Bob, 92, who had been battling ill-health for about a year, was a town stalwart, successful businessman and revered sportsman.
He was also the last member of the Kyabram Football Club’s half-back line in the Bombers’ 1958 premiership line-up which included his two brothers, Alf and Alan.
Apart from one season as a 15-year-old with the Kyabram Imperials Football Club at the start of his career, and a year coaching Kyabram Boys Club in the Kyabram District Football League in the mid 1950s, Bob played all his football in a Kyabram jumper, and in the senior side.
He started his career with the Bombers playing on a back flank before moving to centre half-back, a position he played for the rest of his career until his retirement in 1959.
In many of these years he was flanked by hisbrothers — Alf, also a 200 senior games player, and Alan who played more than 190 games.
Bob was a fearless, non-nonsense, straight ahead defender with the ability to turn defence into attack with his strong attacks on the ball and clearing dashes.
He was one of the first Kyabram players to notch 200 senior games with the club; he played 225 senior games in a career which started in 1946.
He was a life member of both the Kyabram club and the Goulburn Valley League and is a Bombers Hall of Fame member.
Bob won the club’s best and fairest award in 1953 and was runner-up again in 1958 to the Morrison Medallist and teammate of that season, the great Jeff Cooper.
Bob played in three Kyabram premiership sides: in 1948 when the Bombers, then known as the Robins, beat Stanhope-Girgarre 20.17 to 7.14 under Bob Hornbuckle; in 1950 when Kyabram accounted for City (now Shepparton) United 17.8 to 7.14; and again in 1958 under first-year coach Tony Bull when Kyabram prevailed 12.13 to 9.6 over Nagambie.
Bob was also successful in business pursuits, and was a staunch member of the Kyabram Fire Brigade and its competitive teams through the 1950s and early 1960s.
He was lieutenant of the brigade from 1961 to 1971, captain from 1972 to 1978 and in 1963 was the coupler in the Kyabram team which took the prestigious Australian Champion Fours title at Mildura.
He was on the founding committee of the Valley View Golf and Bowls Club, a member and president of the Kyabram Angling Club and also a Kyabram Rotarian.
Bob's funeral takes place today (Wednesday) at 11.30 am and will be live-streamed through Clive Coventry Funerals’ Facebook page.
Bob is survived by his wife Doris, sons Gary and Wayne, and four grandchildren.
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