One of the Subiaco Football Club's best ever wingmen, who went on to represent Western Australia and won two club fairest and best awards, originally wanted to play with East Perth. “I tried out at Perth Oval in 1955, but coach Mick Cronan, in his last year as coach of the Royals, told me I wasn't good enough,” Tommy Robbins said. It was a phone call from Subiaco stalwart Seth Parry that resulted in Robbins lining up with Subiaco in the first game of the season, ironically against East Perth. Like many other good players of his era, Robbins was a product of the Victoria Park team in the Cobbers League, where he played as a ten year old, graduating to Metropolitan Juniors. “We had a great junior coach in Alan Falconer, brother of West Perth and Hawthorn player Brian Falconer,” Tom said. As a nineteen year old, Robbins played with Sandovers in the Sunday League. Tom was also a better than average cricketer at a young age, playing first grade with North Perth alongside such players as Fred Buttsworth, Hughie Bevan, Laurie Bandy, and Lou Nathan. A middle order batsman, he decided to concentrate on football when it became apparent that the winter sport was his main forte'. Tom Robbins was a pacy wingman, slightly built at ten and a half stone and five foot eight and a half, but was a diminutive player who tackled strongly, and was a dependable mark. After debuting against the Royals as a rover, Robbins was switched to a wing for the second fixture of the 1956 season, against East Fremantle. “It was the wettest I've ever seen at Subiaco Oval,” he recalled. The weather didn't have an adverse affect on his football, though, because he was named as best on ground, and the wing position became Tom's, playing eighty games straight before a ligament problem laid him low for a few weeks. Robbins made his State debut in his second season, against Victoria, playing on a wing, with West Perth's Don Marinko and East Perth's Paul Seal completing the WA centreline, in a game that the Vics won easily, and he was in the side again the following Tuesday when the two sides played again, this time producing a much closer result, but again in the Big V's favour. Robbins's first and only taste of WANFL finals football came when Subiaco played East Perth in the 1959 grand final, after wiping Perth away in a semi final, kicking a record third quarter tally for a final of sixteen goals eight, but the Royals were a dominant side in the late fifties and they reigned supreme once again. Fairest and best for the Maroons in 1958 and 61, Tom reckons his biggest regret in football was being unable to play in the Brisbane Australian Football Carnival in 1961. “When John Colgan dropped out through injury, I was next in line, but was unable to get away because of work commitments,” he said. Barry Metcalfe, from West Perth was selected to fill Colgan's spot. After 159 league games, Tom Robbins called it quits two games into the 1964 season, at the age of thirty. “Subiaco were struggling, and looking to blood youth, so I decided it was time to get out,” he reflected. After a year at Osborne Park, where his side were runners up for the premiership, he captain coached Armadale for one season. Robbins regarded East Perth's Paul Seal, and Perth's Keith Harper and Barry Cable as hardest to beat, while rating Laurie Kettlewell as the best he played with. A retired accountant, he is now a grandfather of seven. His three boys, Mike, Jason, and Cam, all played football with Wembley Amateurs. These days Tommy's sporting interests are limited to Saturday morning social bowls at Cambridge Bowling Club, and he enjoys the annual holiday at Busselton with wife Joan. Tommy Robbins was recognised when a  Subiaco panel selected a Champion Team of the years 1946 to 76, gaining a place on a wing, alongside two other greats in Cam Blakemore and Wally Martin, and is a life member of the club. He was also in the final squad of fifty from which the Subiaco Team of the Century was chosen. Although playing in an era bereft of premiership success, he is still remembered by the club as one of it's top wingmen.