Griffith Swans great, Sid Robins, remembered as 'nature's gentleman'

The Griffith Swans great passed away on Sunday at the age of 71 and he left his mark on those around him.

Bob Speirs was good mates with Robins for most his life and persuaded the Gammage medal winner to start playing Australian rules.

“Sid was going to play rugby – I think he played soccer the year before,” Speirs remembered.

“He’d never played a game and I played him on the half-back flank.

“I had a bit of a chat with him and said ‘you'll be right’ and after about four games he was telling me what I should be doing.”

Robins played more than 300 games with the Griffith Swans over a decorated career which spanned from 1963-1980.

Four club best and fairest awards along with a number of representative appearances led Speirs to call the centre-half-back, the best player he ever played alongside.

“He was wonderful to play with, he was just a beautiful puncher of the ball,” Speirs said.

“A lot of the time, he'd punch the ball and then go and get it, he was a lot quicker than people thought. You'd get in a bit of a predicament and he'd say, ‘I've got him Bob’.

‘He was just a marvel, he only weighed about 82 kilos but he just beat whichever centre-half forward he played on.”

Speirs and Robins were not only mates on the field but also in life.

“Terrific guy, you couldn't help but like him. Nature's gentleman, you'd never hear him swear around women,” Speirs said.

Robins’ work ethic on the football field crossed over to his working life as well.

“He only had about three jobs in his life, just a magnificent worker. I used to get him to drive trucks at harvest time and if we got a bit of rain, he'd get the clean all the fronts of the truck, he just couldn't stop working,” Spiers said

Robins will be laid to rest on Friday at 1pm at the Griffith Cemetery.