The Real Rory Lobb: Lauren Wood finds out the truth behind the AFL’s answer to Dennis Rodman
These days, Rory Lobb causes a stir everywhere he goes – on the field, on the street and online. But why does he do it all? In a wide-ranging interview, LAUREN WOOD finds out.
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The hollers and honks come often from cars on Chapel St as Rory Lobb wanders around his neighbourhood.
It’s not his 206cm frame that attracts the eye, nor is feedback from his weekend game their aim.
It’s probably the lobster on his head. Or bright blue buzzcut.
Or is it the club-themed “Woof Woof” adorning his cranium?
All of the above.
He’s become used to it – the AFL’s own Dennis Rodman, at least follicularly, who says the inspiration from the former NBA great is obvious.
“It all started with the bleached hair, I had that for really two years, coming from Freo to Western Bulldogs,” he said, having had a hiatus from any hair-raising over the past 12 months or so.
“My plan was to only do blue for the 100-year celebration game of the Dogs (in round 2). I’m really loving my time here at the Dogs and it’s just such a great culture and an amazing club with amazing history, and I just wanted to do the blue hair for that game.
“After that, I realised it’s pretty hard to get blue out without re-bleaching it. I was thinking I might go back to blond. And then I saw a few things from Dennis Rodman back in the day as I’m loving my basketball lately, because (the NBA) playoffs are starting. So I saw a bit of Dennis Rodman stuff.
“I don’t know where the lobster come from, other than, you know, my last name, and I get called the ‘Lobbster’. I thought it’d be a bit of fun to do a pattern when no one else has ever done it in AFL, so yeah, that’s sort of how it happened.
“Then I realised pretty quickly that I need to wear a hat in public. It was a bit too hot for a hoodie. People knew that I had the lobster on my head, so they’ll be screaming out, ‘Take your hat off and show off the lobster’. So that had to get taken off pretty quickly.”
The reception was “on another level”, he said of the hair art, that as the Herald Sun revealed this week will feature the Good Friday Appeal logo as he rallies for donations for the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Sunday night’s clash against St Kilda marks the first Easter Sunday night bout in a timeslot the Bulldogs are endeavouring to make their own.
The idea is for families to spend Easter together, and then head to the footy, with Lobb’s latest do totally on theme.
Ideas for what could be next for Lobb’s locks flow thick and fast from teammates, but another significant occasion is going to spell the end of Lobb’s lock livery.
His wedding, later this year, to fiancee Lexi Mary – who he said often hasn’t been the biggest fan of the hair hijinks.
“She’s fine with the bleach blond, she likes longer hair that’s brown, like my normal hair,” he laughed.
“She wanted me to grow my hair and I just don’t like it, especially for football. I feel like I like it when I just don’t need to worry about it.
“As much as I am messing with my hair a lot, you know, there’s guys that have ponytails and headbands and all that, and I find that this short buzz is the best haircut for AFL, because you just don’t need to touch your hair throughout the game, getting in your eyes or anything like that.
“Lexi sees the humour in it. She wasn’t too impressed with the lobster on my head – that meant she had to lay in bed with me every night and look at it.”
What Lobb runs with on their post-season wedding day – a small gathering before a bigger jaunt with family and friends in the Maldives – has already been floated.
“I am not allowed to have coloured hair for the wedding photos,” he said.
“And I need to have some decent length in my hair, so I’ll probably have to stop it (the art) maybe halfway through this year.
“I have to cut all the colour out and just let my hair grow back to a normal length and also be natural hair colour, which I’ll probably hopefully I still have hair by the end of this with all the bleach.
“I do have a healthy hairline, the boys like to say, but I’m pushing it to the limit at the moment.”
GETTING SOCIAL
While some players are opting to leave social media or limit their use in a bid to curb trolling or effects on their mental health, Lobb and Mary are leaning right in.
The pair have grown a following of more than 50,000 and 5 million likes on TikTok in particular, where they share everything from “DITL” – day in the life – recipes, fashion and relationship parodies.
While it was finding fun in Lobb’s form slump last year that landed him in the VFL for a period that accelerated things, the defender said it has provided a welcome outlet.
It’s become a platform to share more of his personality and voice.
“I’ve always been pretty reserved in my sport career where, you know, I don’t really say too much and just go about my business,” he said.
“That’s how I am at the club. I get in there and I work as hard as I can. I try to get better at football and do that every day.
“Because of me moving clubs a lot, in the media I was sort of perceived as someone who was a bit sooky, or someone who was unhappy in a way, and for me, (the social media) has actually shed some light on who I am as a person.
“I have really good relationships throughout all the clubs that I’ve been at. This is by far my favourite club that I’ve been at. I’ve got amazing relationships with everyone at this football club and I’ve got to be in a better head space with everything.
“And I feel like a lot of it has come out of the social media and, you know, opening up a lot more to fans and people understanding me more as a person. It’s been really good for me in a way, where people looking into the media as much and sort of they can go and look at what my stuff is, and naturally see who I am, rather than just seeing all the articles and the headlines about me moving clubs or whatever it is.
“They can sort of see what I am like as a person.”
THE FOOTBALL FLOW-ON
Whether it’s the flamboyant hair or lifting the lid on social media, it’s feeling like it’s working for Lobb.
Finding a new home in defence for the Dogs after a Luke Beveridge brainwave midway through last season has given Lobb a new lease on life.
It’s a heady mix he’s not sure he could have handled in his younger years, which included leaving school at the age of 14 amid heavy bullying, working in the Pilbara and Darwin before coming into footy in his late teens.
But it’s all led him here.
“I feel like if (the social media side of things) happened to me when I first got drafted to the Giants in 2013 (then I may not have handled it),” Lobb said.
“Obviously they were a very young club, but you didn’t really get exposed to too much and all that has been able to prepare me for this sort of stuff.
“My previous things that happened when I was young, when I left school after being bullied … I feel like everything sort of has fallen into place and I’m in a great space to sort of be able to handle all of this.
“Everyone’s always going to have an opinion, no matter what, even now, there’s always people having an opinion. But I stay true to myself.
“I stay true to the people in my inner circle at the football club. I’m always making sure that I’m connecting with everyone. I’m feeling really good.
“I love playing AFL, and hopefully I can play for a lot longer, and really sort of bring my personality and really grow the game as much as I can.”
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