The curious case of Rory Lobb: Western Bulldogs forward set for hostile reception against Dockers

To everyone in between, Lobb is an enigma.

More than 200cm and 100kg of manpower, nature gifted Lobb the tools to play AFL long before he started walking that path himself.

It took just one game of amateur football at Swan Athletic in 2012, the last of the season, for then coach Andrew Pruyn to recognise Lobb’s potential. When Pruyn was poached by Swan Districts coach Greg Harding the following year, he brought Lobb with him to Bassendean.

“The first time I saw him up close was when he walked into the club rooms at Swan Athletic after the game … this skinny big, tall, kid grinning at me,” Pruyn recalled.

“I was the reserves coach in 2013 and I just remember saying to Greg, ‘There’s this kid who, for lack of a better word, lobbed up the other day, last game of the year. He’s a 200cm, agile ruckman. I don’t know if he can play footy but he has something.’”

At that point, Lobb was a basketballer dabbling in football.

“He had a basketball contract with the Eastern Suns. I think he was on a couple of thousand dollars, not very much,” Pruyn said.

Lobb could barely kick, let alone hit a target.

“The main thing was teaching him how to time his leap when it came to marking,” Pruyn continued. “Having that basketball background, he had quick feet and he was pretty agile on the ground for a guy that size. It was all about timing but it didn’t take too long.

“He was very driven as well so it was probably the perfect storm. It made it easier that this young fella really wanted to apply himself and then we had the resources to put into him to make him better.

“The fact he hadn’t played much footy worked well for him because he didn’t know any other way of doing things. There weren’t five to ten years of previous coaching and the potential bad habits that came with that. By the halfway mark of that 2013 year, he was holding down the ruck role at senior level. The rest is history.”

Lobb had nine runs in the reserves before making his league debut in round 13 against Subiaco, averaging 25 hit-outs in the remaining 12 games. With Harding, a former Eagle and Docker, and WAFL icon Percy Johnson in his corner, Lobb caught the eye of AFL recruiters within half a dozen games.

“People didn’t know anything about him,” Pruyn recalled. “He appeared from nowhere. There was a lot of interest in where he’d come from and his story.

That story is just as unique off-field.

In 2016, the third time he would return to Perth as a Giant to face Fremantle, Lobb delayed his return to Sydney to spend time with best mate and Swan Districts teammate Jake Nuich.

Nuich was recovering from a round of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. If not for Nuich, Lobb would have chosen basketball over football.

Lobb is no stranger to tough love. He has spoken openly about how he was relentlessly bullied in high school to the point his father Malcolm pulled him out of the education system aged 14. He spent the next 18 months building houses for mine workers in the Pilbara and Northern Territory.

In 2018, after five years and 74 games for Greater Western Sydney, Lobb was traded back home to Fremantle.

Yet in 2022, after a career-best season at the Dockers, kicking 36 goals, Lobb requested a trade to the Western Bulldogs. It was messy, drawn out yet largely expected after the 30 year-old was denied a move back to GWS a year earlier.

Lobb responded with a series of parting shots at Fremantle, aired in the documentary Show Me The Money II, which chronicled his move to Whitten Oval.

“I feel like I’m really close with the boys and playing good footy but I’m sort of just a little bit disjointed from the coaching staff in a way,” Lobb said.

“I think it has stemmed from them thinking I don’t want to be there. I’ve barely talked to JL, probably a couple of words once a week, but I just sort of saw the writing on the wall.”

Fremantle fans have spent all summer warming up their vocal cords – some going as far as brewing a beer dubbed ‘Lobster Tears’ in his honour. The scene is set at Optus Stadium, the site of the Dockers’ elimination final win last year over the Bulldogs, and coach Luke Beveridge is anticipating a chorus of boos.

“Rory‘s expecting it, and we’ll help him deal with it and we’ll help him play as well as he can,” Beveridge said on Thursday. ”I don’t think the booing of Rory Lobb tomorrow night is going to be an issue.

“It’s definitely topical when it comes to other players at different times, but we just need to welcome it and (welcome) the hostile environment we’re going to walk into tomorrow night.”

Justin Longmuir, who expressed disbelief earlier this week when asked about Lobb’s parting words, will let Fremantle’s parochial fan base do the talking.

“They pay their money, they’re passionate about our club. They can respond with whatever emotion they like,” he said.

How Lobb responds is anyone’s guess. But while he has only kicked three goals and taken 10 marks in four games this season, the Dockers are still preparing for the best from their former teammate.

“We’ve got Pearcy (Alex Pearce) and Coxy (Brennan Cox) as our genuine key defenders. One of those guys will have a crack at him,” defensive coach Matthew Boyd said.

“A lot of it comes from the exposure our backs have had on our forwards from last year. We’ve got a reasonable understanding of how he plays although he’s playing in a different system this year.

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“I can’t imagine too much has changed in terms of how Lobby goes about his footy. He was in pretty good form last year for us.”

Lobb has proved he has plenty of bark since joining the Bulldogs.

Friday will demonstrate how much bite he has left.