{xtypo_dropcap}F{/xtypo_dropcap}ootballers tread a variety of paths on the road to league football.

Most have an ambition to play at the highest level, making the grade with perseverence and dedication, while others are targeted by club recruiting scouts because of junior achievements or skill.

One of the best back pocket players ever to play in Western Australia was not only a reluctant recruit, but wasn't even playing the game when he made up the numbers for a scratch match for a club he never played for again.And his migration to the back line was also by chance.

“I had been playing with Jardee(near Manjimup) from the age of sixteen in the seniors, and I said to Dad one day in 1958 as a seventeen year old: “Bugger this, I'm getting belted around by these blokes on gravel footy fields, I'm not enjoying it much,” Bob recalled. “Local girl, Lynette Ipsen, had just won the State Amateur Golf Championship, and I wanted to try the game.”

“I took my handicap down from thirty six to sixteen in that year.”

“One Friday night in early 1959, I ran into Ray Giblett in the pub. He told me he was going to have a run with Perth in a scratch match, and asked if I'd like to come along and share the driving. So off we went, staying at the Bedford Hotel in Murray Street, and Ray fronted up for the game at Perth Oval, against East Perth. Perth found they were one short for the seconds game, so Gibbo said to Perth coach Ern Henfry: “me mate'll have a game.” I had to scrounge a pair of boots.”

After the game we ran into another Manjimup lad, Charlie Walker, who asked us what we were doing. “Don't play with them,” he said. “Come and play with me at the Royals.”

And so it was that Bob Graham and Ray Giblett lined up with East Perth reserves the following week.

It was to be the beginning of a fine career for Bob “Dobbie” Graham. He went on to play two hundred and eleven games for East Perth and was a member of the legendary Brisbane Carnival side, representing Western Australia on eleven occasions.

The son of a timber faller, Bob Graham snr, who is credited as being the first to use a chain saw to fell trees, along with partner George Dare, Bob got one thing out of the way early in our chat. “My nickname,” he laughed. “It had nothing to do with dobbing anyone in at footy, sorry to ruin a good yarn. My little cousin couldn't pronounce Bobbie properly so I got Dobbie.”

Graham played fourteen games with East Perth in his first season, in 1959.

The side made the grand final, and, after being included in the squad of twenty one for the game, he was told five minutes prior to the side taking the field that, as he was eligible for the colts, who were playing in the grand final the following day, he'd been left out of the twenty. As shattered as he felt, Graham at the time wasn't to know just how big a blow it was. He went on to play in six league grand finals without tasting premiership success.

East Perth took the flag that year, but the colts lost.

A natural footballer, “Dobbie” Graham was a short, robust player who could kick both feet, and his deft use of handball complemented coach Jack Sheedy's game plan. A natural right footer, he could also kick with his left, and his ability to handball off his left hand confused many an opposition player. East Perth were endowed with a continuous supply of top quality centremen through the fifties and sixties, with players such as Tommy Everett, Tony Bellos, and Don Marinko, who transferred from West Perth and won a fairest and best, so Graham had to be content as a half forward.

Graham didn't go anywhere near the back line until the pre season of 1961.

“It was in a pre season scratch match at Inglewood Oval,” Bob recalled. “We had a bloke coming up from the country that we were going to play there, but he never turned up. Sheedy turned to me and said: “You can play back pocket for half a game.” Wattsy piped up and said: “It's easy, just stand behind me, you'll have nothing to do, I'll mark it every time.”

“Let me tell you, I had a ball, picking up Wattsy's dropped marks, and was best on ground. I always remind Wattsie that he made me a State player.”

Graham's evolvement as a back pocket player progressed so quickly he was named in the State side for the 1961 Brisbane Carnival. “We'd backed ourselves to beat South Australia in the first game,” he said. “We got well beaten. But the nine point win over the Vics more than made up for it.”

A loss to Swan Districts in the 1961 grand final, after beating them by forty eight points in the second semi final, followed East Perth's 1960 grand final loss, and set the scene for the sixties for East Perth, who went on to suffer four more bridesmaid tags before winning in 1972, the year after “Dobbie” retired.

In 1963, Graham broke a leg in a game against South Fremantle. “I was in a pack of players contesting a mark, one of whom was John Gerovich,” he recalled. “I reckon I flew higher than I'd done before or since, but came down with a thud. The trainer came out, and Gero said “don't move him, he's broken a leg.” I'm grateful to him for that, because the footy trainers then weren't as skilled as they are now. I had taken the inside knuckle from my shinbone, and was told I wouldn't play again.”

Graham was trying to get into the hospitality industry in 1965, and approached the club for assistance. Unable to receive much joy there, he answered an advertisement from the Boyup Brook Sportsmen's Club, and was appointed secretary-manager. Quickly pounced on by the Boyup Brook Football Club, he captain coached the side in 1966, with a creditable semi final result.

Returning to the Royals in 1967, Graham reclaimed his place in the State side, and played against Victoria on the MCG, was one of Western Australia's best in the seventy four point win over South Australia at Subiaco Oval, and was a regular for the next two seasons.

“Dobbie” Graham retired from league football at the end of the 1971 season, aged twenty nine. “I'd had enough,” he said. “I had business interests I wanted to pursue, and it was time to concentrate on my family and life ahead.” He recalls East Perth propertyman, Paddy Watson, not realising he had just played his last game, saying to him: “Dobbie, I can't find your jumper,” to which he replied: “It's in my bag..don't touch it.”

An East Perth delegate to the WANFL in 1975, Bob Graham served as a State selector for three years.

Back pocket players rarely poll well in fairest and best awards, and Graham was no exception. “I was never invited to a Sandover Medal count,” he said. When the name of Graham, R was on top of the leader board with fourteen votes three quarters of the way through one year's formalities an SOS was sent out for him. Finally located at horse trainer Abo Jordon's residence, “Dobbie” wasn't budging. “I knew I wouldn't have polled well in the last round but they were worried,” he laughed.

It was the same year East Perth Football Club had an incentive scheme in which players were paid a bonus determined by the number of votes they received in the club fairest and best. “After polling fourteen in the Sandover I was hoping for a windfall, but got only one vote, which was worth ten dollars,” Bob lamented.

The man who played on the best in the land, including Victorians Bluey Adams, Billy Goggin, Bob Skilton, and Ted Whitten, went for the local champs, Billy Walker and Barry Cable, as hardest to beat, while plumping for Derek Chadwick, another who never played in a premiership side at league level, as best he'd played with, along with “Polly” Farmer and Malcolm Brown.

Bob Graham has been involved in clubs and pubs for many years, among them being the Western Australian Golf Club, Tatts Club, Scarborough Sportsmens Club, the Carlton Hotel, Continental Hotel, and the Knutsford Arms Hotel. He has had an interest in a few racehorses, the best being Marjebel, who won four races and was placed nine times.

These days he is happily retired at Mandurah, with wife Maureen(formerly Maureen Lalor), who was herself an accomplished sportswoman who represented Western Australia at table tennis and was a member of the State Tennis squad, along with her good friend, Lyn Millard. Maureen played in a mixed pairs event with Roy Emerson, while Lyn partnered Lew Hoad. Son Mark has outstripped Dad on the golf course, boasting a handicap of two and was the inaugural champion at The Cut. President of Mandurah Golf Club, Bob enjoys the company of the many old team mates and opponents alike who have moved to the area.

Bob “Dobbie” Graham was named in East Perth's official “Team of the Century 1945 to 2005,” which was announced in 2006, a well earned honour to one of the club's greatest defenders, which is in itself an achievement, considering the star studded list of backmen to have represented the Royals in that period. The ride to Perth in 1959 became a ride to football stardom for the boy from Jardee.