DOB: 5 August 1955
Died: 2 October 2014
Debut: Round 10, 1973 against Geelong at MCG
Last Game: Preliminary Final 1987 against Hawthorn at Waverley
From: Murrumbeena Districts
Number: 52 (1973 Reserves) 2 (1973-1987)
Honours
Captain: 1981 - 1987
Best and Fairest - 1977
Leading Goalkicker - 1979, 1983, 1987
All Australian - 1980, 1983
Life Member - 1981
150 Heroes selection
Team of the Century - Winger
Victorian state player - 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982 1983 - 15 games
Victorian captain - 1982 vs Western Australia, 1983 vs Western Australia
AFL Life Member
Australian Football Hall of Fame member
MFC Hall of Fame - 2001
Best First Year Player - 1973
Australian International Rules representative - 1984
Games: 272
Goals: 315
Career Statistics
| Wins | Draws | Losses | Winning % |
| 88 | 0 | 184 | 32.35 |
Statistical categories led:
Most Brownlow votes : 150
Most goals in jumper 2
The frail, short-sighted Flower didn't look like a potential superstar footballer, but rose through Melbourne's ranks to become one of the club's greatest players. Opponent, and future teammate, Brent Crosswell said "...beat Flower and you could just about retire from league football because anything else smacked of anti-climax." Flower grew up as a Melbourne fan, and lived near where the club's Fourths trained. He was rejected by Melbourne several times before being offered a trial with the Fourths in 1971. A clearance dispute with junior side Murrumbeena meant he wasn't allowed to play that season, finally pulling on the red and blue the following year. Just over 12 months later he was a senior player. That year he'd also played for Melbourne High School. After playing junior football in glasses, leading to them often being broken during games, Flower wore contact lenses during his senior career.
The supremely skilled Flower was doomed to play in a string of poor teams, but was courageous to a fault. His commitment ended in a number of injuries, but he remained supremely loyal. Unlike other Demon stars like Stan Alves and Greg Wells, who moved clubs and won premierships, Flower played his entire career at Melbourne.
Despite his regular injury issues, he played every week when available from 1974, winning his only Best and Fairest in 1977. He finished second four times more times before 1983, and was third in the 1979 Brownlow Medal.
In 1980 Flower battled trouble from a dislocated shoulder but still appeared in every game. At the end of the season, he captained Victoria in a one-off exhibition game against the Rest of Australia. Flower was in charge of Victoria for an official State of Origin game in 1982, the first Demon to receive that honour since Ron Barassi in 1961.
Flower played 21 of 22 games in 1984 despite treatment to relieve the pressure on a nerve in his back which restricted acceleration in his legs. The injury forced him out of a state match against Western Australia where he would have again captained the state.
His career reached a low point in Round 4, 1985 when a broken collarbone from being driven into the Waverley turf ended his year, the only time he played less than 10 games for a season.
While battling an ankle injury midway through 1986 Flower decided he would retire at the end of the year but John Northey convinced him to play one more season. Northey put him on a special pre-season training regime, giving Flower half the summer off to be with his family and give him a chance to get his body right for a final campaign. The club even used his in a campaign to raise money for a "player acquisition fund", running newspaper advertisements asking fans to donate and "Give Robbie Flower one last chance to play in a final''. He battled various injuries, including a chronically arthritic lower back to play in 1987.
The Flower-inspired recruiting drive helped buy players like Earl Spalding, Warren Dean and Todd Viney, and the Demons won their last five games to sneak into the final five for the first time since 1964. Had it not been for the remarkable last-day-of-the-season sequence of events that landed the Demons he may have ended his career as the greatest player never to appear in a final. He'd also missed captaining that year's night premiership while recovering from a broken finger.
Having waited so long for a final, Flower played in a pair of enormous wins, over North Melbourne and Sydney, on the way to a Preliminary Final showdown with Hawthorn. The Hawks goalled after the siren to win, but even if Melbourne had won Flower would likely have missed the Grand Final. Earlier in the game he'd suffered a shoulder injury after being collected by Robert DiPierdomenico. After painkilling injections he returned in the last quarter but the injury would have likely been too severe to play the following week, ending his career.
Flower held Melbourne's club games record until overtaken by David Neitz in 2006. During his career he played in just 88 wins, and 184 losses.
Melbourne tried to coax him into playing again in 1988 with a huge contract offer but Flower turned them down, citing years of wear and tear to his body. He remained close to the club, serving in a coaching role during 1991. When the merger with Hawthorn was proposed in 1996 Flower, along with Brian Dixon, was one of the strongest voices against the union.
Flower later served on the board in 2002 and 2003, elected as part of Gabriel Szondy's Team Vision ticket. He received the most votes of any candidate with 10,529. In 2004 he resigned from the board while battling heart disease. In 2006 he was still having heart troubles, and fans were urged to show support for him and the Heart Foundation, by wearing red to the Round 5 game against Geelong.
In 1999 Flower was voted on a wing in the AFLPA best team of the previous 25 years, he was also named wingman of Melbourne's Team of the Century.
After getting a start in retail from then club President Wayne Reid, owner of Melbourne Sports Depot, Flower became the founder and co-owner of the Sportsco chain of stores.
Flower's brother Tom played 26 games between 1977 and 1979. In 2002 Flower's son Bradley played with Sandringham with a view to being picked up by the Demons with a father/son selection but was never drafted.
| Year | Games | Goals | Brownlow |
| 1973 | 13 | 4 | 3 |
| 1974 | 18 | 22 | 2 |
| 1975 | 20 | 14 | 11 |
| 1976 | 19 | 17 | 17 |
| 1977 | 20 | 23 | 22 |
| 1978 | 22 | 18 | 14 |
| 1979 | 21 | 33 | 19 |
| 1980 | 22 | 21 | 14 |
| 1981 | 16 | 5 | 3 |
| 1982 | 21 | 25 | 13 |
| 1983 | 20 | 40 | 7 |
| 1984 | 21 | 28 | 19 |
| 1985 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 1986 | 16 | 15 | 0 |
| 1987 | 20 | 47 | 6 |
Lists
Family
Video
Books
'Robbie' by Robert Flower - 1988
Media
Sun - 17/06/1980
Age - 13/09/1980, 09/07/1984, 22/04/1985, 25/02/1987, 12/11/1987, 18/04/1991, 30/01/2004, 02/10/2014
Times On Sunday - 29/03/1987