising junior who is a long-term prospect and worth a shot.

[Torpedo]

Matthew Robbins suffers effects of concussion
Maybe Matthew left a year too late.

The Herald Sun, 05 June 2012

SUDDENLY, it's not the usual drive home to Chadstone.

The black Honda CRV is creeping along Footscray Rd, but Matthew Robbins is starting to black out. He almost veers across the road.

The Western Bulldogs star has his hand across the only eye that he can still open. His head is thumping hard and he's blinded by the sunlight, but there's still 16km to get home.

Will he make it back to Chaddie?

That trip home from training was the first time Robbins knew something wasn't right. It wouldn't be the last episode.

Five years after his AFL career has ended, he wonders if those knocks to the head he got across 146 games left him with a different kind of football legacy - depression.

Ex-Dog calls on AFL to take action on head knocks

THE worst of those big hits was from Matthew Lloyd. It was Round 4, 2003, and Robbins had backed into the hole to cut off the Essendon champ's surging lead.

For a fleeting second time stood still and he almost marked it, until Lloyd hit him like a truck.

The lights went out and Robbins hit the deck. He struggled to his feet and played out the final few minutes of the term.

At quarter time he complained of numbness and pins and needles in his arm.

Club doctors placed him in a neck brace and took him to Freemasons Hospital where he stayed overnight.

Robbins complained of a headache and they found two broken bones in his neck.

"I was going back and Matty Lloyd was coming steaming through," Robbins recalled.

"I ended up getting poleaxed and actually felt a fair whiplash and shock through my system. It's the scariest place to be in, I can assure you, when you're going back with the flight.

"All of a sudden everything feels like it's in slow-mo. You're waiting for the hit - you know it's coming - and then all of a sudden it feels like it goes quiet and you're just about to mark it and then someone just comes through and crumples you."



LLOYD can still recall the incident. He kicked five that day in a handy comeback win.

"It was something that Sheeds taught me from the first day I got to Essendon - if someone drops in the hole you make them pay," Lloyd said yesterday.

"Matty Robbins was always a courageous player. He obviously had skill, as well, but that was one of the traits he had.

"At the time, I wouldn't have known the damage that I'd done but I remember it coming out in the weeks afterwards."

Robbins's mum Janet was watching from the stands.

"If you see any player go down you just feel for them and the parents of the player," she said yesterday.

"When we found out he was in hospital we just left our seats and left the game to see him."



BUT Robbins wasn't always brave. After an early game in his AFL career he pulled out of a contest.

"It was my time to go and I didn't make a real good contest of it," Robbins says.

"It was a pretty poor effort and not something I was proud of."

The following Monday his coach, Terry Wallace, made a point of it in the match review in front of the entire team.

From that day on, Robbins never squibbed a contest.

He fought hard for every game and copped several other knocks, some big, some small and often at the Docklands stadium, where he says the ground was always firm.

Then, two years before his retirement, Robbins was diagnosed with depression.

He kept it from his club.

The symptoms started out as headaches, which drifted into migraines a couple of weeks after he'd been hit.

Two years before his retirement, Robbins was diagnosed with depression. He kept it from his club. The symptoms started out as headaches, which drifted into migraines a couple of weeks after he'd been hit.

"I'd be sick and basically had to sleep them off in a dark room," Robbins says.

"I guess I just thought I was someone who got headaches. I didn't think about a connection.

"But I remember driving home from training one day and it was so bad I could hardly see."

The so-called black dog crept up on him. He recalled: "It just felt like something wasn't right, but it's hard to put into words. My motivation was waning, I was struggling to get out of bed and things I'd loved doing I really struggled with."

For fear of seeming weak, he kept his depression from his club.

"For the last few years of my footy career I kind of just lived with it on my own," he says.

"And one thing I've learned about depression is that it gets masked a lot by fitness. Over those last few years I had a few injuries and stuff and wasn't doing as much training - that's when I really felt it."

At his lowest point, two years ago, Robbins struggled to go on.

Today he's feeling better and keen to raise awareness. If there's a link between concussion and his depression he wants to know.



ROBBINS began to wonder after hearing the stories of serveral players in American football.

The issue gathered speed last year after Chicago Bears' Dave Duerson claimed the head traumas he had received on the field had caused irreparable damage to his brain.

Duerson shot himself in the chest and died last year after sending a text message asking that his brain be studied.

Medical examinations found evidence Duerson had suffered from a neuro degenerative disease linked to concussions and other repetitive head traumas. Then came Andrew Krakouer.

Management for the Magpies star revealed in February they were investigating a possible connection between his mental health issues and head knocks he has suffered.

"It is quite clear that if you've had multiple hits to the head, there can be a casual relationship with mental health issues," Krakouer's agent Peter Jess said.

The AFL hit back.

"There definitely is not a clear link between head injury and depression that we can identify at this stage," AFL chief medical officer Dr Hugh Seward said.



TODAY Robbins's life is back on track. He's off medication and plays local footy.

The love of his life are his three children - daughter Luca, 6, and boys James, 4 and Tommy, 3.

He hopes that when it's their turn to play much more is known about concussion. Robbins says: "Being a parent, I'm worried about their safety. My boys are young, but you can already tell they're super keen and itch to play.

"I just hope things get put in place, so if they play the game and someone does get knocked out they don't get any future problems."

[bulldogtragic]

I think we fail to appreciate just how hard footy at all levels is on the body and mind. A very real case of what players of the modern form of the game have, it's in every sense hard. You don't need to punch or elbow blokes to be hard.

[bornadog]

Good luck to Hamling for his first game with the RWB and AFL



Height 194 cm
DOB 09-04-1993
Weight 88 kg

[F'scary]

Go Hamlet!

[comrade]

Hasn't put a foot wrong since coming to the Dogs. Glad he's been given a crack, though hopefully he's not expected to line up on Jezza Cameron all game. Tough initiation into the RWB if that's the case.

[LostDoggy]

Great to see Porkfish make his debut this week
Keep in mind that at Geelong the Coaching Staff had Tommy Hawkins do one on one drills with Hamling as it was the most awkward matchup for Tommy , he was bigger and stronger than Joel but was often out positioned and Joel's agility and reach negated Tommy's physical advantage

[Greystache]

Hasn't put a foot wrong since coming to the Dogs. Glad he's been given a crack, though hopefully he's not expected to line up on Jezza Cameron all game. Tough initiation into the RWB if that's the case.

Didn't Tom Young give Cameron a bath early last year? I expect Hamling to keep him statless!!

[Twodogs]

Didn't Tom Young give Cameron a bath early last year? I expect Hamling to keep him statless!!

Stat. Less.

[Webby]

C'mon. Djerrkura.

Kenny Newland was okay, as was Bluey Hampshire. Bernard Toohey was a roundabout ex Cat who was alright, too.

But the Peter Streets and Djerkurras well and truly balance it out. Ming you, I think we sent them Lynton Fitzpatrick a few years back. Also, the young kid from Year of the Dog who had cancer didn't kick on for them. All in all, not much decent business between the two clubs. Hopefully Hamling's an exception.

I was starting to lose a bit of faith in him after really liking him initially. However he was good on Sunday. His kicking might be a worry - that's the only concern.. Handball to Webb at all costs, I say!'