What's A Bloke Supposed To Say?by Danny Vadasz, photos by Skeet Booth (Outrage, #147, Aug 1995) Ian Roberts is one of Australian rugby's superstars, a pin -up boy for gays and straights and now a major p/ayer in Rupert Murdoch's Superleague. Next month he will begin an excIusive monthly health and fitness column for OutRage - generously sponsored by Telstra. This month we sent, Danny Vadasz to find out what ticks underneath Robert's hunky, toned chest. Being a gay icon doesn't sit comfortably with Ian Roberts. Not that he is Squeamish about the subject. He's just not the sort of person who seeks or even understands public adulation, whether it's from adolescent girls or boys. Which makes him, of course, all the more endearing. If you're going to be a hero, it's far more attractive to be unassuming and fnendly than to drip with attitude. Ian isn't so much the boy next door as the boy from the local pub (working class, not boutique). He grew up in Coogee, an English immigrant ("ten pound Pom"), in a close family with a brother and two sisters. And when he says that he would much rather talk about football than his sexuality, it's clear that this reflects a genuine sense of priority.
"Do you really like the idea of Superleague? I asked, "or was the money just too good? He was honest enough to admit to both. "The financial package that's been put to the players hasn't been heard of before. All these people who say they're being loyal to the ARL [Australian Rugby League]... well, a player is really only loyal to himself. You can't tell me that those guys would have stayed with the ARL if it hadn't matched or come close to matching the News Ltd offer. "If you're on a current contract with the ARL and you get a long-term injury, they can cut you off after a year. With News Ltd, you get 100% the first year and 50% every year after until your contract finishes. And there are other benefits, like sickness and insurance benefits. Plus, because of News's connection to Foxtel, you've got access to over 85 million homes just through Europe. I asked whether he was bothered by the fact that control of the game would fall into the hands of a media conglomerate. "News are trying to rationalise things. There are too many teams and there aren't enough high calibre players to service 20 teams. Even a dozen would be stretching it. Just on the weekend we had a 44 to nil whitewash. Well, give me a break. . . who wants to watch that? Murdoch certainly has a bad reputation, but everything the guy does works. You can call him what you want but he's certainly successful at what he does." On the subject of Murdoch, I had to ask about the handsome Lachlan: Murdoch's son and heir and sometime client to Ian's fitness instruction. "He's an amazing guy." So would anyone be with that sort of start in life, I suggested. "Obviously, but he hasn't been corrupted by money at all. He was intimidating to be around because he's so polite, well mannered, but there's no arrogance in him at all." "What am I worrying about?"When Ian arrived for the interview, he limped into the room more like a convalescent patient than a super-fit athlete. His huge legs are lacerated with the scars of tough times. I asked him how much longer his body could hold up. "Probably four years, I'd say. As soon as I'm not competitive, I'll stop. "I've got a bad knee at the moment that I've had for three years. It's my own fault, I should have had a reconstruction three years ago but I've just put up with it. I had a groin injury in '89 that put me out for a year and a half." Given that Ian wants to retain an involvement in football after his playing days are over, it comes as a surprise to find that his love for the game came comparatively late in life. "I was always good at sport when I was a kid, but I didn't like sport. I know that sounds like a contradiction. I just used to play because everybody else did. When I was 17, I wanted to give the game away. It was that time when I thought, this is just not going to mix. And my dad actually talked me into it. My dad didn't know but he just said, "give it one more go" and that was fortunate because I was adamant. My dad didn't push me, because he's not like that, but I played for another year and fortunately that year I got graded and it all clicked. "It has to mix. That's what I try to tell people. I get so many letters from young guys... and girls. But I think it all comes with growing up. You get to a stage where you think, 'What am I worrying about here, it's not my problem. If someone else has a problem with it, it's theirs.'" I asked him whether he thought of himself as being brave. "Nah. It's just me. I'm really lucky, I've got a good family. My mum and dad are really cool. Once you've got that... If you're comfortable with your family life, there's not another problem, you know what I mean? And they're proud of what you've done? "I had a season in England and I played for Wigan, which is the glamour club over there, and the coach said to my Dad, 'You must be proud of Ian,' and the thing that impressed me about my Dad was that his answer was, 'Yeah, but equally proud of all my kids.' That's the type of guy he is and the values I was brought up with. My Dad would be proud of me if I was a street cleaner, as long as I was happy. "I wanted to rip his fucking throat out"I mention that the Australian Football League (AFL) is trying to deal with racism in sport but the problem seems to be more in the crowd than on the field. Is the same thing true of homophobia? "Yeah, I get that all the time. I've always had that. But that's cool. If you let things affect you, they become your problem. That's what I meant before, it's not my problem. I can't be bothered wasting energy over that and getting upset over it. There'll always be people like that. I'm just being me. But I don't want to get on a soap box and start chanting. "It's how you let things affect you. Just to give you an instance, on Saturday night I was out with a friend in Oxford Street. Well, there were all these fuckwits out the front of the hotel. We were minding our own business and this guy came right up to my face and said 'Roberts, you fucking poofter...' "As I walked off I felt so tucking angry with myself... the footballer in me wanted to belt him, to rip his tucking throat out. The thing that made me angry was that I didn't think fast enough to say something back to him. He must have seen the vengeance in my eyes." "It's nice to be appreciated"I put it to Ian that, whether he liked it or not, he is a role model to thousands of adolescents in the same way that Martina Navratilova was. He looked uncomfortable at the prospect. "Whenever I go out, people I'm with know my sexuality. I would never try to hide because that's just not right. But I'm not going to get up, not for the gay community or anyone, and be someone I'm not. That's just not me, that's not what I want to be either. But if I can help someone on the way, fair enough." So why the reluctant hero? Why does being a role model bother him? "It's not that it bothers me, I don't really think about it I'm just me. It's nice to be appreciated..." I put it to him that it was more than a question of appreciation: that what he's given people is a sense of inspiration for their own lives. "That's what sport is. That's why the public loves to go out every Sunday and watch their footy or basketball. Because people live their lives through visions, through some connection. I tried a different tack. Did he have any role models? Any hero at all? "The Flash. But otherwise, no. Football-wise, I used to think the world of Ray Price. And outside football, wasn't there anyone he was impressed with enough to want to meet? Nelson Mandela? Michael Jordan? Madonna? "It's funny you know, I don't think about that. I think if everybody just looks after themselves and tries to be the best person they can be, that's when we'll change the world. If I could do one thing it would be to teach people tolerance. But I don't know if there's anyone in particular. Perhaps I would love to meet Elton John, actually." Although Ian doesn't want to make a big deal of himself, he has been willing to assist in fund-raising, so I suggest that he must recognise that he can use his position to do good. "I know people seem to listen more to people with a recognisable face. For want of a better word it's a power thing. If you ask me do I get off on things like that I have to say no. But if I can help someone, and I think it's right, I don't see what's wrong with that." The down side of being recognisable and famous, I suggest, is that it must be hard just to go out and have a private good time. "That's why I love going away, going to London, because nobody knows you. But I can walk into a bar here and not have any problems. I mean people will always ask questions, but that's cool. You learn to live with that. I've been playing League for ten years now so it snowballs. But that's cool, as long as they're polite. I don't have a problem with that. As long as they don't overstep the mark. Some people don't know when enough is enough. "You don't live in a gym."And that seems to be about all Ian wants to say about his personal life. So let's talk about training. "We don't do that much physical work, a couple of conditioning sessions a week. Mainly just ball work. Basically, for weight work we do it ourselves. Through the season we have one weight session with the team per week and the rest is left to you. "I do pool work, I change my routine all the time because I get bored with it or because injuries will restrict what you can do. I train five times a week in the gym, I do pool work, running in the pool, swimming, cycling, and I used to do a lot of running, rowing. I don't do a lot of aerobics because of the cycling. "It mostly comes down to diet. People let themselves down a lot. They go to gym five times a week and they have great training but don't lose their fat. If you want to lose fat, don't eat fat. "When I used to train people, I used to say, if you're large and you're happy with the way you look, then that's cool. If you have no problem with that, what more do you want? Unfortunately, a lot of people do training for other people, not for themselves." The reason for that, I suggest, is that in the gay community what a person is is defined by what they look like, not who they are. "That's right. I have so many friends like that and I think, you don't live in a gym." Is that all there is to Ian Roberts?"Everytime I've done interviews like this, people say, 'Come on, you must be a more complex person.' I'm starting to worry about that. But I'm not, I'm just a Joe Bloggs from down the road. Your Mister Average." Whatever Ian Roberts is now, and into the future, he seems perfectly happy and genuinely bemused by why other people seemed so interested in him. That's the sort of Joe Bloggs he is. And if that's how you feel, what's a bloke supposed to say? |
