‘The day my heart broke’: St Kilda defender Dylan Roberton opens up on dramatic on-field collapse
ST KILDA teammates feared they’d just seen their mate die on the footy field as Dylan Roberton collapsed during a match last year. The AFL star has opened up for the first time about the terrifying collapse that shocked the football world.
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ST KILDA defender Dylan Roberton has opened up for the first time about his dramatic on-field collapse that shocked the football world and threatened to end his AFL career.
More than four months after the sickening incident, Roberton is fighting back and desperate to play football again.
Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald Sun, the 27-year-old expressed gratitude to his family and the Saints for helping him through the toughest period of his life.
ST KILDA DEFENDER DYLAN ROBERTON COLLAPSES
ROBERTON TO MISS REST OF SEASON AFTER HEART SCARE
His collapse came only a few minutes into the second quarter of St Kilda’s Round 4 clash with Geelong at GMHBA Stadium.
He was a long way off the ball when he suddenly felt dizzy. He doesn’t recall what happened next, though he has seen the frightening vision several times, viewing it almost as if it happened to another person. His eyes rolled unnaturally; he stumbled and fell to the ground.
“I remember going really dizzy and that’s about it,” Roberton said. “The next thing I saw the physios and they were sort of saying ‘stay down’.
“I’ve seen it a couple of times since … seeing the reaction (of teammates), I would have been freaking out if it had happened to someone else.”
From the moment the electrical currents of his heart momentarily switched his lights out, it set off a chain reaction. Teammate Jack Newnes called for assistance, fearing the worst; players rushed to his side; his partner Amy watched in disbelief on television.
DYLAN ROBERTON HAS FOUND HIS PLACE AT ST KILDA
“Jack Newnes said it was like he was gone, then something just clicked like a light switch and his heart kicked back into gear and he came to,” St Kilda’s runner Tony Brown said. “Everyone was very, very nervous for a period of time.”
“It sent a shock through everyone at the club, no more so than his partner and his kids.”
Roberton didn’t know it at the time, but Amy was already on her way to Geelong by the time he was “hooked up” to a heart monitor.
“There was a fair bit going on (with the heart),” he said. “Amy was freaking out. Her phone was going off … the club called her. She dropped the kids (Boston, 5, Henry, 4, and Pip, 3) to their grandparents’ house, and was on her way.”
As shocked teammates tried to regain composure, Roberton was taken to hospital. Amy made it to his bedside just before coach Alan Richardson and Brown came in after the loss.
Yet it was two weeks before the gravity of his situation truly sunk in.
That came when leading cardiologist, Professor Jonathan Kalman, told him his football career was most likely over. He was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) — an abnormally fast heart rhythm caused by improper electrical activity — and told he needed three months’ rest.
“Your heart has got like an electrical current which makes everything work, and it comes from one little spot,” Roberton explained.
“When I was running (in an exercise test) it was picking up other spots that were interfering.
“There is a procedure where they can zap the area where the extra beats are coming from. If there are two or three areas they can do it, but (the cardiologist) stopped counting at about 12. He said (zapping them all) would be damaging too much of the heart … it would be useless.”
That’s when it became “scary” for Roberton: “It obviously smacks you in the face … it is pretty shocking.
“It is probably not (a cardiologist’s) job to get me back playing footy — they just want to keep me alive. They prepare you for the worst, then our doctors (Tim Barbour and Ian Stone) were great at reassuring me we would turn over every stone (to play again).”
He had a device inserted into his chest — the size of a pen lid — to monitor his heart.
He and Brown researched sportsmen — one from country Victoria, another from English Premier League — who had returned from SVT issues.
“I don’t think he has ever believed he has played his last game,” Brown said.
The hardest part was his kids seeing him in hospital, although they relished the ice cream and jelly, and joked he looked like “a robot” with wires attached.
Amy and his mother, Amanda, were with him every step of the way, as were medical staff. He describes player development manager Brown as “one of the best blokes at the club”, and had great support from Richardson and his teammates.
“Richo pretty much came to me and said ‘You are not going to play for us this year, but we need your help’,” Robertson said.
He has since worked in a coaching role, spending time in the box and on the interchange bench.
Having had inflammation of the heart, he underwent a course of steroids, cortisone and anti-inflammatories which brought significant improvement.
That allowed a return to full training — minus the body contact — in early July. The roar of teammates after he took part in his first, slow jog showed what he meant to them.
He hopes to be off the medication within a month with more tests to see if the inflammation has gone and if his heart’s efficiency continues to improve.
The doctors have told him — barring any unexpected hurdles — he should be back in full training by day one of pre-season.
“Richo and the boys were massive for me,” he said. “They kept my mind off things and gave me something to do. I think this is going to make me a better player and hopefully a better leader.”
ROBERTSON VOWS TO RETURN IN THE PRE-SEASON
ST KILDA leadership group member Dylan Roberton remains committed to playing next season, saying an enforced lay-off following his dramatic collapse in Round 4 could extend his career.
Roberton, 27, was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) — an abnormally fast heart rhythm caused by improper electrical activity — in the weeks after the frightening incident mid-match against Geelong.
His cardiologist warned Roberton he might never play football again.
But after a diligent treatment and recovery program, a recent increase in his aerobic fitness and significant improvement in his heart efficiency, Roberton has tentatively been given the green light to resume full training at the start of pre-season.
“I’ll be there,” Roberton told the Sunday Herald Sun when talking about the preseason. “They have pretty much said to me, ‘You will be training day one of the pre-season if everything keeps going the way it is now’.
“I have been getting smashed in terms of fitness now (minus the contact work) and it (the heart condition) has been getting better. The medication is on the way out.
“It shows that it was just a random thing.”
The father of three children said the support of his partner, Amy, in him committing to return to football was essential
“She was obviously devastated with what happened,” he said. ”But she knows what playing footy means to me. I just want to get back out there.”
During his lay-off, the Saints defender, who is considered a future captain, spent a lot of time with teammate Koby Stevens, who was dealing with a career-threatening concussion issue.
The pair made a pledge to resume their careers, and with Stevens forced into retirement, Roberton said he wanted his comeback to be for his former teammate, as well.
“We talked about how good it was going to be to be back playing together, and unfortunately that’s not going to happen now,” Roberton said.
“I am obviously a lot luckier than him, so I feel a bit for him as well.”
St Kilda welfare and development manager Tony Brown said: “For Dylan to be there on day one of pre-season would be a massive best case scenario.
“I don’t think he ever believed he had played his last game because he has been so positive through it.”
Brown said Roberton — nominated in the All-Australian top 40 last year and runner-up in the Saints’ best-and- fairest in 2017 — had left “a massive hole” with his absence for much of this season.
Roberton said his time away from playing had given his body some respite, and he hoped it would allow him to play more football than he had anticipated at the time of his collapse.
“It does give your body a chance to free up a bit, with your joints,” he said.
“I have had some pretty crook ankles, so they are feeling really good at the moment. I have been trying to look for the positives.
“Even when Jake (Carlisle) missed that year (2016, due to the Essendon drugs suspension), he was sort of looking at it as if instead of at 32, he might finish at 33. That’s the way I am looking at it, too. I definitely feel a lot fresher.”
He has also found a career path for the future, relishing a defacto assistant coaching role he has played — in the coaches’ box and on the interchange bench on game days — as well as working with the Year 9 and 10 football teams at Haileybury Collage.
“I’ve loved it,” Roberton said. “If there is anything I can get out of this year, it is that I want to make coaching a part of my future.”
His more immediate focus is assisting the Saints end this season on a high from a coaching perspective and then, hopefully, pushing them towards the finals next season.
“It’s been a tough year for the club,” he said. “There is going to be a bit to do in the pre-season and hopefully we will get a few blokes in. That’s always been the plan.”
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