His father Barrie, a triple Magarey Medallist widely regarded as SA’s greatest footballer, spent his entire league career at North Adelaide where he played in two premierships and was a seven-time club champion.
Matthew started his SANFL career with Norwood in 1989, finished high in the Magarey Medal count in 1990 and then in 1991 joined Hawthorn, where he made his AFL debut the same night Adelaide entered the national competition. He played seven games for the Hawks but then decided to return to South Australia.
However, before Matthew was traded to Adelaide he was forced to sit out the entire 1992 season. Remarkably, Hawthorn used the draft pick they received for Matthew to draft his younger brother Jonathon, who played 75 games for the Hawks and then eight games for Essendon. Matthew played nine games for the Crows in 1993 but a broken leg suffered at the Sydney Cricket Ground kept him out of the side until 1995.
By 1996 he was an important contributor at centre half-forward, finishing fourth in the club champion voting and winning the Best Team Man award. He played the same role in the club’s 1997 and 1998 premiership campaigns, kicking a career-best six goals in the 1998 preliminary final win over the Western Bulldogs. Robran finally played his 100th AFL game in 1999 and retired at the end of 2001 because of a back injury.
Robran has worked for the Club since his retirement, first as Communications Coordinator and now as Events Manager.
Matthew Robran at the Crows
Guernsey number: 5 and 10.
Crows debut: Round 5 v Melbourne, 1993
AFC games: 130 AFC goals: 110
Recruited from: Hawthorn.
Trade from Hawthorn for pick 11, 1992 national draft.
DOB: March 19, 1971
Random info:
• Robran polled a Brownlow Medal vote (at Hawthorn) in his first complete AFL game.
• He played in a semi-final with Hawthorn in 1991 but was left out of the grand final side
• At Adelaide he wore No 5 in his first four years at the Club, before switching to No 10 which had been worn by inaugural Crows captain Chris McDermott. This was also the number Matthew’s father Barrie had worn.
Crows career:
Year | Games |
1993 | 9 |
1994 | 0 |
1995 | 11 |
1996 | 21 |
1997 | 19 |
1998 | 18 |
1999 | 16 |
2000 | 21 |
2001 | 15 |
