Mitch Robinson opens up on leaving Carlton, the text message that sparked big change, and loving life at the Lions
Mitch Robinson says he’s not a wild child, he’s just made some ‘dumb choices’. After a brawl at the Big Day Out led to his departure from Carlton, a raw message from his mother set the scene for a second chance at the Lions. Read his brutally honest conversation with Mark Robinson.
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Mitch Robinson’s reputation preceded him when he met with other clubs after being delisted by Carlton.
But although he admits he is “a bit crazy”, perception isn’t always reality.
In a Q&A with Mark Robinson, the Brisbane brawler opens up about the “dumb choices” he made early in his career, his departure from Carlton, his running feud with Joel Selwood and how Brett Ratten’s sacking ruined the Blues.
Q&A WITH MITCH ROBINSON
MARK ROBINSON: Why do you like violence, Mitch?
MITCH ROBINSON: What a way to start … I wouldn’t say violence, but I guess it’s the way I’ve been brought up in terms of watching footy. I love the hard stuff, I like the big hits and to me, growing up, that’s what made you a man. The contact separated the men from the boys.
MR: Didn’t you say today’s football was ‘piss weak’?
Mitch: Yes. And it is. Players now scuffle and you know they’re not going to punch you. But as you grow up, you realise that’s not the be all of footy. Being tough now is putting your head over the ball and hitting them fair. As much as I’d love to get into ice hockey-type fights, it’s not a thing in our game anymore.
MR: This week I watched a doco about enforcers and goons in ice hockey …
Mitch: If I was in America or Canada or Russia, I’d be an ice hockey player.
MR: A goon?
Mitch: 100 per cent.
Robbo throwing the mouthguard 👀#AFLDonsLions pic.twitter.com/24YMELg0YB
— 7AFL (@7AFL) July 31, 2020
MR: Do you think there’s players with big mouths who get away with being a big mouth?
Mitch: 100 per cent. There’s talk right now with Tom Papley and taunting. Leigh Montagna said this week there should be a taunting rule. That’s kind of stupid to say that, but no doubt players can get under your skin. We suss out teams about who you can mentally break in games. For example, we know Heath Shaw likes to fire up and we try to take him off his game, and teams have used that against me in the past.
MR: Why do you think you’re tough?
Mitch: Because I’m not the most skilful player. I’ve built my game on winning the hard ball and tackling and wanting to hurt the opposition. I don’t know, like, on Sunday, there was a scuffle and Clayton Oliver pulled me aside and said, ‘Don’t get in there, you’re too scary’. I know he was joking, but I enjoy the reputation. But you also have to back it up. It makes my family proud that they’ve raised a son who could play footy for this many games and also be regarded as a tough player. This will sound wanky, but I’ve hated I haven’t been voted the most courageous in my whole career. I came second last year and it’s something I’ve always wanted. It annoys me.
MR: Any player gone after you about your ADHD?
Mitch: Yes, Steve Johnson. It was OK. He had a go at me for how fast I was talking. It wasn’t really a taunt, it was just that I’m erratic. We were going at each other and he said he couldn’t understand me because I talk too fast. It was a fair comment because 100 per cent I do. It was funny because he talks as much as sh*t as me.
MR: Plenty of players have played 200 games, a few have played 100 games at two clubs, not many have achieved it with ADHD. How proud?
Mitch: After I got delisted from Carlton in 2014, I wouldn’t have thought I’d have the career I’ve had. Being delisted and the feeling of that … I knew I had footy in me and all I needed was new scenery and a mental check. I just had to change a lot of things, like family members and friends I was hanging out with, and getting out of the Melbourne bubble. If it wasn’t for Greg Swann (Lions CEO) I wouldn’t be here today and be able to support my family.
MR: Give up family members in Melbourne? Bad influence from them or from you?
Mitch: The family I’m from are very tight knit and we’re from Hobart and I’m not going to say there was fighting and violence, but that was the perception of the Robinson family. When I left for Melbourne and got away from that, my two brothers followed me and I was supporting them through my whole career there. Then sh*t hit the fan. There were things going on in my household that shouldn’t have been happening, and I didn’t realise it could put my career in jeopardy. When we had a falling out, and I called them out on it, that’s when I had to get out of Melbourne.
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MR: You guys OK now?
Mitch: Yeah. There were a lot of drugs going through their lives, which could’ve impacted mine.
MR: Have you a good life or a challenging life?
Mitch: I’ve had a great life. For me, the public perception is this dumb footballer who gets into fights at the Big Day Out, all that stuff, and they don’t know who you actually are. No offence, but I’ve always blamed the media for that perception. But you guys are only reporting what’s happening and once you accept that, well, maybe it’s you making the dumb choices. There was a perception I was a wild child, but in reality I wasn’t.
MR: What’s the best thing the media has said about you?
Mitch: You know what, in 2011 you wrote I was one of the most improved players in the competition. I still remember that.
MR: And now you’re a best-and-fairest winner at your second club.
Mitch: Yeah, my first year at my second club. I was out to prove people wrong, I had a massive chip on my shoulder, I was angry against the world. I just wanted Swanny and the others not to regret they picked me up and I wanted to rub salt into the wound at the Blues. But now I’m so happy for Carlton and the opportunity they gave me and I wish I could go back and change a lot of things. I didn’t give them the best Mitch Robbo that’s for sure.
MR: What’s the worst that’s been written about you?
Mitch: There’ve been a few, but the day after I was delisted or maybe it was the Big Day Out fight, my mum texted me and said how embarrassed she was to have the same last name as me. Something was written about me in a Tassie paper and the Robinson name … my mum is a Jehovah’s Witness lady and she was very embarrassed and disappointed. So, I’ve made it my goal to make my parents proud since that day.
MR: Can you remember the exact moment you received the text from mum?
Mitch: I can remember it clear as day. She texted: ‘What are you going to do with your life?’ When she said that, like, it was a massive heartache. I’ve got all this written in my diary. I’ve been writing in it since 2011. Depending on how the career pans out I wouldn’t mind writing a book.
MR: About what in particular?
Mitch: About everything, a second chance. When I got to Brisbane I started a program for juvenile kids. I went to a lot of rugby clubs and detention centres to talk about second chances. I had it all type-of-thing – a car, a house, playing for one of the big clubs. And about how doing things can have everything taken away in a heartbeat.
MR: You’re 31, you have a family, two kids, you’re community minded, a professional gamer … what happens after footy?
Mitch: I’m signed until the end of next year, but post footy, what I want to do is be a player manager. I’ve been through everything pretty much and as soon as I got delisted, I thought, ‘How can I help players who have been through what I’ve been through?’. I’ve done a business course, I’ve got my full real estate licence, a sports journalism degree.
MR: Describe yourself?
Mitch: I was going to ask you to describe me.
MR: Your commitment to the ball and to your teammates is first class. I don’t know what life is like having ADHD, but you have got your life and career together. Describe yourself?
Mitch: Passionate. Everything I do I’m passionate about. I’ve said before I would die for my teammates. When I run on to the field, I picture in my head doing a goal-saving tackle, backing back with the flight, that’s how I envision myself on the field. All I care about off-field is family.
MR: Are you a lucky footballer or have you made your own luck?
Mitch: Definitely made my own luck. People don’t see you as a blessed footballer, they see you, not as a goon, but a loose cannon. That he was battler. In the off-season I work my arse off. Even at 31, I’m pretty sure I still have the best rig at the club — no, Stef Martin has — and in games I will run as long and as hard as I can. No, I’ve earned these 200 games.
MR: I have been told you don’t drink anymore.
Mitch: I had a drink after the GWS game, but I really don’t drink anymore. I used to have FOMO, a Fear of Missing Out.
MR: Alcohol and drugs for you early in your career?
Mitch: No. It’s funny, I was talking to Adelaide after I was delisted by Carton and they thought I was a full-blown drug addict. That’s never been a thing for me. It’s my personality. When I’m drunk, I’m erratic and a bit crazy and everyone thinks I’m probably off my head. But I’ve never been that guy.
MR: A lot of people say their partner has been unbelievable for them …
Mitch: But do they mean it? Honestly, without Emma, I probably would’ve been locked up at some stage. I can’t explain it. Some of the sh*t she’s put up with, especially those early days at the Blues. After I met her, I played the best game of my life, against Port Adelaide, I had 30-odd and a goal over there in the wet. And she came around that night with my birthday present and after two weeks she moved in. We’ve been together ever since. She’s done so much for our family. My body is covered with family tattoos.
MR: OK, that’s it.
Mitch: No, let me ask you some questions. If you weren’t a journo, what would you be?
MR: I’d like to be ranger on a game reserve in Tanzania. A pipe dream.
Mitch: That’s different. What’s been the rule in the AFL you have not liked?
MR: Hands in the back. Strength in contests and holding your position is a crucial part of the game. It was a stupid rule. You?
Mitch: Below the knee rule. It’s slowly coming back to normality. Don’t penalise players who dive at the ball because they want to win it more. Has there been an article someone has told you to write and you didn’t want to write and it’s been published.
MR: Can’t think of one. You can’t write a decent analysis or opinion piece if you don’t believe what you’re arguing. I reckon readers would see straight through you if your heart wasn’t in your argument. Who’s your favourite player?
Mitch: Michael Walters. All-time favourite player is Daryn Cresswell. Mum and dad baby sat him and he was my idol. I would send him cards and he would reply to me. Who’s your all-time favourite player and your favourite current-day player.
MR: My two faves in recent years are Luke Hodge and Joel Selwood. The combination of toughness, commitment and leadership is rare. My fave as a lad was Essendon’s Merv Neagle. Loved him. Tough. Played wing like you.
Mitch: I don’t like Selwood. What happens on the field stays on the field, but Selwood would know why. Will leave it at that.
MR: No worries.
Mitch: Do you like your last name?
MR: Not much we can do about it, Mitch, but, yeah. It makes the nickname easy.
Mitch: My name is Mitchell Robert Robinson. I was Robbo from birth.
MR: I reckon people will be rapt for you. Delisted from Blues, played 200 games, family, kids, and teammates love you.
Mitch: That’s what’s on my tombstone: I’d die for my teammates. Opposition might hate him, but they would love him on their team.
SACKING RATTEN RUINED BLUES
Former Blue Mitch Robinson says the 2012 sacking of Brett Ratten “ruined” Carlton.
Ratten was replaced by premiership coach Mick Malthouse, a move that had Robinson hating football for the next two years.
Robinson was delisted by the Blues at the end of the tumultuous 2014 season.
On Friday, he plays his 200th game – and his 100th games for the Lions – and has been recognised as the poster boy for second-chance players.
Conceding the Blues didn’t get the “best of Mitch Robbo”, he said Ratten’s sacking was the start of the end for him at the club.
“I wish I could go back in time and understand how good ‘Ratts’ was,’’ Robinson told the Herald Sun.
“Him being cut by the club ruined the Carlton footy club at the time and you can write that as much as you like. He was so good to us.
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“He probably could’ve delegated a little bit more, but his footy brain was one of the smartest I’ve seen from any coach.
“The only thing he struggled with was the relationship side in terms of getting to know you and what makes you tick. He loved footy and always talked about footy.
“He was unfairly sacked. When he left, my love for the club deteriorated and when Malthouse came in I just hated playing.’’
The hard nut played 21 games under Malthouse in 2013 and only 12 in 2014 as off-field issues and on-field ill discipline dragged Robinson to the lowest point of his career.
He said he rejected a two-year contract offer from the Blues, who later withdrew the offer and delisted him.
He spoke to Adelaide and Richmond, before Lions chief executive Greg Swann and then Lions coach Justin Leppitsch gave him a lifeline.
“It’s tough to talk about Malthouse because when I talk about him, it’s always negative,’’ Robinson said.
Asked why the negativity, he said: “For a boss, for someone who looks after you as a coach, there was no positivity from the get-go.
“One of our first meetings didn’t go well. The fight at the Big Day Out just happened in January and I’m pretty sure he broke his finger when he slammed his hand on the table when he was spraying me on the Monday afterwards.
“I don’t think the respect went either way at the time.
“You had to respect him for his runs on the board and what he had done at Collingwood, but I just hated going to the club for two years.
“Then when Eddie (Betts) left, I was done. I was asking to go with Eddie to Adelaide, a two-for-one deal, I just wanted to get out.’’
The talks with Adelaide were confronting.
He said the Crows thought he was a “full-blown drug addict’’, before Richmond offered him a one-year deal on “below rookie wages’’, which he rejected.
Robinson said he had a super relationship with his first coach at Brisbane Leppitsch – Robinson shared the best and fairest in first season – and that current coach Chris Fagan was next-level special.
“I call him dad,” he said.
“Absolutely love the bloke.”
Originally published as Mitch Robinson opens up on leaving Carlton, the text message that sparked big change, and loving life at the Lions