Matthew Robran

Biography

AFC Debut Number: 50               AFC Debut Game:  Round 5 v Melbourne, 1993

AFC Career Guernsey Number: 5   1993-6  41 games,   10   1997-2001  89 games

Matthew Robran’s football career reflected how the South Australian football landscape changed in a generation. His father Barrie was a triple Magarey Medallist widely regarded as SA’s greatest footballer, spent all his 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 SCG 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. He was named as CHF in the AFC Team of the Decade 1991-2000. Post retirement he worked for the Club in a variety of administrative roles.

In 2021 he was selected as centre half forward in Adelaide’s “The Best 22 of 30 Years”.