Australian Football

Pacy and highly skilled despite his rotund appearance, Trevor ‘Bubbles’ Obst played 200 games for Port Adelaide between 1959 and 1972. Best remembered as a rebounding back pocket player, he also performed more than serviceably in the forward lines and as a rover, as well as across half back. 

He represented his state half a dozen times and was a member of four Magpie premiership teams, but his greatest achievement was winning the 1967 Magarey Medal. Permanent defenders do not typically fare well in best and fairest counts, and Obst’s name did not feature prominently in pre-count speculation, but his dashing, tearaway style was singularly eye-catching, and his victory was universally acclaimed. 

Two years after his Medal win, Obst arguably displayed even more eye catching and consistent form in a Port Adelaide team that suffered the almost unprecedented ignominy of failing to qualify for the finals. His prowess was rewarded with selection in the back pocket in the prestigious ‘Advertiser’ Team of the Year.

Author - John Devaney