How Robbie McComb went from winning a $100 supermarket voucher to a Western Bulldogs debut

It was a $100 supermarket voucher from Karingal shopping centre.

At the end of the season McComb received awards more substantial than a few bags of groceries: Footscray’s best-and-fairest, as well as selection in the VFL Team of the Year.

Both were acknowledgment for a season in which he played every match and averaged 25.5 disposals for the Doggies.

Then came even greater recognition: selection by the Western Bulldogs in the AFL rookie draft at the age of 26.

The Robbie McComb story will take another kick tomorrow when he makes his AFL debut for the Western Bulldogs against Adelaide at Mars Stadium in Ballarat.

He was promoted after a 28-possession performance last week.

McComb is the suburban footballer who, with talent tied to tenacity, has risen from the ruck.

He joined the VFL program in 2018. Craig Bain, who is involved with the AFL Bulldogs on game days, apparently alerted the club to McComb’s ability after watching him dominate in a match against Balwyn.

McComb played seven VFL games in 2018 and 15 in 2019.

In both seasons he also played in premierships under the coaching of Harmit Singh at local football powerhouse Vermont in the Eastern league.

McComb did not appear in the elite under 18s competition. He was in the Eastern Ranges under-age squads, but a back injury he picked up playing cricket forced him to sit out of football when he was due to go into the TAC Cup squad.

He was a promising all-rounder, playing one game in the Fourth XI for Premier club Kingston Hawthorn in 2012-13 and making 66 not out.

He and his twin brother Luke also turned out for Croydon in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association’s John Craig Shield.

The McCombs played junior football at Ferntree Gully, reaching the senior team as 17-year-olds. Robbie crossed to Vermont when he was 18. Luke joined him there a year later.

Interviewed last year after the Frankston game that earned him the supermarket chit, McComb said he had steadily improved his fitness with the Bulldogs, doing a lot of “extras’’.

“When I’m playing well I’m covering the ground, running a lot of km,’’ he said.

He said he was “giving it everything’’ in 2021, thinking his time was running out.

“It’s not the be-all and end-all for me but it (AFL) is definitely something I want to go for,’’ McComb said. “I’ve sort of been working up to it.’’

When he was drafted as a rookie he was in the third year of an apprenticeship as an electrician.

Luke McComb was with his brother at a gym in Camberwell on Thursday afternoon when Dogs coach Luke Beveridge phoned Robbie with news of his selection.

“He started first-pumping, so I knew he was in,’’ Luke says.

“Couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s worked so hard.

“The last two years he’s really put his head down and worked super-hard, while also working full-time.

“He’s done everything right. He hardly drinks now. He’s really committed to his training. On his days off he’s doing boxing every week, just to get that little bit fitter. He’s a pretty quiet bloke – a lot quieter than me! – but he’s obviously comfortable around his mates and when he gets on the footy field he gets this confidence that I never even knew he had. It’s pretty awesome to watch.’’

Luke McComb says the grounding his brother received in the Eastern league was crucial to his development.

“It’s a great place to learn how to play football,’’ he says.

“I became twice as good a player when I went to Vermont. With their training standards and professionalism it’s pretty much like a VFL club down there. Rob made the transition (from Vermont to the VFL) no worries.’’

Steve Cochrane was Robbie McComb’s first senior coach at Vermont.

He says everyone at the club quickly realised he was an exceptional young player.

“He was very raw but you could see his natural ability,’’ Cochrane says.

“Very skilful, a very nice mover … we knew we had a player on our hands. And once he got a taste for senior footy he never looked back, he went from strength-to-strength.

“All the way through he’s worked at it. He got fitter and stronger.’’

Cochrane has tracked McComb’s progress in the VFL.

“It was fantastic for him to win a best-and-fairest and then for the Doggies to back their system and draft him.

“It just shows that not everyone is ready to play AFL when they’re 18. There’s room for blokes who persist and get opportunity and a bit of luck. That’s someone like Robbie.’’

McComb is the latest player from the Footscray VFL program to rise to an AFL debut.

The list of graduates includes Anthony Scott, Ryan Gardner, Mitch Hannan (all with the Bulldogs), Ben Long (St Kilda) and Jordan Boyd (Carlton), as well as former Bulldog Will Hayes, now with Carlton VFL.

Luke McComb says Bulldogs supporters will see a “hard-nosed’’ player who “won’t ever pull out of a contest’’.

Luke, his sister Aleece, and their parents Rob and Ronnie were at the Western Bulldogs this morning for the jumper presentation.