Rob, you were awarded with the Victoria Greyhound Trainer of the Year Award in 2007 and 2008. Greyhound racing has copped a lot of bad publicity over the last couple of years. What's your opinion of the bad publicity?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It's been a tough time for greyhound racing. The bad publicity has taken its toll on the participants.
The saddest thing is 90 per cent of the people involved in the sport are doing a great job. It was a small part of the industry that were causing concern.
I'm confident with the new reforms being put in place that greyhound racing will survive and thrive in the future.
When did you first get involved training greyhounds?
My dad Alan always had greyhounds. His love for them stemmed to all members of the family.
My brother Jeff is pretty big in training greyhounds down at Lara and my sister Linda has been heavily involved in the sport in Perth for years.
I just think training greyhounds is something which is in our blood and will be there to the day we die.
Where do you train from now?
I've got 10 acres at Lara and got about 60 greyhounds.
I'm training about 24 and the rest are what you call ‘pre-trainers’.
We start work here at 5.30 each morning working, feeding, washing and preparing the dogs for the day.
I don't take the greyhounds to many race meetings now as I've got people that do that job. I spend most of my time just at home looking after the dogs.
The most amazing thing about training greyhounds at Lara is, over the past few years, we've witnessed how Lara is now nearly joined up to Geelong.
I would say there are between 30 to 40 greyhound trainers in Lara, plus hobby trainers.
Training greyhounds here is a big industry - they tell you the sport generates nearly $25 million a year into the local economy and employs 500 full-time people.
We moved here in 1980 and there were 5000 people living in Lara and now more than 15,000 reside in the area and a new development up the road has 800 houses earmarked for it in the near future.
Rob during your career as a greyhound trainer you've had a lot of success. Have you ever won a Warrnambool Classic?
I've have never won a Warrnambool Classic, but I reckon Alan has won it three times and my brother Jeff has won it.
It's a great race. The prizemoney is wonderful.
The concept to the Classic is great.
Trainers must pay up for the race when the dogs are pups. I would love to win the race.
I won the Warrnambool Cup in 1990 with Gun Fury and that was a big thrill. I've been fortunate to have won feature group one races, like the Australian Cup and Silver Chief during my training career.
Let's wind back the clock for a moment and talk about your cricket career. Where did it begin?
I played junior cricket in Portland and played in a senior grand final victory when I was 15 years old.
I can still remember we were chasing 120 runs to win the grand final when I came in to bat we were six wickets for 20 runs.
I stayed around and made 20 runs and won the flag. It was really exciting to be part of the win as a young bloke.
I left Portland when I was 20 and travelled around Australia, before coming back to live in Warrnambool.
I played cricket with Wesley in Warrnambool. I made 50 in the winning grand final side.
We had some very good cricketers in the Isles brothers. The quickest bowler I faced in the Warrnambool competiton was John Forbes. He was very fast.
I also thought Brian Salmon was a very good player.
My wife Mary got a teacher posting at Werribee in 1980 after studying at Deakin University in Warrnambool so we moved to Lara.
What about your footy career?
My junior footy was at North Portland before joining Portland.
I played reserves footy with Portland before breaking into the senior side. I played in a flag there.
A bloke called Terry McDonald, who came from Tasmania, was a very good player for Portland, but when we moved to Warrnambool in 1977 I played with Bushfield.
We were living at Illowa and then Bushfield. Bushfield won the flag the year before I got there but we had no success in my three years at the club.
Bushfield had players like Bill Bellman, Bob Bowman and Stewie Rodda. I didn't have to do much training when I played with Bushfield as I was very fit with my job.
Rob, how did you get so fit in your job?
I was a milkman. My dad, Alan, owned the milk run in Portland.
I can remember going out with him when they had the Clydesdale horses on the milk round.
When we moved to Warrnambool in 1977 I got a job with Sungold Dairies as a milkman.
I would start doing my round in Warrnambool at 2 o’clock in the morning.
I found I was running 20 kilometres a day doing the milk round, so I thought I didn't have to do much training for footy.
I would park the milk van down the end of the street and make deliveries where people had left out their milk bottles and money.
They were great old days delivering the milk around Warrnambool. I've still got vivid memories of the baker going around in the cart after we had done the milk run.
It was a sad day when the job of milkman and baker stopped delivering to houses.
The main reason for the decline in business of delivering milk to homes was because of big supermarkets opening.