Australian Football

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Key Facts

Full name
Kenneth W Roberts

Known as
Ken Roberts

Born
13 May 1952 (age 72)

Age at first & last AFL game
First game: 18y 52d
Last game: 26y 329d

Height and weight
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 85 kg

Senior clubs
Essendon; Melbourne

Jumper numbers
Essendon: 45, 6
Melbourne: 10, 6

Recruited from
Essendon (1978)

Family links
Ken Roberts (Father)

Ken Roberts

Advanced stats
Club
League
Career span
Games
Goals
Avg
Win %
AKI
AHB
AMK
BV
EssendonV/AFL1970-19771001111.1146%12.182.853.196
MelbourneV/AFL1978-197912161.3325%9.673.583.420
V/AFL1970-19791121271.1344%11.912.933.226
Total1970-19791121271.1344%11.912.933.226

AFL: 8,295th player to appear, 2,148th most games played, 839th most goals kickedEssendon: 783rd player to appear, 175th most games played, 69th most goals kickedMelbourne: 985th player to appear, 753rd most games played, 350th most goals kicked

Ken Roberts arrived at Essendon from Essendon Baptists-St John’s in 1970 and after playing initially with the under nineteens made his senior VFL debut later that same season. Equally capable of playing forward or back, he had a fiery temperament and boasted a fair amount of pace, but a knee injury sustained in 1973 slowed him down to a certain extent.

In 1978, after precisely 100 games and 111 goals for the Bombers, Roberts crossed to Melbourne where he added another 12 games and 16 goals during that season and the next. Stints at Essendon-Tullamarine (late 1979), Lavington (1980-84) and Kedron (1985) followed before he finally retired as a player aged thirty-three.

Author - John Devaney

Sources

Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers by Russell Holmesby & Jim Main; Wikipedia article; Those Magnificent Men 1897-1987 by Michael Maplestone

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.