Relton Roberts: Inside the Burunga Bullet’s rise to the AFL and why his career didn’t work out

Most know Relton Roberts as the Barunga Bullet. Or, because he was caught eating a burger before a VFL game. But as TIM MICHELL discovers, the cult hero’s story is an all-too familiar tale of unfulfilled talent.

Relton Roberts’ AFL career lasted two games for Richmond after debuting in 2010.

They called him the Barunga Bullet. He preferred the Ngandi Storm.

Relton Roberts shot onto the AFL scene in 2010, debuting for Richmond in front of more than 70,000 spectators at the MCG.

It was a world away from Ngukurr, the remote Aboriginal community home to about 1000 people 300km southeast of Katherine, which Roberts called home.

Then 24, he had made his name as a prodigious talent in the Northern Territory Football League with Darwin-based Wanderers and for NT Thunder in the QAFL.

Stories abound that Roberts would lace-out teammates from 50m with little fuss – with either foot. Grainy footage is still available that showcases his undeniable skillset.

Online forums labelled him a “freak of a player” who “had the ball on a string”.

Some opined Roberts was the greatest talent the Northern Territory had produced since Australian football hall of famer Maurice Rioli.

Relton Roberts dives for a mark while playing interleague football for the Goulburn Valley league.

Eventually, AFL clubs caught wind of his talents and scouts were circling by 2008, when Roberts signed to play in Euroa, a small town about 160km northeast of Melbourne.

The Euroa Magpies play in one of Victoria’s premier country leagues – the Goulburn Valley – which regularly attracts ex-AFL players to Shepparton and its surrounds.

Before long, it was clear Roberts was one of the best players to pull on the black and white jumper of Euroa, let alone one of the premier footballers in the GVFL that year.

“I played 365 games at Euroa and played a lot of footy with a lot of blokes, (but) Relton was the most talented footballer I played with. No shadow of a doubt,” Euroa president Scott Watson said.

Watson remembers a night when, after training, Roberts and fellow Indigenous recruit Rowan Bonson asked him to help with goalkicking practice.

“I used to play at fullback so I just kicked the ball out for the boys,” he said.

“If he (Roberts) wasn’t kicking spirals from inside our centre square through at goalpost height, I’ll go he.

“Without embellishing, I reckon he could do it on either foot. He was unbelievable.”

Relton Roberts before making his comeback for Wanderers after his time at Richmond ended.

Roberts at Richmond training in 2010.

Roberts’ incredible football gifts have been lost among the many tall tales about his brief time as an AFL player at Richmond.

Most fans will tell you they’ve heard his name, but only because he was once caught on television cameras eating a burger before playing a game for Richmond’s then VFL-affiliate Coburg.

“I thought to myself, ‘Oh Relton’,” Watson said. “It wasn’t a good look, but I don’t think it would have affected him much. Even in VFL footy he still would’ve run rings around them.”

His captain that day – Coburg great Nick Carnell – confirmed the infamous burger story was true. But he added: “In the same breath, (Roberts) probably kicked four goals that day and took the piss out of everyone.”

The burger incident prompted questions about Roberts’ professionalism and whether he was cut-out for the elite level.

In December of his first and only pre-season at Punt Rd, Roberts told NT News stalwart Grey Morris: “It was good meeting the people, but I found the training hard when I first got there. In the AFL, you train like you play – flat out – so it took a bit of getting used to.”

Relton Roberts playing for Coburg in 2010.

Roberts was drafted after a dominant season playing for Euroa. Picture: Shepparton News

It was perhaps the first sign Roberts’ AFL sojourn would be challenging.

“I didn’t so much have high hopes, but I thought he would last a bit longer (and that) he could go a bit further than what he did,” Roberts’ Wanderers coach Paul Motlop said.

“I thought he certainly had the goods to be able to do it. But I was quite happy he did get drafted. He did come from a community out at Barunga. It’s a long way off Melbourne and Sydney. And Darwin is a little bit of a country town, compared to those cities.”

By July – barely seven months after he was selected with pick 38 in the rookie draft – Roberts returned to the Northern Territory citing homesickness.

“Relton has found the relocation to Melbourne difficult and both he and the club felt he needed some time away to consider if he wants to pursue a football career,” Richmond’s then football manager Craig Cameron said.

Roberts would never return, instead joining the list of gifted Indigenous footballers who were ill-equipped for the demands of AFL football.

“Family means everything to Aboriginal people,” Wanderers president Mark Motlop said. “Particularly communities. Your community is your family and (in Melbourne) you’re 2000 miles away and you’re on your own.

“At that time, I think, when Relton was recruited, he was a sole pick-up (from the Northern Territory). He was by himself. There’s loneliness there with no family. (We) certainly knew that he could rise to that level and play at that level. Just staying there was going to be the big question mark.”

Within a few months, Roberts was delisted by the Tigers and his AFL career was over after two games – including the 2010 season opener where he ran out alongside Dustin Martin.

The back page of the Herald Sun that Thursday featured the headline, ‘Welcome to the big time’ with a picture of Roberts, Martin, Ben Nason and Mitch Farmer at Punt Rd.

The Herald Sun's back page featuring Richmond's 2010 round 1 debutants, including Relton Roberts and Dustin Martin

The back page of the NT News on the day after Roberts was drafted to Richmond

Martin, the boy from Castlemaine drafted at pick No.3, led the debutants with 18 disposals in his first game in yellow and black. Roberts managed seven disposals and a behind.

Then-Richmond coach Damien Hardwick told reporters Roberts “did some nice things” and was “going to be an exciting player”.

The Tigers had earlier hailed Roberts as “arguably the biggest success story of the summer”.

But by round 10, Martin was a rising star nominee and Roberts was toiling at suburban grounds with Coburg. Martin would go on to become a Richmond legend, three-time premiership hero and arguably the greatest player of footy’s modern era.

Roberts would play only a handful of state league games before returning to the Top End.

“He came back and lost a bit of that drive that had him going earlier, that made him what he was,” Paul Motlop said. “He wasn’t as committed or as (hungry) as he was in his football.

“There probably wasn’t enough awareness of what’s required to help those fellas from those communities come through in big cities.

“I reckon now – if he got drafted – he’d be a big name down there for sure.”

Roberts playing in the NTFL for Southern Districts.

Relton Roberts races away from Palmerston's Andrew Watson during a NTFL match.

Mark Motlop adds: “You could see the difference in him. But like any kid that finishes their career, or it gets cut short, there’s emptiness there. They’re trying to fit back in.

“As (good as) the AFL have been in recruiting players (to play) league footy, there’s no afterlife (post-career). I believe it’s getting better now, but at that time there was no programs to see how they’re going when they finish.

“That’s not just Relton. This is every kid. He probably got lost a bit. You could see that he was a different player, definitely. You just wonder how long he could have stayed in the system had they had (support) programs much better, back then.”

In 2021, the AFL mandated every club to employ an Indigenous player development manager.

More than half of the league’s clubs reportedly did not have a specific staff member in place to support Indigenous players.

Relton Roberts after being named best on ground in the Big Rivers Football League Grand Final.

In addition, the AFL Players Association employs an Indigenous relationships manager, which it says “provides dedicated one-on-one support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players” and makes AFLPA regional managers available to every club.

“You know that kids have got obviously the skill and footy nous to play at higher levels,” Mark Motlop said.

“I thought (Roberts) could play at the higher level, given the opportunity (and support).

“But it was, at that time, a concern for everybody about kids with community backgrounds, if they could stay away from Darwin and their home, to really succeed (at AFL level).”

Roberts’ legend has only grown in the 15 years since his all-too-brief AFL career.

The now 38-year-old was back playing for Wanderers by the end of 2010.

He has become a local footy journeyman in the years since, kicking four goals in a cameo in the Kimberley region in 2018, turning out for NSW country town Walla Walla in the Hume league and spending three seasons in country Victoria with Ouyen United.

“He’d sit there and he’d do nothing for 10 minutes. Then all of a sudden in two minutes he’d kick three goals,” Roberts’ Walla Walla teammate Jeremy Mott said. “He was just explosive. Unbelievably talented. He just read it that well. It was nothing for him.”

His time at Ouyen, a town in Victoria’s northwest known for its vast wheat fields and sheep grazing with a population of about 1000, could hardly have been further from the bright lights of the MCG, finishing with a reserves premiership in 2017.

Relton Roberts (centre) and the 2017 Ouyen United premiership team

Roberts flies high for a mark while playing for the GVFL.

He also turned out for Cairns City Lions, Port Douglas Crocs and the Arnhem Crows.

Like many, Carnell wonders what might have become of Roberts’ AFL career.

“It’s obviously such a significant cultural shift away from family and the professionalism and the standards (at AFL level), it sometimes can crush natural ability,” he said.

“Maybe the attention and the demands of what the AFL requires – somehow we have just got to figure out how to just let the natural flair (show). That’s why they have come down in the first place right?”

Carnell says he hopes Roberts is “still getting a kick somewhere”.

“It was just all natural ability – he oozed it. He was a talent, that’s for sure,” he said.

Roberts has dabbled in music and art since fading from the AFL spotlight, winning a NAIDOC Award in 2018. He is believed to be living in the Northern Territory, but even those who knew him during his playing days find Roberts to be elusive. He declined to be interviewed for this story. In some ways, it only serves to add to his enigma.

Originally published as Relton Roberts: Inside the Burunga Bullet’s rise to the AFL and why his career didn’t work out