ALONG with Essendon defender Dean Solomon, the only other known Broken Hill export to play in a VFL/AFL premiership is Geelong small man Robert Walter ‘Bob’ Troughton.
Born on June 17, 1904, he played with the Geelong in the tough VFL days, during the Great Depression of the early and mid 1930s.
At 175cm tall and 71 kgs, Troughton played as both a wingman and rover, and was also, at times, used as a small forward with the Cats and Eagles.
After coming down from the Silver City club North Broken Hill to Adelaide, he started his career at SANFL team West Torrens, debuting at league level in 1926.
He led the Eagles’ goal kicking list twice in his final two seasons of South Australian football, first topping it in 1928 with a 37-goal haul.
In the following campaign of 1929, Troughton broke the half century mark, finishing with 51 goals.
In his 51-game tenure at West Torrens, he averaged a fraction less than three goals a match, finishing with a total of 143 majors with the SANFL’s “blue and gold”.
Geelong recruited Troughton for the 1930 campaign.
He played in their losing grand final that year and was a member of their premiership the following ’31 season.
In the ’30 season decider, after the Cats had finished fourth at the end of the minor round, they beat Carlton by 20 points with Troughton mentioned among their best players.
In the penultimate game of the season, he kicked two goals while in the season decider where Collingwood won a record fourth VFL title, winning by a comfortable 30-point margin; Troughton was the Cats’ leading goal kicker with three.
In 1931, they Cats only lost three games during the minor round but were defeated in their second semi-final clash against Richmond.
Troughton was the Cats’ best in that contest, kicking three goals in a 33-point loss.
After Geelong beat Carlton on preliminary final day, they would extract revenge against the Tigers on Saturday, October 10, 1931, beating their foe by 20 points in the grand final.
Playing on a half forward flank, Troughton kicked one of the nine goals in this premiership victory.
He was noted for his cheekiness, determined nature and aggressive attack on the football, and was also proclaimed as a proven master of ‘staging’ for free kicks.
Troughton was enormously adept at what, later on, has been described as ‘hard ball gets’, and also used the ball with accomplished competence.
In his six years with Geelong Cats, he played 92 games and slotted through exactly 100 goals, nine of the matches being finals from which he kicked 14 goals.
During his career in the Cats’ blue and white, Troughton wore the number 11 jumper and collected nine Brownlow medal votes.
In a book on the Geelong football Club, Cats’ Tales – The Geelong Football Club 1897- 1983, writer by Colin “Col” Hutchison, also a veteran statistician along with being the AFL’s statistics and history consultant, described Troughton as: “An intelligent, cheeky, aggressive centreline player/half forward flanker/rover who could be brilliant, he roamed far and wide. He kicked well and his ability to gain possession from a pack to set up scoring moves was appreciated. He could also play on the half back flank effectively. His ability to outwit Richmond champion Martin Bolger was well recognised.”
Troughton was reported once in his career at the Cats, during the round 18 clash with South Melbourne in 1932, receiving a two-match suspension after being found guilty.
AFL records confirm he had a young brother Charlie, two years his junior, who played seven games (kicking six goals) for South Melbourne in the 1930 season.
Troughton passed away in August 1988 at the age of 84.
