Former Football Operations Manager with the West Australian Football Commission, Clint Roberts has earned much respect in football circles for his administrative abilities.The constantly changing times in football present a challenge for those responsible for managing the sport, with the relationships between the different levels combined with the passion and emotion of the game requiring people skills, level headedness, and positive temperament in a competitive environment, and  Roberts’s cool head and objectivity have won him many admirers in the football fraternity in a tumultuous decade in the job. “You can’t get carried away with the emotion of circumstances,” he said. “Decisions need to be made with all outcomes taken into account.”Football has always been part of Roberts’s life.A more than handy player himself, he played a hundred and sixteen games with Perth and twenty five for Subiaco, including two grand finals, and at one stage was seen as a State selection. A late starter in the sport due to his family spending four years in England, he began his football with Canning under thirteens, where local coaches Bob Woods, Dave Roper and Bernie McCoy were able teachers, and  he tied for fairest and best for the Perth Junior Council’s competition with Allan Montgomery in 1975 as a seventeen year old. Having had a few runs with Perth fourths the previous year, Roberts played in the Demons colts side in 1975 and advanced to reserves football in 1976. It was a tough time to crack a game with what was an outstanding Perth combination at the time, and, as a half back competing with players like Ken Inman, Geoff Dickinson, Ray Lawrence, and Colin Lofts, it was mission impossible.  “I thought I’d never get into the seniors,” he said.  He notched up fifty appearances with the twos before being named on the bench for the league side in mid- 1978.On the ground halfway through the match against Swan Districts at half forward, Clint won a berth in the starting eighteen for the East Perth clash the week after, playing on a half back flank opposed to Peter Thorne. “It was a tough initiation,” he recalled. “Thorney was a hard man to catch and he ran all day.”A reliable mark, Roberts developed into a solid defender, and held his spot in the side for that year’s grand final. Favourites for the flag, East Perth prevailed by two points in a game notable for  the display of Perth full forward Peter Bosustow, who bagged seven goals on a wet and blustery day. “That was pure class,” Clint remarked. “Peter was a brilliant player.”It was a downhill spiral for Perth after the 1978 season, the nucleus of their brilliant combination retiring, but for Roberts it was an enjoyable time. The added responsibility brought out his best, and 1979 was a good year for the defender, who had become a back pocket specialist, and was mooted in some quarters as a State possibility. “That was never on,” he laughed. “Steven Curtis had a mortgage on it, and rightfully so.” The Demons rotated coaches in their attempts to reclimb the ladder, with Alan Joyce and Ken Armstrong in the coaching box, before the advent of Mal Brown brought wholesale changes. “Browny, like most coaches, wielded a new broom, and a few of us were moved on,” said Clint.It proved to be a fortuitous decision for Roberts.  Trevor Nisbet was quick to offer Roberts a home at Subiaco, where he soon found himself in the maroon and gold, in a side that finished second on the ladder and played in the 1985 grand final. In another disappointment for Clint, East Fremantle prevailed by five points, giving the defender two grand final appearances for two losses by a total of seven points. After half a dozen games in 1987, beset by recurring hip injuries, the twenty nine year old Roberts retired from league football.   Clint Roberts finally collected not one but two premiership flags at Sunday League club, Osborne Park, where he spent the next five years, under coaches Bob Beecroft and Ed Blackaby, before taking the reins himself with Mosman Park for two seasons. Roberts, who had completed a Sports Science Degree, was already carving a post-playing days career, in charge of WAFL umpires fitness training in 1993, and was Subiaco’s fitness coach in 1994. The inaugural year of the Fremantle Football Club in 1995 saw him involved with Gerard Neesham, Mark Riley, Neil Daniher, and Gerard McNeil in what he says were exciting and enjoyable times.   In 2000, Clint was Tony Micale’s reserves coach at East Perth.They say that behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining.  And so it was at the funeral of beloved and well respected Perth administrator and clubman extraordinaire, Jack O’Dea.“In the subdued atmosphere of the sad occasion, I was walking with Sam Siciliano, who was the WAFL Operations Manager at the time,” Roberts recalled. “He told me he was leaving to go to Europe and they were looking for a replacement. I applied and got the job.”Clint, a handy baseballer and tennis player in his youth, confines his sporting activities these days to an occasional social game of golf, and is a dab hand on the piano and guitar. He and wife Sandy, herself a football girl thanks to father Roy “Lizard” Porter, a State representative, 179 game veteran, and part of West Perth’s 1960 premiership, are Rottnest regulars, and are planning a European  adventure next year. Sons Ben and Sam played football at Subiaco, and a daughter plays netball. Roberts paid tribute to Subiaco and South Fremantle player John Begg as a hard man to beat. “He cleaned me up one day,” Clint remarked. “It’s a shame John didn’t go on to greater things, he had the ability.” Peter Bosustow is high in his estimation of those he played with, but he also gave centreman Geoff Watt a mention. “Geoff was the hardest worker I ever saw. Most embarrassing moment was the time George Michalczyk robbed me of my shorts.” An honest footballer who wasn’t afraid of hard work, a trait that has continued in his role at the WA Football Commission, Roberts has high regard for the people involved in football in this State’s highest level.  “There are plenty of great people in footy, everyone is competitive and passionate about their own interests, but all are aware of the need to move with  constantly changing and competitive relationships. The bottom line is the awareness of all involved of the importance of working together.”Sounds like a tough job, but you get the impression that Clint Roberts is the right man for it.