Australian Football

Robert Muir was a copiously talented indigenous Australian footballer whose playing career was effectively ruined by the constant racial abuse to which he was subjected by opposition teams and their supporters. When he responded violently to the intimidation, he was reported, and cast as the villain at the tribunal, on one occasion receiving a 12 match suspension. Against this backdrop his career statistics are of little relevance, but for the record he played 68 VFL games and kicked 23 goals for St Kilda from 1974 to 1978 and then in 1980 and 1984. The 1979 and 1982 seasons found him at West Torrens, where he made 15 senior appearances and scored two goals before finishing his career with four games and no goals for Woodville in 1985. His time in football was brought unceremoniously to an end when he was sacked by the Woodville Football Club for physically retaliating after being the target of racial vilification on the part of fans of his former club, West Torrens. 

Author - John Devaney