On Friday, December 18, Rob Spurrs walked out of the SCG for the last time as a Sydney Swans employee with a career record that read something like 494 games, 46 finals, two premierships, one handpass and one spoil. And 160 enormously grateful devotees.
The long-time Sydney Swans Physical Performance Manager ended 20 years with the club when he stepped aside for family reasons.
After spending virtually his entire working life worrying about strength and endurance, recovery and rehabilitation, and all that goes into the workings of elite athletes, Spurrs has decided family comes first.
It was time, he realised, for a change and to reprioritise some things in his life. Instead of worrying about 160 Swans players from Luke Ablett to Paul Williams if listed alphabetically, or collectively ‘the playing group’, he wanted to have more time with wife Jane, daughter Billie (8) and son Adam (5).
There was no fuss or fanfare, and it was no accident that in his last couple of days at the Swans Spurrs was too busy doing his job to talk about his impending departure to the Sydney Swans website.
Right up until the last minute, he was focussed entirely on tidying up loose ends and maximising his handover to his replacement Rob Innes, who has commenced with Sydney after four years and three premierships as strength and rehabilitation coach at Richmond.
That’s just Spurrs. Rather than any public adulation he was pleased and proud just to be invited by coach John Longmire and football boss Charlie Gardiner to say farewell to the playing group.
It’s a privilege denied most outgoing people for any number of reasons, often nothing more than circumstance, but so highly was Spurrs valued they made sure he left in style.
And the phrase Spurrs used to describe his time at the Swans? “It’s been an absolute privilege,” he said. “And I can’t wait for the first game at the SCG next year to watch from the stands with a beer in hand.
“It was probably the toughest decision of my life to leave because I’ve just loved the place and all the people who make it so special. It’s been such a massive part of my life and I’ll be forever grateful, but I’m comfortable the time is right to focus on home and the kids.”
The hugely popular fitness boss will enjoy prime SCG seats as a Swans Life Member, having been recognised in 2018 alongside ex-Chief Executive Officer Andrew Ireland, ex-Chief Financial Officer Tim Laing, long-time Club Psychologist Grant Brecht and Tony Peek, a long-time AFL media boss turned strategist/right-hand man to ex-AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou and current CEO Gillon McLachlan, before Peek passed away in October 2018.
Spurrs’ Life Membership, unofficially #357 on the club’s Life Member Honour Roll of 361, came after he joined the Swans as a part-timer in November 2000 via the Sydney Academy of Sport and his university supervisor, Professor Aaron Murphy.
Having just finished a degree in Sports and Exercise Science at University of Technology Sydney, he enrolled in a Masters by Research degree at UTS when he was invited to join the Swans, initially working part-time under conditioning boss and mentor Dave Missen as a sub-contractor via the Sydney Academy of Sport while he continued his studies.
He joined the Sydney Swans staff part-time at the end of 2002 and went full-time in 2005 when Ireland, then GM of Football, along with senior coach Paul Roos, pushed to ramp up the physical development of the club’s younger players.
Spurrs worked under Missen until the end of 2007, and after Missen joined St Kilda, he took charge of a conditioning program long regarded as one of the best in the AFL.
Well-connected at UTS via his studies, he built a close working relationship that has become an important part of the medical and conditioning program.
Without a senior match day role in 2005, Spurrs watched from the MCG grandstand as the Swans beat West Coast in an epic premiership victory. But he was right in the thick of things seven years later when the Swans, down by 19 points at quarter-time, won the 2012 Grand Final against Hawthorn.
It was the day Ryan O’Keefe had 28 possessions and 15 tackles to win the Norm Smith Medal – and Spurrs recalls as if it was yesterday.
“It was a fiercely hot game … people talk about how the intensity goes up in finals, but this was another level. I remember watching being amazed at just how hard our blokes ran. Ryan O’Keefe, Dan Hannebery and Josh Kennedy were hard at the contest all game. Guys like Kieren Jack, Hannebery and Jarrad McVeigh just ran up and back all day. They were some of our best athletes but there was a sheer willingness across the entire group just to get over the line,” he recalled.
There were special individual moments firm in his memory too. Like Nick Smith’s lock-down role, a Marty Mattner tackle on the wing, Adam Goodes injuring the PCL in his knee then receiving treatment and confidence from Matt Cameron (physio) and Nathan Gibbs (doctor) before returning to score a memorable goal, and the unbelievable heroics of Mitch Morton. It was just a brilliant day, he said.
“Right throughout the year there was a steely resolve within the group. You could sense something was brewing. It was really driven group.”
Spurrs remembers specifically a moment in the post-game review of the 2012 preliminary final in which Sydney had beaten Collingwood by 26 points.
“Jarrad (McVeigh) pulled up Goodesy about something and said, ‘if you do that again we’re gonna lose’. The way he conveyed the message and the way Goodesy copped it was something I’ll never forget … just phenomenal.”
The aforementioned 160 Spurrs devotees were 32 Swans players who were already at the club when he arrived and played during his stay, and the 128 who debuted since his arrival.
From Goodes, Jude Bolton, McVeigh, Michael O’Loughlin and Ryan O’Keefe, who rank 1-5 on the club’s all-time games list, right back to the days of Paul Kelly and Tony Lockett in his 2002 comeback.
Initially Spurrs said it was impossible to single out any players from the rest for their application to the job in his area of expertise, but then he did. It was Adam Goodes.
“I remember asking Adam what drove him to be so diligent with all aspects of his preparation. His answer was similar to what other 300+ gamers have given.
“I sleep well every night before a game as I know I have done everything possible to play well. It doesn’t mean it works out every week, but I know that I could not have done more. It’s a great lesson for young players.”
The rest of Spurrs’ career statistics are mostly straight forward. In his time the club played 494 games, including 46 finals, and won two flags.
But one handpass and one spoil? They are a special part of the memories Spurrs will take with him, although the odds are that not one of his 160 devotees will know anything about.
Perhaps the only person who may remember is one-time Reserves coach Brett Allison, a North Melbourne 200-gamer who played nine games with the Swans in 2000 at the end of his career before joining the coaching panel.
Growing up, Spurrs played many sports but excelled as a middle-distance track athlete before playing some Australian football with the UTS Bats after he had joined the Sydney Swans.
“Once I started playing footy, I loved it, and I really wish I’d taken it up earlier,” Spurrs recalls, before detailing his never-to-be-forgotten one handpass and one spoil.
“I was working with the Reserves when ‘Fruity’ (Allison) said ‘we might be short – bring your boots’. It was against Belconnen at the SCG as a curtain raiser to the senior’s game. I was on the bench carrying out my normal duties until the last 10 minutes when he said, ‘off you go’”.
Ten minutes, one handpass and one spoil later he trudged off the ground, his career in red and white done in one afternoon. But still, he’s a Swans player.
Spurrs was also happy to recall some unforgettable, less public moments.
Like the day during one tough pre-season when the players did a time trial around Centennial Park. Ted Richards, a great athlete, was limping through the latter stages and Spurrs immediately feared an injury.
But as Richards crossed the finish line and Spurrs moved towards him he was surprised to see Richards keep on going. He kept on running, albeit with a limp, until he got to a nearby bathroom.
There was the time, too, when coach Paul Roos was about to give his final pre-match address and Spurrs had to report that one player was missing: Mike Pyke.
As Spurrs explained, he told the coach Pyke was on his way. But when Pyke was still absent a few moments later, the fitness boss had to confess that the Canadian rugby player turned AFL ruckman, very meticulous when it came to personal hygiene, was in cleaning his teeth to ensure all the sports drink he’d consumed didn’t do any damage.
He also could not reflect on his time at the Swans without mentioning the practical jokes and general mischievous antics of Heath ‘Truck’ Grundy. “His gift was not only the comedy it provided but the fact that he would be the last one suspected of being the architect,” he said.
Not such a laughing matter was Spurrs’ final season with Sydney during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was “one almighty challenge”.
“You wouldn’t want to do it every year, but it was a wonderful experience to see the way everyone embraced the hub situation and was really engaged through some pretty tough times,” he recalled.
“The three weeks we had a Joondalup in Perth were three weeks I’ll never forget. It was a wonderful facility and for the group to be able to live together and train on the golf course, with kangaroos in the background, was amazing.”
Spurrs also remembers fondly the time his wife and children spent with him when the Swans stayed at Cairns. “To see the way the players interacted with my kids, kicking a footy with them, wrestling with them and always including them, reinforced what a wonderful group of players we’ve got,” he said.
“It’s always been a club that is well aligned across all areas. Everyone has been happy to debate and discuss things, but it’s always been a club first and team first approach. Everyone has worked hard to appreciate and understand other areas of the operation and has always focussed first and foremost on the bigger picture.”
Spurrs is spending the Christmas break with his family, after which he will decide on his next move. “I’ll spend some time down the south coast, take a deep breath, clear the head, and then work out exactly what comes next, but the Swans will always be dear to my heart.”
What will he miss most? “Game days and the addictive nature of it all, plus the day-to-day camaraderie within such a great group of people. It will also be hard to give up one of the best seats watching some of the greatest players to have ever played the game. I would regularly sit in awe watching Buddy kick the unkickable goal,” he said.
And what will he not miss so much? “The 24/7 nature of the job and the phone going off at any hour of the day. But that said, I will always look back with great memories … it’s been an incredible journey and I can’t thank everyone involved enough.”
